The global provider of workforce solutions in the energy, process and infrastructure industries has an office in the city state.

The new licensing requirements due to be introduced at the beginning of October require employment agencies to adhere to the following standards:

• Brief their clients on the fair recruitment requirements 
• Make reasonable efforts to attract Singaporeans for vacancies that they are trying to fill
• Consider all candidates based on merit.

In addition, employment agencies must not in any way abet discriminatory hiring by their clients – for example, by withholding applications on the basis of age, race, nationality, gender and disability. They must also turn down requests or instructions from clients to carry out discriminatory hiring.

Employment agencies that fail to comply with licence conditions may be issued with demerit points, have their licence suspended or revoked, or face prosecution.

In addition, those recruitment agencies that demonstrate a strong commitment to fair employment practices will be shortlisted by the Ministry of Manpower for a new Human Capital Partnership Mark (HCP).

Charles Pfauwadel, president of Asia for Airswift, told Recruiter: “We think the updated licensing requirements are a positive change that will encourage employers to consider all candidates equally; as a company, Airswift fully supports these changes.

“Companies will need to clearly demonstrate why they need to hire foreign talent, especially when the skillset is available in Singapore. Advertising roles on Jobsbank, the government job matching platform, will be key as well as documenting and keeping records of interviews, ideally in an applicant tracking system.”

He added: “As a proud employer of a large Singaporean workforce, we are also looking at obtaining the newly launched HCP Mark designed for companies committed to developing their local workforce.”

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