Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 5): Salary increase across key industries in Malaysia is forecast to remain stable at 5% in 2020, while the inflation rate is projected to rise to 2.4% from 0.9% in 2019, says consulting firm Mercer.

In particular, the shared services and outsourcing (SSO) industry is expected to have the highest salary increase at 5.5% (5.3% in 2018), according to findings of Mercer’s annual remuneration survey.

In second place are the life sciences and chemical industries, which are expected to see a 5.4% salary growth in 2020.

“The salary trend forecast for 2020 in Malaysia remains stable across job functions as well. The top three job functions with the highest salary increase are production and skilled trades (5.8%), data analytics/warehousing (5.5%), and IT and project managers (5.3%),” Mercer said in a statement.

Conversely, administration and secretarial jobs are predicted to receive the lowest salary increment at 4%, it added.

As for career streams, the survey showed paraprofessionals can expect a salary increase of 5.3%, whereas executives can expect a 4% rise.

Mercer Malaysia chief executive officer Prashant Chadha said well-performing companies and industries may be more incentivised to provide employees with salary increases higher than the market average.

“It is no surprise we are seeing high salary increase forecast from industries including SSO, as they benefit from the government’s push for industry disruption and digitization. 

“Similarly, high demand for some jobs may lead to larger salary increases to attract and retain talent,” he said.

In today’s age of automation, Chadha said it is imperative for organizations to also focus on upskilling their workforce, besides just compensation.

“The recent 2020 budget announcement by the Government to allocate funds for the development of a digital competent workforce will bring about positive impact,” he said.

Another finding among the industries surveyed is the voluntary attrition rate for workers, which was at 6.5% for the first half of the year (1H19).

Specifically, the consumer goods industry saw the highest voluntary turnover rate of 15.3% in 1H19, from the 8.4% registered in 2018.  This was on account of implementation of the sales and services tax, among other factors.

On the other hand, the chemical industry saw the lowest attrition rate of 4.1% in 1H19. This, combined with a high 2020 salary increment of 5.4%, indicates healthy employee engagement and retention rates.

Within Asia, Mercer found top reasons for employees leaving their place of employment, varying by age group and gender. The top three reasons are competitive pay, manager interaction, and a clear career path and job security.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share