Companies will hire more, but not necessarily pay more this year: Study

TeamLease Services, the largest composite staffing solutions company in India, released their annual salary report called – TeamLease Annual Salary Primer 2012. A comprehensive study analysing the various attributes governing the employment market, the primer forecasts a double digit growth in salaries this year. According to TeamLease report, India Inc is fast recognising the need to strike a balance between talent and pay and this is reflected in their pay modules.

According to TeamLease Services Senior Vice-President, Sangeeta Lala, “With businesses striking a right balance between talent and pay, India Inc seems to be finding fixes for many of the issues plaguing the employment market like talent acquisition and retention. Moreover, an overall improvement in the business sentiments and an increase in hiring, the trajectory is clearly in the direction of growth and salary increments.”

Employment market

A detailed report, TeamLease Annual Salary Primer analyses a variety of attributes that govern the dynamics of the employment market – skills, salaries, increments and longevity (which is a measure of the time period for which a profile would stay in a job – the inverse of attrition).

The report covers 13 key industry verticals that have active temporary staffing practices namely Agriculture & Agrochemicals, Automobile & Allied Industries, Consumer Durables, Power & Energy, FMCG, Manufacturing & Allied Industries, Banking and Financial Services and Insurance, Telecommunication, Hospitality, Healthcare & Allied Industries, Information Technology, ITeS and Retail. The functional domains analysed are Accounts, Administration Blue Collar, Support Services, Engineering, Human Resources, IT and Sales & Marketing while the locations covered are Ahmedabad, Goa, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Indore, Mumbai, Chennai, Jaipur, Pune, Delhi and Kochi. 

Data points covering these attributes for temp staff working across 318 different Job Profiles, 13 Industries and 8 Functional Domains in 14 major locations in India have been processed and analysed for this purpose.

The primer serves as a guide for both job seekers and employers to obtain relevant information and useful insights on talent, skills, salaries, increments and longevity.

Key findings of study

A fast maturing jobs market: India is quickly morphing into a growing market for jobs, with businesses striking the right balance between ebullience and pragmatism, between numbers and quality, and between achieving the right fit and paying right. The fast-clip, 18.3 per cent rate of increase in hiring is underpinned by mechanisms for identifying, targeting and acquiring the right talent at an appropriate salary.

Double-digit salary growth is ubiquitous: As industries are getting smarter at hiring and rewarding the right talent, the number of profiles getting rewarded with double digit salary has increased. Some of the profiles in Automobile & Allied sector have seen a 10.72 per cent (+) increment in their salary.

Prevalence of industry-city clusters– Bangalore–IT continues to drive rewards with a stupendous, 16 per cent median salary growth rate. Mumbai–Healthcare at 14.6 per cent comes in second and Bangalore–Power & Energy, with 12 per cent, is at the third place. The number of clusters with above 8 per cent increment growth rates have increased to 11, from the previous year’s number of 6.

Longevity peaking: Attrition rates have touched a 3-year low. Select profiles within Healthcare, Retail, FMCG and Agriculture / Agrochem have longevity scores that have now overshot 93 per cent indicating longevity across sectors.

Bangalore stays put: It has been holding the reins for about 3 years in succession now. With a median salary growth rate of 8.6 per cent - incrementally higher than last year’s – Bangalore seems is in top position.

The lines between temp and perm are blurring: The average salary difference between temp and perm, across the top 10 temp jobs in terms of salaries paid, has narrowed down to 4 per cent.

IT poised for faster growth-: IT continues to lead the charge with a 19.5 per cent increase in hiring, a shade better compared with the last year. With longevity rates as high as 91.02 per cent (+) for highly skilled profiles like Program Managers IT scores on the retention front as well.