High-quality workers for digital transformation are being recruited by many businesses. Photo: X.H

Lack of high-quality labor

On job exchanges, many businesses are constantly posting recruitments for positions that need high-quality human resources such as manager, research and development department, engineer, especially human resources for digital transformation.

Pham Thi Hoai Linh, Human Resources Director of Navigos Group, said that the recruitment demand of enterprises in the second quarter of 2022 showed that the top 10 occupations with the most demand include finance, investment; sales; information technology, software; marketing; accountants; civil construction; administration; banking; audit; and electronic industry.

Notably, the recruitment demand is increasing in the field of industrial real estate. In fact, more and more foreign-invested enterprises choose Vietnam as their investment destination, especially European units looking for alternative production locations.

This is also one of the factors promoting industrial real estate to thrive in the future, especially in the segment of smart integrated ready-built factories and warehouses, targeting small and medium-sized investment projects.

The Center of Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labor Market Information in HCM City recently published a forecast of human resource needs in six important industries in the 2022-2026 period.

Accordingly, in this period, HCM City will focus on developing high-tech industrial parks and industries that use a lot of workers with high technical qualifications, and developing industries that are based on modern technology and equipment.

In which, four key industries including mechanical industry; electronics-information technology; food processing; and pharmaceutical-rubber chemistry need from 271,510 to 322,897 staff. The textile and footwear industries are also forecast to attract a large number of skilled workers both now and in the future.

Additionally, the industry that needs high-quality human resources in recent times is the auditing industry. Forecasts for the third quarter showed that recruitment demand was likely to increase from the beginning of July because this is the "season" of personnel shifting in the audit field with an increase in recruitment demand for positions related to tax consulting and customs services.

Need labor for digital transformation

Businesses, especially banks, are focusing on digital transformation and automation, leading to a huge demand for human resources for positions related to information technology and data.

Currently, in the Vietnamese market, despite huge demand, candidates in the digital transformation segment, especially the banking industry, are limit  ed, both in quantity and quality. In terms of quality, very few candidates have experience to apply the most advanced technologies. In terms of quantity, banks have a need to recruit in a large quantity and in a short time, but the number of qualified candidates is not sufficient.

According to Linh, the competition for candidates in digital transformation is fierce. Especially for positions in information technology, one of the important platforms in digital transformation, there is always a shortage of candidates.

Not only do banks need to recruit IT positions, but companies from other fields such as finance, e-commerce, healthcare and education also want to recruit candidates in this field. “The salary for positions in the digital transformation segment will probably be 20% - 30% higher than positions of the same rank in other professional sectors. The implementation of digital transformation at banks usually has a high level of personnel transformation, after about 2-3 years, there may be a change in new personnel. Therefore, candidates in this field have opportunities to change the working environment they desire in each specific stage of their career,” said Linh.

Besides, due to the need to deploy advanced technology products and solutions for digital transformation while domestic candidates have not met the requirements, big banks are willing to pay high salaries to "hunt" candidates from abroad.

In the two years 2020 and 2021, banks want to recruit overseas Vietnamese candidates more than foreigners because overseas Vietnamese candidates more or less still understand Vietnamese culture, understand Vietnamese, and are easier to adapt.

These employees are especially welcome in key areas such as IT, data, products, and risk management.

In addition to the ongoing demand for digital banking and technology, banks are tending to recruit positions belonging to transaction banks, large corporate banks, and risk management. Traditional non-life insurers are promoting digital services and associated channels with the recruitment demand for marketing positions and digital products.

In the digital transformation field, employers want to recruit candidates with experience in deploying it in the Vietnamese market. However, there are very few candidates who meet the requirements, so there is competition for human resources in this field. According to recruitment businesses, due to the influence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, many contracts and orders related to information technology were transferred to Vietnam. Besides, recruitment demand continues to increase as businesses are feeling positive about business recovery after Covid-19.

Some units wishing to expand operations in the second half of 2022 will recruit a large number of information technology engineers to open up digital centers or digitize businesses faster.