IT firms mull salary rises to retain employees

VietNamNet Bridge – Many enterprises in the information technology sector plan wage hikes to retain their employees, particularly talents, according to a survey conducted by JobStreet.com at 400 IT companies in the first half of this month.

The survey showed 35% of the respondents will increase wages for their employees higher than the levels of last year as part of their expansion schemes.

Half of the domestic IT firms mull annual salary rises of 6-10% and 28% plan 3-6% pay increases on average. Meanwhile, up to 67% of foreign-invested IT enterprises increase salaries for their employees by 6-10% a year.

One-fourth of the corporate respondents named salary as a decisive factor for their employees to stay while the remainder said this is just one of the factors behind the decisions of employees to quit their jobs.

JobStreet.com predicted enterprises would have high demand for employees in charge of marketing and sales, especially selling computers.

The company estimated companies would offer monthly salaries from VND23 million for employees in semiconductor production and other sectors.

A recent survey of ITviec.com also revealed a high percentage of job hopping in the IT sector as half of more than 500 employees in the sector in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC have plans to change jobs in the next six months.

The survey was carried out by the IT job service provider last month showed 57% of the respondents wish to work for foreign firms, 6% opt for Vietnamese firms, and the rest do not care whether their employers are foreign or local.

About 42% of the respondents at Vietnamese IT firms plan to move to foreign companies, but no employee at foreign enterprises wants to look for their jobs at domestic companies. Two-thirds of the respondents living in HCMC prefer working for foreign firms, while the rate in Hanoi is one-third.

The survey found that 46% of the respondents want to work for IT production companies and 10% look to outsourcing enterprises. Besides, 37% of the employees at outsourcing companies want to move to the production firms.

The results unveiled female employees focus more on learning and training when choosing their companies while only 19% of male employees share this selection.

Chris Harvey, founder and CEO of ITviec.com, said most of his customers plan to increase their workforce by 10-50% this year but Vietnam still lacks qualified and experienced candidates able to meet their requirements. Therefore, companies in the IT sector have to compete with one another in attracting talent.

The Ministry of Information and Communications estimated IT enterprises need to recruit more than 400,000 employees in 2013-2018, but the local supply is just about 60,000 in this period.

The survey by JobStreet.com indicated 76% of the 400 enterprises plan bonuses equivalent to wages of one month for the employees for the Lunar New Year holiday (Tet) and the rest will offer higher bonuses to retain employees and owing to their higher revenues last year than in 2013.

Source : http://english.vietnamnet.vn/