Top-tier skilled talents in accounting, finance, banking, human resources, IT, legal and compliance, supply chain, procurement and engineering fields can still expect a 10per cent to 25per cent jump in salary, the latest Robert Walters Global Salary Survey shows.

Sally Raj, managing director of the specialist professional recruitment firm in Malaysia, says candidates with relevant, specific experience will be in demand throughout the year, particularly sales and marketing professionals and those with tax and cloud computing expertise.

Companies will even pay for candidates in their 20s if they have a solid education, at least four years of experience in a reputable company, and the potential to take on leadership roles, she says.

With technology growing rapidly, more firms will use digital channels to boost revenue so they need IT specialists skilled in big data and e-commerce, she says.

“We’re anticipating growth in IT with companies moving their development hubs to Malaysia for cost efficiency.”

In banking, regulatory and risk governance experts will be priority hires. Malaysia, she says, remains the biggest player in the global Islamic banking industry, which will drive more opportunities especially for Islamic asset management professionals.

“The hiring process might take longer because of the increased scrutiny of candidates. Getting approval to hire is slower because banks have adopted a more stringent candidate vetting process.”

As more multinational corporations move to Malaysia, there will be a higher demand for accounting and finance professionals experienced in project management and shared services.

“The accounting and finance industry’s growth is slower than previous years but there are vacancies, especially for those who speak Japanese, Korean and Mandarin. Also, commercially-minded accountants and tax professionals skilled in GST are scarce, so we expect companies to consider candidates from other South-East Asian countries.”

Some 6per cent of foreign workers are in high-skilled jobs, Malaysian Employers Federation executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan shares. He admits there’s a need for more highly skilled expatriates to meet demand for specialised skills, adding that there were 151,687 expatriates in Malaysia from January to August last year.

The majority came from Bangladesh, followed by India, China and the Philippines. They were mainly employed in the services, ICT, manufacturing and construction sectors.

There’s a growing call for the Government to review the current policy of bringing in expatriates for mid-level categories as they would be competing with locals for jobs, he says.

“Recruiting foreign talent will be more expensive, as they’re given extra benefits like free housing. And their personal tax is paid by the employer.”

Key talent and returning Malaysians can command premium salaries, Raj says. Across sectors, however, hiring is only for replacement positions or within critical business units. And major cuts are expected in the oil and gas industry.

“We have had no news of perks being slashed or employers demanding that their new hires do what’s beyond their job description. We haven’t had a situation, for example, where the employer says: I want a sales manager who’s also great in marketing or product management.

“It could be the case for those who are already employed. The company might want to upskill them to take on another role but if you’re applying to join a company, they don’t expect you to do two jobs.”

Whether 2016 is an employer’s or an employee’s market depends on which sector you are looking at, Raj says.

Shamsuddin agrees. He says during a slowdown, the rate of job creation would depend on the economic growth of the specific sectors. While the oil and gas sector was negatively impacted by falling prices, the electrical and electronics sector has registered positive growth of 7.9per cent, he says, citing an example.

Many companies are “right sizing” to ensure that the right talent remains in the company so that when the economy picks up, they can resume full operations. If job opportunities are available, they will be offered to those with experience. But job hopping just for more money may not be the right strategy going forward, he thinks.

“It’s risky for employees to change jobs during volatile economic conditions because of the possibility of retrenchment.”

With a slowdown in recruitment, employers are upskilling their teams, Raj says. This will help companies retain their top talent in preparation for the economy’s recovery, as hiring is expected to rise in the latter half of 2016 as Malaysia’s economy stabilises.

“In times of market uncertainty, companies must see the long-term value of investing in their employees. Staff retention is now more crucial than ever as Malaysian professionals are highly motivated by training and development initiatives as well as leadership opportunities,” she shares.

And, to secure top talent, she advises ­hiring managers to focus on monetary ­benefits for lower-level employees, and on professional and career development for leadership candidates. Overseas or career secondments and involvement in rewarding executive programmes will be particularly attractive, she says.

Companies train staff so they can deliver greater value to the organisation but due to the economic uncertainty, the training budget will likely be cut, Shamsuddin says.

This year, and possibly up to 2017, will be very challenging for sectors like oil and gas, property, construction, and retail, he foresees. While companies would like to retain their talent, that is subject to the impact of the slowdown on their operations, he rationalises.

