Industry: Not-for-Profit
Firmwide Headcount: 1–49 Employees
Product/Service Engaged: Staffing & Recruitment Services
Overview
Singapore Business Federation (SBF) serves as the apex business chamber representing the interests of Singapore's business community. As a key advocate and enabler of enterprise growth, SBF drives national initiatives that support both local and international businesses.
In April 2023, SBF embarked on the development of SBF25—a multi-year transformation plan to sharpen its vision, mission, and strategic priorities to stay relevant, strengthen value, and scale its impact. Delivering the outcomes of SBF25 required not only organisational transformation, but also greater capacity and agility in talent acquisition.
With a medium-sized workforce in Singapore and a lean global structure, the HR team plays a crucial role in ensuring that SBF's people strategy keeps pace with its mission. However, as recruitment needs intensified, both to support ongoing operations and to resource the SBF25 roadmap, the growing demands in a competitive talent market placed increasing pressure on limited HR resources.
Peggy Ng, Executive Director of the HR and Transformation Division, shares how our Staffing & Recruitment Services helped strengthen SBF's recruitment capabilities, streamline hiring, and allow the HR team to focus on long-term strategic priorities.
The Challenge
Before engaging us, SBF’s HR team faced extended hiring cycles and difficulties sourcing the right talent. The team was responsible for managing the full recruitment spectrum internally, from posting vacancies and screening applicants to coordinating interviews and supporting onboarding. This was especially challenging during a period where organisational needs were evolving rapidly under SBF25.
“Our internal resources were limited,” Peggy recalled. “Recruitment was only one of many responsibilities, and it took significant time to find suitable candidates who met our specific requirements. The long time-to-hire often affected our ability to fill roles promptly.”
The challenge extended beyond speed. As SBF scaled up hiring to support SBF25 initiatives and meet existing manpower needs, the HR team needed quality, consistency, and scalability, all while navigating multiple transformation projects and business deliverables.
It became clear that SBF required more than additional hands; they needed a recruitment partner with the expertise, structure, and capacity to operate as an extension of their HR function.
The Solution
To address these challenges, SBF partnered with AccountStaff, entrusting the team with end-to-end recruitment execution. This approach aligned with SBF’s intention to outsource parts of the recruitment process to a provider capable of offering scalability, expertise, and dedicated support as the organisation worked toward SBF25 outcomes.
We brought in experienced recruiters, structured methods, and advanced tools such as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and AI-powered sourcing capabilities.
We managed day-to-day recruitment tasks such as job postings, initial candidate assessments, shortlist management, and interview coordination, while maintaining close, transparent communication to ensure alignment with SBF’s organisational values, competencies, and role requirements.
By offloading operational recruitment tasks, SBF’s HR division could redirect its attention to strategic workforce planning, employee engagement, and broader transformation initiatives under SBF25.
"The staffing team is professional, always calm under pressure, and genuinely seeks to understand our needs and unique selection criteria, they became an extension of our team rather than an external service provider" - Peggy Ng, Executive Director of the HR and Transformation Division, Singapore Business Federation .
The Impact
Since the collaboration began, SBF has achieved measurable improvements in recruitment efficiency. Hiring cycles shortened, vacancy costs reduced, and hiring managers experienced smoother coordination and more consistent candidate pipelines.
“With limited manpower, we often experienced delays in filling roles, AccountStaff brought structure, technology, and expertise that helped accelerate our hiring processes and improve candidate quality. It’s made a clear difference to our operations. ”
Beyond efficiency gains, the partnership delivered peace of mind. Compliance risks, sourcing challenges, and process management were handled professionally, freeing the internal team to focus on building capabilities that directly support SBF25 and long-term organisational needs.
Client Experience
Peggy describes her experience with AccountStaff as highly collaborative and dependable.
“AccountStaff will embed themselves into your process, bringing industry expertise, compliance knowledge, and employer branding support. They deliver quality and consistency even when internal resources are limited. When hiring demand spikes—such as during a new project launch or strategic initiative—they can scale quickly without increasing permanent HR headcount, which is ideal for organisations with strict manpower budgets. ”
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