Staffing demands fuelled by the ongoing war for talent are continuing to force employers to rethink their staff selection criteria in order to fill vacancies.

TMS Asia-Pacific CEO, Andrew Chan said feedback received from several of its clients indicates they are so desperate to ensure head count, many are dropping their initial overall requirements and rethinking their selection criteria rather than spending too much time looking for ‘role-perfect’ candidates.

“In the perfect environment, finding that perfect candidate match to skill set would be viewed as essential during the recruitment process,” he said.

“But we are seeing ever more scenarios where finding the ‘perfect match’ has now given sway to a need to compromise in what continues to prove an ever narrowing field of play in this current job heavy/candidate light environment.

“Feedback received from several of our clients has indicated while ‘close enough’ is definitely not the norm, it is now being deemed as sufficient enough to bring a new employee on board rather than spend months looking for the perfect person.

“Of course those ‘perfect matches’ are very much out there but we know that employers that have them on board are doing their utmost to ensure they keep them on the books.”

The regional ‘war for talent’ situation, he said, was continuing to be exacerbated by the roll-out of hundreds of hotels and tourism related projects and events across the Asia-Pacific region.