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How to Choose a Recruitment Agency in Singapore: An EP and COMPASS Checklist for Indian Employers
To choose a recruitment agency in Singapore, check five things in order: a valid MOM employment agency licence, a clear answer on COMPASS scoring, proven placements in your sector, a pay-on-hire fee basis, and a written replacement guarantee. Do this before you share a job brief. Employment Pass rules decide who you can hire, so an agency that guesses at them costs you weeks.
Licence first: a firm that recruits or places candidates must hold an MOM employment agency licence. Firms that only file work pass applications are exempt. Verify any firm in MOM's public records before it sees your brief.
COMPASS is the real test: candidates need 40 points to pass the framework, so ask every agency to run a pre-assessment before you apply.
Salary floor moves: for most sectors, the Employment Pass minimum qualifying salary rises from S$5,600 to S$6,000 for new applications from 1 January 2027. Confirm the figure for your sector and the candidate's age on MOM's site.
Fees and guarantee: CBREX customers pay only when they hire, with a replacement guarantee of 30 to 90 days after joining, depending on the level of hire. Ask any agency for the same terms in writing.
Speed signal: on CBREX, a typical first shortlist arrives about 24 hours after a role is posted. Use that as a yardstick when you compare agencies.
Check | What to ask | Pass signal |
|---|---|---|
MOM licence | "What is your employment agency licence number?" | You find the firm by name or licence number in MOM's public records |
COMPASS know-how | "Can you run a COMPASS pre-assessment before we apply?" | They score the candidate on the framework criteria before submission |
Salary benchmarking | "Will this offer meet the qualifying salary for the candidate's age and sector?" | They quote the benchmark and flag the 1 January 2027 change |
Specialism | "Which similar roles have you placed in Singapore?" | Named role types and seniority levels, not a generic claim |
Fee basis | "When do we pay, and what triggers the fee?" | Fee due on hire; no upfront retainer for contingency work |
Replacement guarantee | "How long does cover last and what ends it?" | A written period, such as 30 to 90 days after joining |
Because Singapore hiring is gated by the Employment Pass system, not only by finding a good candidate. A foreign hire must clear a minimum salary and a points-based COMPASS test, so the wrong agency wastes weeks on people who will be rejected. Indian briefs also often miss local pay norms.
Many Indian employers arrive with a brief written for Bengaluru or Mumbai. That brief rarely says what the role pays in Singapore dollars, how much is fixed versus variable, or whether the candidate can hold a pass at that salary. A good agency fixes the brief before it sources anyone.
The same pattern shows up in other markets. The US is not one market, and Singapore is not "India with a different currency". If you want the wider picture first, our handbook on hiring in Singapore for Indian companies covers entity, payroll and onboarding questions that sit around the agency choice.
Two different services hide under the word "agency". One finds and places candidates. The other prepares and submits work pass applications. The first needs an MOM licence. The second, if it does no matching or placement, is exempt.
Some firms do both. Ask which hat the firm is wearing for your engagement, and get it written into the scope.
Ask for the licence number, then look the firm up by name or number in the Ministry of Manpower's Employment Agency Directory. A firm that recruits or places candidates must hold a licence. Do this before sharing any job brief, salary band or candidate data.
Do not accept a logo, a marketplace profile or the phrase "MOM specialist" as proof. Those are marketing, not registration. The directory check takes a couple of minutes and settles most doubts.
The trading name on the licence matches the name on the proposal and the contract.
The licence is current, not lapsed.
The person you are talking to works for the licensed entity, not a reseller or a sub-contractor.
If a firm only submits work pass applications, it may be legitimately exempt. In that case, ask who does the sourcing and whether that party is licensed. A chain of three firms with one licence in the middle is a warning sign, not a feature.
If you source through a marketplace, the same rule applies to the local agency doing the placement. CBREX connects employers to a network of 4,000+ recruiting firms across 55 countries under a single contract.
