Hiring And Salary Growth To Improve in 2018: Report

After a slow period in terms of job creation and pay increase, salaries are expected to grow by 10 percent across different industries and career levels as organisations are likely to increase headcount this year, says a report by global consulting company, Mercer.

According to the Mercer's 2017 India Total Remuneration Survey, companies are likely to disburse 10 percent salary increase across industries in 2018, consistent with 2016 and 2017. The survey conducted across 791 organisations across industry sectors found that 55 percent companies intend to hire in the next 12 months, as against 48 percent last year.

Shanthi Naresh, India business leader, talent consulting and information solutions, Mercer said, "Indian industry continues to project low double digit increases, driven by a combination of an optimistic economic environment and a scarcity of the right talent."

The survey said, one in two companies are planning to increase headcount, with shared services and hi-tech leading the pack, similar to what was seen in the past two years.

Shanthi Naresh added, "In the shared services sector, there is an influx of captive organisations across retail, FMCG, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals. Newer roles are emerging in supply chain planning, analytics, demand planning, computer imagery, store design, merchandising etc. With the evolution in value chain of work and the advent of such transformational roles, companies are looking at increasing headcount.”

There has been a marginal downward trend in terms of attrition from last year, where the overall attrition has gone down by 1.8 percent, from 13.3 percent to 11.5 percent. R&D and sales professionals across levels, continue to challenge organisations for retention while organisations find it hard to attract engineering and sales professionals from a hiring standpoint.

However, Dilpreet Singh, VP HR & HR Head, IBM India / South Asia India believes that the skill gap is widening and the higher education sector is struggling to keep up with the demand.

He said, "The emergence of a new set of jobs known as the 'new collar jobs' – jobs that combine technical skills in areas such as cloud, cognitive, security, data science etc. will require a deep knowledge base rooted in higher education.”