Employees crave better personal branding

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

Singapore - Professionals in Singapore are more than happy to spend money on improving their skills and creating a successful personal brand as they seek greater control over their careers.

The quarterly Kelly Global Workforce Index findings released today showed that more Singaporean employees are looking at how to stand out among the crowded workforce. Close to three-quarters of 2,700 professionals in Singapore are willing to splurge their own money on upgrading their skills without waiting for their company to sponsor them.

Significantly, employees in the utilities, manufacturing, engineering and travel sectors are the group most prepared to cough up money for career development.

Age group-wise, Generation X employees, more so than Generation Y (70%) and baby boomers (68%), are prepared to spend on additional training for their personal career development at 78%.

Singapore respondents believe improving on their personal branding is key to getting better job offers. As much as 76% of Gen X respondents plan to change their jobs and reinvent themselves at some point in the near future. Gen Y and baby boomers are not far behind in terms of career ambitions at 72% and 70% respectively.

Seven in 10 Gen X viewed verbal communication skills as the most important element in personal branding, compared with 65% of Gen Y and 59% of baby boomers. Three-fifths said résumés and good technical knowledge would boost their personal market campaign while 55% felt written communications would be a better choice.

More than half cited personal attire as a good branding component while 35% preferred to use social media. Of the group using social networks, 22% described themselves as "very active" in promoting themselves online while 42% are "somewhat active". Baby boomers also feel "very" confident about their ability to keep up with technological changes at work, compared to Gen X (58%) and Gen Y (51%).

Mark Sparrow, managing director for Kelly Services Singapore, said, "The days of a job-for-life, and even a career-for-life, are gone."

With more employees gaining a high degree of awareness about the changing workplace, Sparrow said they are taking "greater personal responsibility for managing their careers and developing new skills".

Around 134,000 people from 29 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific responded to the 2010 survey.

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