By Simon Mortlock |
EFinancialCareers – Thu, Mar 28, 2013 10:00 PM
SGT
If you’re a high-earning expatriate banker in low-tax Singapore,
now is not a good time to flaunt your good fortune.
Singaporean citizens, incensed by a recent influx of
international talent into their crowded city-state, are clamouring
for companies to hire fewer foreigners. The Singapore government
has responded by promising to ensure that employers give “fair
consideration” to Singaporeans when they recruit.
It doesn’t help the reputation of expat bankers when one of
their ranks allegedly breaks the law. Swiss national Juerg Buergin,
a former UBS executive, is currently on trial in Singapore for sex
with an underage prostitute. Last year stockbroker Robert Dahlberg,
a New Zealander, was involved in a boozy brawl with a taxi driver.
Both could be seen as extreme examples of an unloved stereotype –
the arrogant expat.
Here is some advice about how to fit into a Singaporean
workplace rather than stand out.
1) Don’t be an escapee
An increasing number of overseas candidates wanted to move to
Asia purely because it was a safe haven for finance jobs compared
with the West, said Matthew Ng, senior consultant, banking and
financial services at recruiters Ambition in Singapore. But
boasting about using Singapore as a temporary safety net won’t win
you the trust of local staff and may mean you don’t get a job there
in the first place. “If candidates are relocating to Singapore as a
shelter from less economically favourable countries, interviewers
would be able to differentiate them from those with genuine
motivations to be here,” added Ng.
2) Make a meal of it
Singapore citizens are mainly of Chinese, Malay and Indian
descent, and Singaporean cuisine is equally diverse. Nothing will
win the hearts of your co-workers quicker than enjoying a meal with
them at a hawker centre, an open-air food court with stalls selling
cheap and tasty local delights. “Surprise your colleagues by
showing a deep knowledge of their culture,” said Tony Latimer, an
executive coach at the Asia-Pacific Corporate Coach Institute in
Singapore. “Take them out for a great seafood dinner, but not in
the central tourist traps. For example, the best place to eat crab
is in the middle of a suburb called Ang Mo Kio,” he added.
3) Drink kopi, not beer
After work the bars of Boat Quay and other drinking haunts in
central Singapore are full of foreign bankers (mainly white, male
ones). But to avoid such obvious expat enclaves, try going for a
sugary cup of kopi, a local coffee made with condensed milk.
“Socialising in Singapore doesn’t always revolve around alcohol, so
invite people out to a cafe instead,” said Emma Boyd, director of
consultancy Pinstripe Business Solutions in Singapore and a manager
at the Financial Women’s Association Singapore.
4) Understand your own office
It’s not only Singaporean culture in general that you need to
know about; talk to your new colleagues before your arrive in
Singapore and understand what makes the team tick. “Finding your
place in the team is crucial for new expats,” said Gerard Milligan,
strategic account director at recruitment firm Randstad in
Singapore. “A local private equity fund will have a different work
culture to a European bank, which again will be different to a
local bank,” he said.
5) Meetings matter
Employees in Singapore don’t generally take kindly to receiving
criticism in front of their colleagues. So save most of your
negative feedback for one-on-one meetings, said Boyd. “And remember
that people won’t always put their hands up to make suggestions in
groups, so you can also make use of these meetings to ask for their
ideas,” she said.
6) Have humility
Certain personality traits made integrating into local culture
easier, said Professor Sattar Bawany, managing director of the
Centre for Executive Education in Singapore. These included
humility, empathy, tolerance of ambiguity, flexibility, initiative,
open-mindedness, and sociability, he added.
7) Don’t rush in
Expat assignments in Asia often involve making changes to the
way a team or company operates. Under pressure from head office to
delivery quick results, new arrivals may rush through reform
without proper consultation with local staff. “First gain an
understanding of the local business before making changes,” said
Natalia Shuman, chief operating officer, North Asia, Kelly
Services. “Only changes that you can explain well will make sense
to your team,” she said. Latimer from the Corporate Coach Institute
added: “When you arrive, shut up and listen. Regardless of what you
think you know, you will be accepted faster by listening and
asking. Allow the locals to educate you.”
