High quality staff have the upper hand in salary negotiations.
By Josie Gagliano

Business Support staff are looking like the winners in the salary race for as high-quality staff are becoming increasingly rare.

Aquent, a firm specialising in staffing solutions for the marketing, communications, creative and business support industries, has made available the findings of its annual Asia Pacific Salary Monitor 2005-2006.

“There is no doubt that the war for high quality talent is back on in earnest,” announced Michie Bell-Booth, Aquent Business Support Team Leader. “This is a result of a very low staff turnover and the intention of the majority of companies to hire permanent staff for the next 12 months,” says Bell-Booth.

“Our survey shows that 66% of Sydney employers are experiencing a staff turnover of less than 10%,” explained Bell-Booth. “This, coupled with the fact that 61% of employers are planning to hire more permanent staff in the next 12 months, compared to 41% in 2004, means that the market is extremely candidate tight and companies are finding themselves using recruitment agencies where they may have not in the past. To add to the frustration of a candidate shortage, companies who have Preferred Supplier Agreements have found that their needs cannot be met by their panel of suppliers and have had to seek assistance outside their agreement with niche recruiters. With employers acutely aware of the candidate shortage, the research has found that companies are placing far more emphasis on cultural fit over the skill sets and ongoing strategies to retain their staff than ever before,” says Bell-Booth. “91% of employers offer discretionary bonuses, 79% provide local training and 66% offer gift incentives to their business support staff.”

“The candidate shortage is also having a knock on effect in terms of salaries where at least 87% of companies surveyed for business support staff. In some cases these salary increases have been long delayed and employers are applying a “catch up” approach as they begin to realise that increasingly, employees have the leverage when it comes to salary discussions,” explained Bell-Booth.

A total of 1294 face-to-face surveys across the Asia Pacific region were completed for the Salary Monitor, which provides accurate salary information for hundreds of staff categories. In addition, detailed statistics on revenue growth, staff retention strategies, predicted permanent and contract hiring trends, as well as anticipated salary increase, make it an indispensable management tool for any decision-maker. For a free copy, contact Carolyn Hyams on 8288 8288 or email chyams@aquent.com.