Top-performers across sectors can expect 15% salary-hikes this year: Experts
In good news for top performers across sectors, HR experts predict they can expect as much as 15% salary hike this year. As hiring picks up in the market, organizations, especially consumer-driven ones, are under pressure to retain their star performers, and are increasingly taking to differentiating them from the average ones. But all employees can expect an average hike of 9-12%, they said.
The job market in the last two years was at a lull. In 2016-17, demonetization impacted appraisals and the next year, "it was the GST implementation that slowed down businesses," said Joseph Devasia, MD, Antal International India, a global recruitment firm. But hiring across sectors has picked up pace now, he added, and "companies want to retain top talent."
HR consultancy Aon says firms have brought in or are planning to bring in steps to reward their top talent in an effort to retain them. Rewards are in different forms: 75% firms use variable pay, 91% pay out increments and 71% use additional career opportunities. In fact, 47% firms pay 1.5 times more variable pay to top performers than average ones.
The effect would be felt most in consumer-driven sectors like FMCG, retail, and media & advertising, experts said. "Appraisal percentage will be on an average 9-12%; it is little higher than previous year wherein the increase in compensation is going to be more at mid-junior level as compared to senior level," said Sunil Goel, MD, GlobalHunt, an executive search firm.