For a Singapore role, ask which firm will place the candidate and request its licence number, as you would with any direct hire. Our guide on vetting a recruitment agency in a country you have never hired in gives the wider vetting routine.
Ask one direct question: "Can you run a COMPASS pre-assessment on this candidate before we apply?" A capable agency scores the profile against the framework criteria, flags weak points and suggests fixes. An agency that answers vaguely, or says the pass is "just paperwork", has not done this work before.
COMPASS is Singapore's points-based Complementarity Assessment Framework for Employment Pass applications. Each applicant is scored on four foundational criteria and can earn extra points from two bonus criteria, and Singapore's Economic Development Board says applicants need 40 points or more to pass. The bonus criteria cover the Shortage Occupation List and Strategic Economic Priorities.
Applicants must also meet the minimum qualifying salary first. MOM's eligibility page treats salary as a stage-one gate; candidates who fail it are not eligible regardless of COMPASS points.
"Which COMPASS criteria usually cost candidates points in roles like mine?"
"Do you use MOM's Self-Assessment Tool before you submit?" MOM offers it to employers and employment agents for an indicative outcome, including COMPASS scores.
"How do you benchmark salary for the candidate's age and sector?"
"What happens if the pre-assessment says the candidate is borderline?"
"Who files the application, and who is accountable if it is rejected?"
The last question matters most. If the agency places but a separate party files, you need to know where responsibility sits before an offer goes out.
Pick an agency that has placed your exact kind of role, at your seniority, in Singapore or a comparable market. Ask for role types, not logos. Broad claims such as "we cover all industries" tell you little about whether anyone on the desk can reach the passive candidate you actually need.
Specialism matters more under Employment Pass rules, because the candidate profile has to hold up on salary and qualifications. A recruiter who knows the sector knows what the market pays and which profiles pass cleanly.
Three role titles at your level that the firm has filled in the past year, described without client names if confidentiality applies.
How the firm reaches candidates who are not applying anywhere. Job boards recycle active seekers; your best hire is usually not one of them.
Whether the recruiter you meet is the one who will work your role.
For hard-to-fill roles, our guide on choosing a recruitment agency for niche roles goes deeper on sub-specialty checks. On CBREX, the role types we fill most often in markets such as the UK are senior sales across domains, tech and pharma. The same logic applies in Singapore: match the agency to the sub-sector, not the country.
Expect a fee that is due only when a candidate is hired, and a written replacement guarantee that starts on the joining date. On CBREX, customers pay only when they hire, and the guarantee runs 30 to 90 days after joining, depending on the level of hire. Treat those as benchmarks when you compare quotes.
Fee models vary. Some firms charge a percentage of salary on hire, some charge a retainer up front, and some mix both. Our explainers on recruitment agency fees as a percentage of salary show how to compare them on a like-for-like basis. We have deliberately not quoted a Singapore market rate here, because it varies by seniority and agency.
Trigger: is the fee due on signed offer, on acceptance or on the joining date?
Base: is the percentage applied to fixed pay only, or to variable pay as well? This matters for sales roles.
Cover period: how many days, counted from when?
What ends cover: redundancy, role change or a mismatch between the brief and the job?
Remedy: free replacement, partial refund, or both?
Exclusivity: are you tied to one firm, and for how long?
Pay-on-hire shifts risk to the agency. Retainers shift risk to you. Neither is wrong, but for most Indian mid-market employers entering Singapore for the first time, we would start with pay-on-hire. You learn how the market responds before committing cash. If you are filling a confidential or very senior search, a retainer can make sense, and you should price it knowing that.
Budget for the higher floor now. For most sectors, the Employment Pass minimum qualifying salary rises from S$5,600 to S$6,000 per month for new applications from 1 January 2027. It also moves up with candidate age, and financial services has its own benchmark. Check MOM's current table before you set an offer.