But whether you’re in an industry that’s in trouble or not, you should always keep your options open, Raj advises.

“Put your feelers out for better career prospects. Look up reputable recruiters that represent established clients. There are many so-called ‘recruiters’ with no authority to represent any company. These unethical outfits simply pick up job portal ads and claim to represent the employer.

“A good recruiter will suss out your pros­pective employer and ask important questions like how the position became vacant and how the company handled the last economic downturn. An employer with a good track record won’t simply let their staff go.”

Wages as a percentage to gross domestic product stood at 34per cent in 2014, and this is considerably lower than the level of a developed nation, which we aspire to become, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak wrote in November last year.

With this, employees can expect a more equitable salary from their companies so long as they do not compromise on productivity, he posted on najibrazak.com.

MTUC secretary-general N. Gopal Kishnam said currently, the Trade Unions Act allows foreign workers to be members of unions but does not allow them to hold positions.

With the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), the Government will have to “liberalise” the Trade Unions Act, Industrial Relations Act and the Employment Act, said Gopal.

This would enable foreigners to hold positions in the unions.

“What matters is whether they can serve the membership or not. If someone can serve the membership, then why not?” he told The Star Online Sunday.

“At the end of the day, we must have a democratic process. If the majority of the members decide to elect someone, no one should interfere,” he said.

Senator Tan Sri Mohd Ali Rustam had on Thursday said that foreign workers should not be allowed to hold any post in labour unions.

He expressed concern that if foreign workers were allowed to lead labour unions, they might sabotage companies by asking workers to protest.

According to Gopal, the labour chapter in the TPPA “looks good” but what mattered was the enforcement and implementation of laws.

“I always say that Malaysian labour laws in paper looks very good, but when it comes to implementation, that is where we see setbacks. We will have to wait and see if the Government strictly follows it or not,” he added.

He said Singapore offers “an abundance of market-development opportunities” for such products as a leading global wealth-management market, with US$500 billion (S$710 billion) in assets.

“It is also a growing hub for precious metals investment and the industry value chain with strong government backing for the precious metals business.”

Platinum lost 26 per cent in value in the past year, hurt by the strengthening greenback, a slowdown in China and the Volkswagen emissions scandal, which dented prospects for demand. Platinum is widely used in diesel cars to cut emissions. But – Grubb is confident that platinum supply-demand fundamentals “remain robust”, driven by the automotive and jewellery industries, he told The Straits Times.

“Platinum is a good investment asset as it has some of the diversifying properties of gold, improving risk-adjusted returns of portfolios and better performance than gold in an economic recovery.”

SBMA chief executive Albert Cheng noted that the WPIC’s membership comes at “an interesting time in the market’s development”.

“Since the removal of the goods and services tax in 2012, there has been a real step-change in Singapore’s prominence as a major hub for precious metals trading and investment, a position we are working hard to consolidate,” he said.

Members of the SBMA, formed in 1993 to promote Singapore as a precious metals hub, include ICBC Standard Bank, JP Morgan and UOB Bullion & Futures.

Satvinder Singh, assistant chief executive of International Enterprise Singapore, said that the partnership will “further strengthen Singapore’s position as Asia’s precious metals trading hub and the continued development of platinum in the region”.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines the REER as the nominal effective exchange rate -which is a measure of the value of a currency against a weighted average of several foreign currencies – divided by a price deflator.

An increase in the REER index means that exports become more expensive and imports become cheaper. Therefore, an increase indicates a loss in trade competitiveness.

Monthly data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), whose membership comprises 60 central banks, show that the rupiah’s REER ranged between 84.68 and 91.42 throughout 2015, below the fair value of 100.

For instance, the REER stood at 89.78 in December. With such a REER index, the rupiah should theoretically have been traded at 12,378 per US dollar, instead of 13,795 per US dollar, as revealed by BI’s Jakarta Interbank Spot Dollar Rate (JISDOR).

BI expects the REER to hover between 95 and 97 this year to enable the currency to support exports. However, Mirza reiterated the need to shift export focus to manufacturing from commodities due to low commodity prices.

Commodity-related goods have continued to account for a major portion of total exports in 2015, such as fat and animal or vegetable oil, pulp and tin.

The government has also repeatedly called for a shift in exports to cope with falling commodity prices. Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro has previously suggested that businesses develop derivative products from commodities to increase their export value.

