TFPL Intelligent Resources, Consultant
I was interested to read an article produced by the
consultancy firm Towers Watson entitled: “Recession: Leaving a Trail of Insecure Employees in its Wake” .
The effects of the economic recession of 2008/2009
have impacted all major market sectors. This has also coincided with firms
moving to outsource more of their support functions in all the areas that TFPL
Intelligent Resources has traditionally recruited in, namely analysis,
research, library and knowledge functions. These combined effects have
had something of a double whammy effect on the confidence of our traditional
client base.
But there is a clear shift in attitude happening now.
What strikes me is an apparent concern about performance and the challenge of
keeping up with the demands of growth, with a team which has been stretched,
and possibly depleted, in the last year or two. The evidence is an increased
number of requests from our clients, benchmarking salaries for roles that have
survived the downturn.
There are recurring questions, so I thought you might
be interested in considering our current view, if it’s your turn to
benchmark:
- Simply to benchmark today’s salary of an Information Officer, a Knowledge Manager or a Research Analyst as it appears on the open market won’t give you an appropriate measure of the level of salary that will be sustainable for the year ahead. In a number of companies, salaries have been frozen in the last two years, or employees have worked reduced hours in order to safeguard their roles. Don’t therefore look at current data and base any salary review on a token increase on this. As soon as there is an up-swing in recruitment, (we think we see this now) then it's likely that good people will be readily poached to roles offering better prospects, be they financial motivators or incentivised to move for career development.
- Retention of valued staff will become an issue again. Anybody with a management remit should consider the opportunity cost and financial cost of having to replace a member of the team who transfers their skills and experience elsewhere. A good tie-in for key staff could be a reasonable payrise to make the employee feel valued but also don’t underestimate the value of recognition, career development and training.
Clearly there has to be a commercial balance, so we’re
not advocating sweeping pay reviews across the board. However, the momentum
in vacant roles becoming available across all disciplines in the market is such
that employers should take heed and be sure to take a measured and considered
approach to their salary reviews this year. Retention of key team members
should be high up on the salary review agenda, so save your overall costs in
the medium term.
We welcome your experience and thoughts in this area
and would like to share insights if this is a topic you would like to discuss
with us
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