COMPASS salary benchmarks are a separate thing. MOM has said they should not be confused with the qualifying salary, which is the minimum needed to be eligible at all. Both are being updated for 2027, and a good agency will keep the two apart in its advice.
An offer made in late 2026 for a candidate who starts in the new year can land on the wrong side of the line. The critical date is the application date, not the offer date. Ask your agency in writing which rules it is applying and when it plans to file.
One thing is not settled: how the new benchmarks will interact with renewals for existing passes. MOM publishes separate dates for renewals, so check them if you already have staff in Singapore.
Give two or three shortlisted agencies the same brief and judge them on a fixed scorecard for two weeks. Score licence status, COMPASS pre-assessment quality, shortlist relevance and speed, and the clarity of fee terms. Pay nothing during the trial; with pay-on-hire, you only pay if you hire.
Here is a hypothetical scorecard. Weight licence and COMPASS knowledge at 30 points each, shortlist quality at 25 and fee clarity at 15. An agency that fails the licence check scores zero overall, whatever its other marks. That one rule keeps a persuasive sales pitch from overriding a compliance gap.
CBREX's own figures, drawn from roles across markets and not specific to Singapore, give a sense of pace. Average time to source on CBREX is between 4 and 48 hours, and a typical first shortlist arrives about 24 hours after a role is posted. For roles with a salary below 100K, we have seen offers within 10 working days of posting.
These are examples, not promises. In Europe, our sourcing time runs 24 to 72 hours and hiring takes about three more weeks. For US sales roles, good candidates have a short shelf life, so the process should finish within three weeks of shortlist. A Singapore hire adds a work pass step, so allow time for it.
If you are hiring in Singapore and other countries at once, a single contract avoids a new negotiation in each market. CBREX covers vetted local talent in 55 countries from a network of 4,000+ recruiting firms, under one contract and one invoice. Our explainer on how single-contract recruitment works shows the mechanics. Note that we are a marketplace connecting you to agencies, and we do not claim to be a licensed Singapore agency ourselves.
Most mistakes come from treating Singapore as a copy of the home market. They are easy to avoid once you know them.
Skipping the licence check because the firm has a polished website or a referral.
Applying first, assessing later. A rejected Employment Pass application costs time and credibility with the candidate.
Writing the brief in rupee logic. Set pay in Singapore dollars, and split fixed from variable pay clearly.
Using one agency for everything. A generalist may be fine for a junior role and weak on a niche specialist.
Ignoring the guarantee small print. A 90-day promise with five exclusions is worth less than a 30-day promise with none.
The first two are the costliest. Both are fixed by the two checks at the top of this article.
Firms that recruit or place candidates must hold an employment agency licence. A firm that only submits work pass applications, without matching or placement, is exempt. Always check the firm's name or licence number in MOM's Employment Agency Directory before you share any brief.
COMPASS is the Complementarity Assessment Framework, a points-based test applied to Employment Pass applications. Applicants are scored on four foundational criteria and can earn bonus points from two more. After the salary gate, a candidate needs 40 points or more to pass the framework.
For most first-time Indian employers in Singapore, start with a pay-on-hire arrangement, where the fee is due only when the candidate joins. Retainers can suit confidential or very senior searches. Whichever you choose, get the fee trigger, cover period and exclusions in writing before work begins.
Replacement guarantees vary by agency and level. CBREX offers 30 to 90 days after joining, depending on the level of hire. Ask any agency how many days it covers, when the clock starts, and what ends the cover, then compare quotes on those terms.
A sound recruitment agency in Singapore passes five tests: licence, COMPASS know-how, specialism, fair fees and a written guarantee. Run them in that order and drop any firm that fails the first.
If you want CBREX to match your Singapore role to vetted specialist agencies, with pay only on hire, book a demo and walk us through your brief. Not sure what your current agency sprawl costs you? Calculate your Hidden Hiring Tax first, or write to us through Let's Talk with the role and the candidate's likely salary band.
