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SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Roughly a quarter of organizations in Singapore plan to introduce or continue pay freezes in 2021, down slightly from the 30 percent that halted pay increases this year.
As for the pay cuts, about 3 percent of employers said they intend to implement them next year, compared to 29 percent who made pay cuts this year.
However, most employers are taking a wait-and-see approach, as they continue to tread wage increases cautiously as they navigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s according to findings released Thursday from Mercer’s Annual Total Compensation Survey, which surveyed 992 companies from 16 industries in Singapore this year.
Singapore’s projected overall salary increase for 2021 will soften slightly to 3.5 percent, compared to 3.6 percent this year, according to the study.
“Companies remain cautiously optimistic about the future and are considering more holistic talent strategies to energize their employees in the new way of working,” said Mercer Singapore CEO Peta Latimer, adding that some are implementing incentives. additional, for example.
“Leaders also look to the future to attract and retain the talent needed to accelerate business digitization,” said Latimer.
Salaries in the banking and financial sector, as well as in the high-tech sector, are expected to increase at a steady pace over the next year.
The logistics and consumer goods industries will likely see slightly larger increases of 3.3% and 3.5% respectively, compared to increases of 3.1% and 3.4% this year.
This “correlates with a change in consumer buying behaviors on the Internet,” said Kulapalee Tobing, Mercer’s professional products leader in Singapore.
In contrast, wage growth is expected to slow in the life sciences, real estate, chemicals and lifestyle sectors next year. Lifestyle retail employees may experience the steepest drop in increases, with wages rising 2.9% in 2021 compared to 3.3% rising in 2020.
Ms Tobing noted that the prediction of lower salary growth in the lifestyle retail industry was not surprising either, given the shift to online shopping behaviors, lower discretionary spending power, and reduced leisure activity. due to the pandemic.
This year, base salaries at the managerial and executive levels increased 2% and 1.2%, respectively, from 2019. That is much slower growth than last year’s 6.8% increase for management and the 7.1% increase for executives.
Employers are also facing increasingly intense competition for talent to support the digitization of their businesses.
The most in-demand are data scientists, IT solution architects, business intelligence analysts and cybersecurity engineers, according to the Mercer survey.
Roles that support digitization efforts will attract salary bonuses, especially at the senior and specialized levels, compared to the general market.
For example, specialists who have capabilities in cybersecurity incident response analysis are expected to receive salaries that are 33% higher than the median annual base salary, while robotic process automation specialists will earn a 30% bonus. % above the average level.
Meanwhile, many Singaporean companies are focusing on increasing employee benefits and incentives, as well as redesigning the work experience.
About three in 10 of those surveyed said they are looking to add or expand telemedicine or digital care to their health programs in the next year.
Half of the employers surveyed indicated that they will provide or reimburse remote work expenses, such as internet bills, laptops and cell phones. They are also considering giving more flexibility for on-site and remote work.
A growing number of Singapore banks, which are among the largest employers in the country, will make flexible work arrangements a permanent fixture for their staff, The Business Times reported this week.
DBS announced a host of new practices for its 29,000-strong workforce, including the option to work remotely up to 40 percent of the time and a formal job-sharing scheme. UOB will institute a two-day work-from-home policy, while Maybank Singapore has plans to adopt a hybrid work-from-home model.
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