- Kyle Chua
GovTech Hires Former Indeed Staff, Responds to Online Rumours About Hiring Practices
Updated: Dec 18, 2023
Singapore's Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is clearing things up after some online rumours surfaced about its hiring practices.
The statutory board on Monday, 25 September confirmed that it hired about 60 former employees of Indeed after the job listings website's Singapore office shuttered earlier in the year. However, one Reddit user, who identified themselves as an ex-Indeed employee, questioned the board's hiring practices in a post, which later sparked public concern.
The post in question claims that GovTech opened about 60 positions for the retrenched Indeed employees in May, offering them "inflated salaries" that ranged from S$7,000 for one year of experience to S$12,000 for five years of experience. It also claims that some of the years of experience of the retrenched employees were inflated, noting how one ex-employee that worked for nine months was considered to have one year of experience.
"Every candidate was interviewed as part of the process. Successful candidates were placed at comparable grades in GovTech by taking into consideration their equivalent grades within Indeed and remunerated accordingly," GovTech told CNA.
The statutory board said the retrenched Indeed employees were hired as part of the Tech for Public Good initiative, which was launched by the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group in 2022 to help accelerate the digital transformation of government agencies.
The initiative also elevates GovTech's capability centres, which focus on areas like application development, cybersecurity and data science and artificial intelligence (AI).
"With Indeed's closure of the Singapore office, we saw a unique opportunity to hire some of their intact and functioning engineering teams to work on the two priorities," added GovTech.
The former Indeed employees were hired as software and quality engineers, product managers, user experience (UX) designers and data scientists. GovTech noted that they were working in cross-functional teams across the organisation, collaborating with other agencies on projects beneficial for the government.
Indeed's Singapore office closed in March 2023, laying-off more than 200 local employees. One such employee reportedly took advantage of the situation to raid the office pantry, filling up a bag full of snacks before leaving for the last time. He posted himself plundering the snacks, which included popular biscuits and potato chips, on TikTok.
GovTech confirmed that it hired about 60 former employees of Indeed after the job listings website's Singapore office shuttered earlier in the year.
However, one Reddit user, who identified themselves as an ex-Indeed employee, questioned the board's hiring practices in a post, which later sparked public concern.
The post in question claims that GovTech opened about 60 positions for the retrenched Indeed employees in May, offering them "inflated salaries".
"Every candidate was interviewed as part of the process," GovTech said. "Successful candidates were placed at comparable grades in GovTech by taking into consideration their equivalent grades within Indeed and remunerated accordingly."