SHRI/RDS Survey 2009 on Financial Crisis Pay and HR Actions.
1.0 Introduction SHRI in conjunction with RDS surveyed 208 companies in January 2009 to find out about their wage increase, bonus and recruitment plans as well as their cost-management measures in the face of the current global financial crisis.
2.0 Summary of Key Findings
3.0 Key Findings 3.1 Business Prospects
Out of a
total of 18 sectors, all reported unsatisfactory business conditions except
for the Government & Related. Japanese and Asia Pacific companies are the most pessimistic over the next six months as more than 50% of them expect conditions to worsen. In terms of Company size, large companies fared better than the rest (75% satisfied or better) compared to 66% of medium-sized and 57% of small companies. The medium-sized companies are the most pessimistic over the next six months (51% expect conditions to worsen).
3.2 Basic Wage Increase Overall, wages will increase by 1.5% this year, a very dramatic drop from the 4.4% to 4.8% of last year. Many more companies are freezing wages this year (38% compared to 5% last year) but only 3% have cut or plan to cut wages. 59% of companies increased wages this year, a very significant drop from the 96% of last year.
Highest Paying Sector : Chemicals & Related (2.7% to
2.9%) US companies will pay the highest increases (2.1% to 2.2%) while Local companies will pay the lowest (1.2%). In terms of size, small companies will pay the highest increases (1.6% to 1.7%) The basic wage increases for 2009 will be 1.5% for managers, 1.5% for executives and 1.5% for non-executives.
38% of companies plan to freeze wages in 2008 and 3% of the companies plan to cut wages while a handful of companies plan to have MVC cut.
3.3 Variable Bonus (excluding AWS)
3.4 AWS Most companies (75%) paid an AWS averaging 1 month of basic salary.
3.5 Recruitment A total of 63% of the companies hired staff last year while 40% of companies hired or planned to hire this year. The numbers recruited per company last year and for this year are:
3.6 Retrenchment 10% of the companies retrenched staff last year. For this year, only 7% have retrenched or plan to retrench. The average number of people per company retrenched last year and the number to be retrenched this year are:
3.7 Staff Turnover Most companies (85%) in 2008 experienced staff turnover. Across all sectors, the average staff turnover for 2008 was:
For this year, the turnover is expected to decrease somewhat to
3.8 Regular Staff Training Hours About 50% of companies provided regular staff training to their staff last year while 33% of companies plan to this year. The average number of training hours per employee last year and this year are:
3.9 Entry-Level Salaries Entry-level salaries for GCE ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels, PSC (Secretary),Nitec, Diploma and Degree (Engineering) remain unchanged. For GCE ‘N’ and MBA, they increased by 1% to 3.5% while Higher Nitec and Degree (Others) decreased by about 2%..
3.10 Difficulties Experienced
3.11 Coping Recovery Actions
3.12 Cuts Needed The cuts hoped and the proportion of companies hoping for them are:
3.13 Longer Term Solutions The longer term solutions being planned are:
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