Business activity and permanent headcounts may be rising, but according to our 2016 Hays Salary Guide, released this month, they are not translating into salary increases. With employers for the most part unwilling to loosen the salary purse strings, be prepared for employees to take matters into their own hands.
Our guide includes salary and recruiting trends for over 1,000 roles and is based on a survey of 2,752 organisations, representing over 2.6 million (2,686,179) employees.
We found that just 22% of employees can expect a salary increase of 3% or more in their next review. Instead the vast majority of workers (66%) will receive an increase of less than 3%. The final 12% will receive no increase.
Professional services followed by financial services and construction, property & engineering employers will be at the front of the small group offering the biggest increases.
Meanwhile during the last year 16% of employers offered no salary increases. Those who did receive a salary increase found that their wallets were not that much heavier. 58% received an increase of less than 3%, 20% saw their pay increase from 3 to 6%, and a lucky 6% received an increase of 6% or more.
Clearly employers remain reluctant to offer substantial increases unless absolutely necessary to secure a candidate with skills in short supply. But we shouldn’t become complacent, because employees are starting to take matters into their own hands. 41% of employees say they’ll ask for a pay rise in their next review. Another 25% are as yet undecided about popping the salary question. Meanwhile staff turnover has already risen 2% year-on-year to 29%.
In other key findings, 64% of employers experienced increased business activity over the past 12 months, with 70% expecting further increased activity in the year ahead.
Staff levels are up too, with 39% increasing permanent headcount during the last 12 months. This outstrips the 21% who decreased it. Meanwhile 40% intend to increase their permanent headcount in the year ahead, far exceeding the 13% who expect to decrease it. Yet 60% say skill shortages will impact the effective operation of their business or department.
So with organisations adding headcount and business activity rising, candidates are aware that skill shortages will intensify anew, particularly for highly-skilled professionals, and they want their salaries to increase accordingly.
Get your copy of the 2016 Hays Salary Guide by visiting www.hays.com.au/salary, contacting Hays in Canberra or downloading The Hays Salary Guide 2016 iPhone app from iTunes.
Jim Roy, Regional Director
5th Floor, 54 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra
T 02 6112 7663 | F 02 6257 6377 E [email protected]
