Claims made online on Reddit regarding GovTech employing retrenched Indeed employees have been raising eyebrows.

A person who claimed they used to work in the Singapore office of global job portal Indeed before he was fired five months ago claimed that GovTech offered "inflated salaries" to the retrenched employees.

The Business Times reported in March that over 120 staff at Indeed's Singapore office were laid off.

The person claimed that GovTech offered around 60 spots to the retrenched workers from the Singapore office in May, with salaries ranging from S$7,000 for one year of experience to S$12,000 for five years of experience.

The person claimed that they "know the system" as they have "friends in GovTech", and it "takes around five to six years" to "reach around S$9,500" monthly.

The person also claimed that some of the years of experience of the retrenched Indeed employees were inflated, stating that one ex-employee working for nine months was considered to have one year of experience.

The person further claimed that the people hired have been in GovTech for two months "without any deliverables".

The person did not mention if they were offered a job at GovTech.

Other Reddit users who commented in the thread echoed his claims.

One user, who claimed to have "several ex-colleagues working in GovTech", said that employees typically need double the amount of experience to get the salaries that the former Indeed employees are allegedly getting.

GovTech: Took a "more agile hiring approach"

Responding to a query from Mothership, GovTech said that it "acknowledges the online conversations about the hiring of ex-staff from Indeed".

The statutory board said that it launched the Tech for Public Good hiring initiative in 2022 to offer tech jobs in the government amid a wave of mass layoffs.

Individuals hired under this initiative had two priorities: accelerating government agencies' digital transformation and elevating the technical capabilities of GovTech’s Capability Centres.

"With Indeed’s closure of one of their Singapore offices, we saw a unique opportunity to hire some of their intact and functioning engineering teams to work on the two priorities," said the statutory board.

GovTech added that because of the competition for tech talent, it took a "more agile hiring approach that balances speed with responsible hiring".

It clarified that 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."

Top image: GovTech