Separately, Bank Central Asia (BCA) chief economist David Sumual and Samuel Asset Management economist Lana Soelistianingsih agreed that an export shift to manufacturing was a clamant need to revive the economy.

However, despite BI’s claim of a competitive rupiah, Indonesian Exporters Association (GPEI) secretary general Toto Dirgantoro said the weaker currency had not necessarily worked in favor of exporters.

“We still import many of the components from overseas and the weaker rupiah makes them more expensive. That adds costs and actually reduces the competitiveness of our exports,” he said over the phone.

Meanwhile, London-based financial services firm Ebury Partners Ltd. was quoted by Bloomberg as saying that the rupiah had been more undervalued than most of its peers and should be fairly stable in 2016.

Ebury – which was the most accurate rupiah forecaster in the third and fourth quarters, according to Bloomberg rankings – has forecast that the currency will end the year at 13,800 per US dollar, 0.3 percent stronger than the spot rate of 13,838 per dollar as of 10:43 a.m. in Jakarta on Friday.

That is more bullish than the 14,592 median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 30 analysts.

Bloomberg also reported that the rupiah had actually outperformed every major currency since Sept. 30.

It strengthened 5.6 percent through Thursday, a percentage point more than the Malaysian ringgit, which is the next best performer among 31 major counterparts.

According to Bloomberg, BI’s hawkish stance – maintaining interest rates last year and waiting for inflation to drop before cutting in January – won the confidence of overseas investors, who pumped almost US$4 billion into rupiah sovereign debt in four months.

The agency’s data driven marketing initiatives can be seen if one were to visit GroupM’s office at Menara Milenium in Bukit Damansara. For example, one of its media agencies Mindshare and its social media agency Vocanic are both equipped with the latest hi-tech screens displaying various real-time media information in the form of dynamic charts and infographics.

Elaborating this initiative, Girish says Mindshare’s “Loop Room” helps clients to look at the entire campaign data across all forms of media and to correlate it to sales. The Loop has two modes – “strategy” and “campaign”.

In “strategy mode”, he adds, The Loop enables collaborative decision making via the mixing of fast and slow data across different disciplines, including business planning, strategy, creative and communications planning.

Whereas in “campaign mode”, he says, Mindshare takes third party data feeds and combines them with the agency’s own tracking systems to provide instantly actionable insights. The Loop is also used to track competitors’ efforts in paid, owned and earned media as well as providing intelligence on trending and viral news, videos and pictures, hence enabling instant decision making by marketers.

As for Vocanic, Girish says its data initiatives which comes under Vocanic’s Mission Control enables brand owners to make informed decisions based on real time data from a socially connected enterprise platform.

This also allows marketers to optimise their campaigns by tweaking digital media spend, content or messaging based on actual social media conversations, he explains. “Our platform also allows brands to manage social customer service more effectively by providing real time insights of actual consumer engagement.

For example, one fast moving consumer goods brand saw an incremental 55 per cent jump in responding to social media inquiries/complaints through our platform,” he says.

Apart from this, the agency’s programmatic audience buying system known as Xaxis allows GroupM to target specific audiences online based on their online behaviour and areas of interest. This is done using Xaxis’ proprietary Data Management Platform (DMP) – Turbine. “We took a decision early on to develop our own DMP rather than depend on renting or buying the service from third-party DMPs.”

Early this week, the agency became the first media agency in the country to access more granular information on the viewing habits of Malaysians when it entered into an agreement to subscribe to the Dynamic Television Audience Measurement (DTAM) service, the new television currency for measuring the habits of Pay TV viewers. The agreement gives GroupM’s clients access to the system for their 2016 TV planning and buying requirements on Pay TV. The DTAM measurement system was launched in Malaysia last year and was available to media agencies on a free trial basis until the end of last year.

The system measures viewing behaviour using Return-Path-Data technology, first introduced by Kantar Media in Europe in 2005 and which has since been implemented in America, Africa, Europe and other parts of Asia Pacific.

In conclusion, Girish adds: “Marketing now operates in a data-rich environment. We are focused on harvesting this data to extract the most actionable insights for clients to enable real-time decision making. We are fortunate to have with us some key clients who have the vision and foresight to invest in such services in order to drive their competitive advantage.”