Talent war
The battle for talent is indeed in full swing. "Good talent is always hard to find in any market you're in. The robust market is a challenge for us," Chai said.
"We are aware many are looking for jobs and we expect to lose more people than over the past two years."
Baker said it's important for companies to accept that the market is picking up and that employees, who understood the need for recessionary measures over the last two years, will most likely be aware that salaries are starting to go up and there are increasing numbers of roles available.
"Salary reviews play an important part in retaining staff and it is important not to realize too late they need to switch out of recession mode," he said.
While demand is strongest for sales and marketing roles as well as technical positions, the changing telco landscape now requires a new set of niche skills. These include roles in rich media services, content delivery networks, cloud services and mobile app development.
A recruiter with operations in Europe and Asia told Telecom Asia that many telcos are "now trying to hire people that don't currently exist, such as rich media consultants." He is seeing a decline in demand for skills related to legacy services.
He had a surprisingly busy July and August, seeing increased activity from mid-size firms.
In the mobile apps space, Hong Kong-based Catalist Group strategic director Peter Yu said junior developers with in-demand skills, such as iPhone, C and C++ know-how, can demand more than a 50% premium over those will less sought-after skills such as Java.
Half of HR managers say demand for sales and marketing skills will increase over the next six to 12 months. Another 36% see demand rising for technical skills, with just 9% expecting IT positions to be in stronger demand.
The move to more sophisticated services and a focus on maximizing revenues and reducing churn have put pressure on the sales and marketing function, Baker said, which makes bringing in new skills and fresh approaches from other markets and industries paramount.