Singapore Salary Guide 2021: HR, Administration & Business ...

HR directors may earn a monthly salary between S$8,000 to S$17,000. Meanwhile, talent acquisition partners and C&B partners may will earn between S$3,800 to S$7,200 and S$3,500 to S$7,600 respectively.

Links International's Singapore Salary Guide 2021 deep-dives into six sectors in Singapore to compare market trends between 2020 to 2021, as well as to provide salary indices across various roles. The sectors are: sales & marketing; banking, finance & accounting; information & technology; HR, administration & business support; sourcing, supply chain & manufacturing, and life science & healthcare.

Based on the report, all six sectors are projected to have salary increments of up to 11% (in case of no job change), and projected salary increments of up to 25% (with job change).

In terms of Singapore as a whole, the percentage is projected to be not more than 4% and 15% respectively. Looking at sector-specific numbers, they are as follows:

• Sales & marketing: 0 to 5% (projected salary increment); 5 to 15% (projected salary increment with job change).
• Banking, finance & accounting: 0 to 5% (projected salary increment); 5 to 15% (projected salary increment with job change).
• Information & technology: 3 to 9% (projected salary increment); 5 to 17% (projected salary increment with job change).
• HR, administration & business support: 0 to 3% (projected salary increment); 5 to 10% (projected salary increment with job change).
• Sourcing, supply chain & manufacturing: 0 to 3% (projected salary increment); 5 to 10% (projected salary increment with job change).
• Life science & healthcare: 3 to 11% (projected salary increment); 12 to 25% (projected salary increment with job change).

Continue below to find sector specific market trends, as well as salary index in Singapore.

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HR, administration & business support

In 2020, this business function has had a more visible and active role to play in businesses due to COVID-19. The report noted professionals are tasked with managing remote working arrangements, visa applications, redundancies and other operational changes.

"HR professionals specialising in stakeholder management and organisational strategy are seeing their importance grow. Businesses are looking to implement plans to help better cope with changes and come through the economic challenges unscathed," the report added.

In terms of the outlook of things for HR, administration & business support in 2021, the report reckons there'll be more emphasis on the use of technology in businesses, thus more HR professionals will be trained to improve their tech skills. Further, more initiatives will be put in place to provide businesses easier access to HR technology solutions, as well as incorporating cloud-based HR systems into its business operations.

With regard to this business function's key positions, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• HR Director: S$8,000 (entry); S$11,000 (senior); S$17,000 (veteran)
• Human Resources Business Partner / HR Manager: S$6,800; S$8,500; S$12,000
• Talent Acquisition / Recruitment: S$3,800; S$5,100; S$7,200
• Compensation & Benefits / Payroll: S$3,500; S$5,500; S$7,600
• Learning & Development / Training: S$4,300; S$5,900; S$8,400

Sales & marketing

Likewise, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the sales & marketing sector in 2020. That said, eCommerce remained relatively unaffected and "is one of the few areas to see growth," the report stated. This brought about more demand for digital marketing professionals, especially for specialist roles like SEO, SEM and social media experts.

On that note, the positive eCommerce trend is slated to continue its growth; and so will the sales & marketing function increasingly move towards the aforementioned specialist roles. As such, traditional generic marketing roles will continue to struggle and are becoming increasingly marginalised.

Looking at sales & marketing's key positions, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• Marketing Director: S$8,500 (entry); S$12,000 (senior); S$17,000 (veteran)
• Marketing Manager: S$5,000; S$7,500; S$11,000
• Digital Marketing Director: S$9,600; S$13,000; S$19,200
• Content Marketing: S$3,400; S$5,500; S$9,200
• SEO/SEM/Social Media/CRM specialist: S$3,800; S$7,500; S$13,400

Banking, finance & accounting

Compared to the others, the banking, finance & accounting sector has a much stronger performance. According to the report, demands for professionals in this industry are also higher in industries experiencing robust growth such as technology, life science, and healthcare. This performance will be boosted once businesses move its Asian headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore due to sky-high rents, China’s slowing economy, and National Security Law, for instance.

"A potential flurry of enterprises relocating its operations to Singapore could create more job opportunities for locals," the report stated.

Looking at finance & accounting's key positions, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• CFO: S$21,000 (entry); S$28,100 (senior); S$35,100 (veteran)
• Financial Controller: S$11,800; S$14,300; S$16,900
• Finance Manager: S$8,400; S$10,100; S$11,800

For banking, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• Analyst (Compliance): S$4,200 (entry); S$5,600 (senior); S$7,000 (veteran)
• Analyst (Operations): S$4,200; S$5,300; S$6,300
• Vice-President (Risk Management): S$12,700; S$16,900; S$21,100
• Vice-President (Investment Banking): S$11,000; S$12,300; S$14,100
• Director (Investment Management, Private Equity): S$21,100; S$29,550; S$38,000
• Director (Investment Management, Private Banking): S$22,500; S$28,800; S$35,000

Information & technology

Similar to the banking, finance & accounting sector, the IT sector stayed resilient through the pandemic. The report shared: "Despite the economic challenges consumers and companies are facing, the demand for technology talent has still been strong." And this trend will continue across 2021 as businesses continue to implement tech solutions into their operations.

Further, the report revealed that AI and Big Data are two of the most important elements transforming businesses and will define the development paths of companies in the near future.

For this business function's key positions, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• CIO: S$15,500 (entry); S$19,000 (senior); S$27,600 (veteran)
• Head of IT: S$12,100; S$15,500; S$21,500
• IT Manager: S$7,800; S$9,100; S$10,800
• IT Support: S$3,500; S$4,200; S$4,900

Sourcing, supply chain & manufacturing

Due to the pandemic, the sourcing, supply chain & manufacturing function has taken a significant blow. It was reported that transport engineering (marine & offshore engineering; aerospace; land) and general manufacturing (printing; food beverages & tobacco; miscellaneous industries) have been the most affected industries. It faced a 24% and a 12.6% drop in output respectively.

Be that as it may, biomedical manufacturing is touted to have a strong demand in 2021. This is because the pandemic has raised worldwide health awareness and thus exacerbated the need for medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The report also added that biomedical manufacturing production has increased by 89.8% in September compared to the same period last year and 26.6% for 2020 so far.

For this business function's key positions, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• Supply Chain planning/Analyst: S$3,600 (entry); S$5,000 (senior); S$5,800 (veteran)
• Supply Chain Manager: S$6,600; S$8,000; S$11,600
• Procurement Manager: S$6,600; S$9,100; S$11,600
• Operation Improvement Manager: S$6,200; S$8,300; S$12,000

Life science & healthcare

"With health awareness on the minds of citizens, the life science and healthcare function benefitted greatly and saw strong growth. Investment in scientific advancement is also at an all-time high, boosting life sciences further," the report shared. The growth will continue in 2021 as pharmaceutical companies are scaling up the production of medical products and will require manpower to increase output capacity.

To contain the spread of COVID-19, more focus on research and development will also be required to develop smart technologies. As such, roles like biotech specialists will see their value increase in 2021.

For life science & healthcare's key positions, its salary index, across the ranks of entry, senior, and veteran, are as follows:

• Clinical Operation: S$4,800 (entry); S$7,400 (senior); S$10,000 (veteran)
• Clinical Research Physician/Medical Affairs: S$8,000; S$10,000; S$12,000
• Clinical Statistics: S$6,000; S$8,000; S$10,000

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Body image / Links International

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