Unlocking human potential for a thriving and uplifted workforce

In this video episode of Singapore Budget 2025 Insights by KPMG in Singapore, Eugenia Tay, Partner, Personal Tax & Global Mobility Services, Tax, spoke to Murray Sarelius, Partner, Head of Personal Tax and Global Mobility Services, Tax, and Nicki Doble, Principal Advisor, Corporate Transformation, to discuss the need for Singapore to evolve its talent strategies to meet the growing demands associated with being a key global financial centre, business hub and assurance leader.

Read video transcript below.

Why is it crucial for Singapore companies to upgrade the skills pipeline and what key areas should we be focused on?

Nicki Doble: To clear the pathway for strategy execution and transformational change, business functions really need to start reviewing their skills pipelines annually. While every industry and business faces unique trends, one universal truth remains: knowing your skills pipeline delivers immediate benefits in four critical areas. First, recruitment. It helps you get laser-focused on the skills and experiences you need now and in the future and identify where you are going to get them from.  Second, talent mobility and succession planning. By developing internal talent, you can create exceptional local subject matter experts and start cultivating your future C-suite leaders. Third, training and development. We're seeing a shift to targeted training and micro-credentials and this is moving away from the broad generic programmes of the past.

Fourth, pay and employee engagement. Do you know who holds your critical skills within your organisations? Are they being fairly paid and have you created an environment where they get to thrive? Top tip on this is that your business-critical skills are not hierarchical. They are going to be scattered across your organisation, so it's really important that you know where they are. Understanding and aligning your skills pipeline sets that foundation for long-term strategy execution.

In Singapore, a strong talent pool is required to drive growth and innovation. How can we strengthen the skill sets of specific professionals such as assurance services like accountancy and cultivate a robust talent pipeline? Additionally, what changes would you like to see made to tax and mobility to address this?

Murray Sarelius: Well, first of all, I think many countries are suffering a talent squeeze. This is a function of demographics and ageing populations. This talent squeeze is driving competition for global talent between countries, between industries and between employers. Singapore is an important hub for Asia-Pacific, so a strong talent pool is important to drive innovation and make it attractive to global businesses. Roles that build trust and confidence in Singapore as a location, such as assurance and accountancy roles, are critical to this.

We also know that future leaders often have international experience, so talent mobility is important. It will benefit Singapore to make sure that we have access to a pipeline of young talent from overseas and that local businesses are encouraged to have local talent gain overseas experience. To encourage mobility, I'd like to see some relaxation of the immigration COMPASS requirements to facilitate initiatives to bring young talent to Singapore, such as professional bodies’ outreach programmes to attract young talent.

AI is a specific focus in KPMG's budget proposal this year, particularly narrowing the AI gap between large and small companies and supporting AI skills development. Why are AI skills important and what priorities would you like to see in the 2025 budget focus in this area?
 

Nicki Doble: AI is still evolving and for many businesses, large or small, there's a lot of uncertainty about what an AI-driven future is going to look like. But I would caution against waiting. Don’t hold off on developing your stuff until you have a fantastic tech solution ready to go because you are going to be too late.

For medium and small enterprises, accessibility to public frameworks that lower training cost barriers are really critical. We know that AI will be embedded into most roles across most industries. If you can start providing those foundational skills now such as prompt engineering and ethical awareness, it will really help your business get ahead of the curve. Plus, from a people’s perspective, this also removes the fear of the unknown, ignites creativity and accelerates adoption. For me, it’s not just necessarily about keeping up but with access to the right learning tools at all levels of enterprise, Singapore can be a global pacesetter for AI.

The budget proposal talks about boosting access to micro-credentialing. Can you explain why micro-credentialing is important and what you would like to see in this year’s budget? Can you also explain why contributions to the SkillsFuture programme would help?
 

Murray Sarelius: Short-term certifications and micro-credentials are important to an agile talent marketplace. They help to ensure that skills are developed, refreshed and that those skills are easily identifiable by existing and potential employers.

As we see more pressure on talent markets, employers need to be able to identify and access skills in increasingly flexible ways. Micro-credentials help to ensure that scarce talent can be deployed effectively. For large multinationals, this means identifying and deploying talent on a skills basis globally. For smaller domestic businesses, it’s more about cost and efficiency. As Nicki mentioned earlier, for small and medium enterprises, cost and accessibility are critical to ensure that innovation is within everyone’s reach. This is especially so as smaller enterprises are often the catalysts for innovation.