REPORT ON: RECRUITMENT DEMANDS FOR SENIOR MANAGEMENT LEVEL IN QUARTER 1/2019

Prioritizing Digital skills in the recruitment of the FMCG sector

In Q1/2019, there are several multinational enterprises launching for the first time in Vietnam, notably in the field of food, beverage, liquor, and cosmetics. These foreign companies’ model that directly manages to develop business, increase brand image, implement promotion programs… leads to a sharp increase in recruitment demand those positions related to the Sales and Marketing department from staff level to senior management position. In particular, skills related to digital marketing and e-commerce are prioritized as a result of the development of 4.0 era. Besides, support positions such as HR, Administration, Finance, and Accounting have also increased in recruitment demand.

The trend of franchising in the Retail industry has pushed up the recruitment demand

In the first quarter, Navigos Search noted the trend of franchising of international and domestic companies, especially in the sector of Cosmetics, Fashion, Food and Beverage (F&B). This trend leads to a high demand for recruiting positions from mid-senior to senior management.
Facing this trend, Retail companies in Vietnam want to enhance their own brand and are willing to invest in people and systems to be able to develop and compete with other foreign brands. Besides, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) are constantly developing and expanding the number of stores, leading to an increase in the demand for recruiting employees for operating chain stores.

Challenges of recruiting and retaining talents in the Manufacturing industry due to the wave of shifting production from China.

Companies shifting production from China to Vietnam continue to increase strongly, especially in supporting industries and wood furniture industry. There are projects that launch new factories in Vietnam, which are expected to greatly increase the number of employees by double, or triple during the year, especially in the field of electronics, high-end components manufacturing… This sudden growth in demand is due to the need for enterprises to expand their production or restructure, leading to a challenge for employers in attracting and retaining talents, causing candidates movement within companies in the same industry.
The vacancies are mainly in Supervisory and Management positions, and the recruitment demand will still increase steadily until the companies operate stably. Besides, Chinese businesses also require candidates who must speak Chinese.
In Ho Chi Minh City, compared to other industries, Manufacturing and Industry is the sector that is reportedly paying the highest salary for many middle and high-level positions. The experienced engineer position can be paid a salary of 4,000 USD while in Management level has a position that pays up to 8,000 USD.

Applying technology lead to recruitment requirements change in the Agricultural sector

This year, many companies have been implementing 3F agricultural models (feed – farm – food). Besides, companies invest large amounts of capital into modern production lines, applying European standard technologies. The trend of developing this new agricultural model has led to more changes in the recruitment requirements of enterprises. Two areas with a high demand for jobs are farming and veterinary. Most businesses need to recruit many positions from the middle level and require candidates to have in-depth technical knowledge.

Real estate M&A waves lead to the need to recruit C-level positions

As noted, there appear to be mergers and acquisitions deals in the real estate sector which took place from the end of 2018 and were completed in 2019 but not yet widely communicated. Vietnam is attracting capital for M&A by many investors from Asia. Vietnam real estate market continues to be expected to grow steadily at 15% thanks to the strong inflow of foreign capital and the rise of the sub-regional markets like Long An, Dong Nai, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Binh Thuan, Da Nang, etc. This also entails the demand for recruiting C-level positions (Deputy General Directors and General Director) such as CFO (Finance Director), COO (Operations Director), Country Manager (Country Director or Chief Representative) to serve new business development or replacement.