Companies to offer 10% salary hike across industries in 2017

Indian organisations are expected to increase salaries by 10 per cent across industries and career levels in 2017, same as last year, and 54 per cent of the companies are expected to raise their headcount, says a survey.
According to Mercer's '2016 India Total Remuneration Survey' released today, 10 per cent salary increase is expected across industries in 2017, similar to 2015 and 2016.
"Over the years, salary increase differentiation across industries has narrowed down. Over the last three years, salary increases have stabilised around 10 per cent," Ruchika Pal, Principal & India TRS Product Leader, Mercer said, adding that "the overall increases including promotions and market corrections, are pegged at 10.8 per cent".

Among different industries surveyed, the projected salary increase ranges from 10 per cent to 11 per cent overall, with relatively higher increases for the life sciences and shared services industries.
The survey that covered 768 organisations across various industry sectors noted that 13.3 per cent attrition had been recorded across sectors.
"Against the backdrop of increased demand for talent and high attrition rates, the majority of companies use inflation rate as the basic minimum level to peg their salary increases and engage their employees. The increase in real wages reflects the acute talent demand supply mismatch," Pal added.

Regarding hiring intentions, Shanthi Naresh, India Business Leader-Talent, Mercer, said, "We note that companies are expecting to see a 2-5 per cent increase in business results, over 2015. Companies in India are bullish about growth and will continue to hire and invest in talent."

As per the survey, more than 70 per cent companies in hitech and shared service are looking to increase their headcount in the next 12 months.
"We note that the hitech and shared services sector are continuing to grow strongly. India is increasingly becoming a development hub as well as a captive shared services centre," Naresh said, adding that companies are looking to beef up specific functions like product development, data analytics and sciences, and other digital skills.