Tuesday, December 12, 2006
[RealEdge] BT : Salaries, turnover are up as S'pore labour market picks up steam
| Published December 12, 2006  | |
| Salaries, turnover are up as S'pore labour market picks up steam
By ANNA TEO
(SINGAPORE) The buzz is back. A robust economy has meant not just higher pay all round this year but increased churn and staff turnover, especially in the top ranks. According to Mercer Human Resources Consulting's latest Total Remuneration Survey (TRS) for Singapore, staff turnover has been climbing in the past few years, from about 5 per cent in 2003 to 7.2 per cent in 2005. The overall turnover rate for the first six months of 2006 was 6.5 per cent, but the attrition measure for top management and professionals exceeded 2005 levels. Mercer surveyed more than 500 companies in Singapore across 12 industries in the study, a bi-annual effort. Almost half of the companies said they increased their headcount in the third quarter of 2006, indicating, according to Mercer, 'more employment opportunities in the market which would be one of the factors to influence attrition rates in organisations' In 2005, the number of hirings in Singapore rose 8.4 per cent on average across all sectors, Mercer said. The aerospace and consumer goods industries led the pack with respective headcount growth of about 19 per cent and 16 per cent. And sure enough, aerospace and consumer goods are among the top-paying sectors in 2006 in terms of annual total cash payout, comprising the basic pay, guaranteed allowances and bonus. The other top paymasters are from the banking, pharmaceuticals and chemical industries. But the projected pay rise in 2007 is not significantly higher than this year's - 4.2 per cent across the board next year, against 4.1 per cent in 2006. The banking and finance sector sees the highest salary increase of 4.9 per cent, followed by pharmaceutical and healthcare at 4.3 per cent, said Ajit Nambiar, business leader for human capital products solutions at Mercer. Another trend picked up in the survey - though not entirely a surprising one - is the difference in the pay packets offered by local and multinational companies. At rank-and-file level, it appears that local firms are the better paymasters, with salaries there more than 4 per cent higher than at MNCs. But the trend reverses higher up the ladder: Among professional staff, salaries at MNCs are more than 4 per cent higher than at local companies. And the gap widens the further up the hierarchy: At management level, the pay packet in MNCs is almost 12 per cent higher, and in the topmost rungs, about 19 per cent higher. MNCs - especially those with a brand name premium and appeal - generally have the means to pay more. And jobs with regional responsibilities command, on average, a 41 per cent pay premium over 'country head' roles, the findings show. According to the Mercer survey, the 'head of finance' and 'head of engineering' top the pay list of functional heads. At the other end of the scale, apparently, is 'head of production'. The wage gap is also found to have widened in recent years: In 2003, the annual basic salary of, say, a CEO, was seven times that of a staff employee. In 2006, the margin has risen to 8.4 times. Mercer attributes the difference to the number of regional roles in the top rungs. 'Given the strong economic growth coupled with positive growth trends in the industries, we believe companies will be under increasing pressure to retain the right talent and pressures on salary increases in 2007 would continue,' said Mr Nambiar. |
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