Results of Mercer Salary Survey 2012

"Consulteam" announces the completion of Mercer Salary Survey 2012. The results of this study support organizations in planning salary decisions on budgets and human resources.

After analyzing the survey results, one can identify several trends in remuneration planning for 2012:

• A conservative trend of companies regarding wage increases this year is maintained, marking a continuation of the policy of cost control. The results show salary increases this year with the same values ​​as last year or even lower. So we can talk about percentage values ​​provided by private companies in Romania between 4% - 7%. Also noteworthy is the average value of percentages of salary increases of 5%, compared to 6% in 2011.
• The tendencies in Romania align to the European ones. Thus, if we look at countries like Germany and France we observe an estimated rate of 2.8% increase in wages in 2012, while in Poland, 4%, UK and Sweden, 3%, Spain, 2.4% and Italy 2 7%.
• However, we can see that the average values are no longer exceeding 4% - 5%.
• The salaries vary depending on the job, the biggest increase can be observed at the level of executive and specialist positions. However, comparing with the policies of last year, we observe that at several organizations have provided wage increases at the top management level, while managers' salaries last year were frozen.
• The differences between the salaries in Bucharest and the rest of the country are maintained, wages in the province for specialists and executive positions are lower by 15% than those of their counterparts in Bucharest. In terms of management positions, the differences are more significant, reaching values ​​even of 40%.
• Also volunteer staff fluctuation (percentage of employees who left on their own initiative the company) remains at the same average value of 6%, as in 2011.
• Of the companies surveyed, 8% intend this year to reduce their staff, a higher percentage than last year, when it reached only 6%. Also, this year 48% express their desire to employ, and 49% did not indicate any change in the organization. Most companies have available positions either of niche specialists (IT, finance, audit) or management positions.
• The variable payment amount is still a widely used mean of compensation and the policy regarding its granting has not been modified.
• The variable bonuses that represent a percentage of the annual base salary, do not show changes from previous years, maintaining the same percentage since 2010: top management - 20%, mid-management - 15% and specialists from 10% to 15%.

Mercer Salary Survey 2012, completed at the end of august, with the participation of over 150 companies in various industries, marks the fact that companies are cautious in giving substantial wage increases (mostly) as a reward performance.

The euro rate fluctuation and the high unemployment rate (4.5% in June) lead to a reluctance of companies to issue and award substantial wage increases.

At the same time, the results confirm once again the practice and interests of companies in recent years to stimulate and motivate first the key employees and employees who perform above expectations.

Mercer Salary Survey contains multiple reports with detailed information on political and economic trends, the labor market trends in Romania, personnel fluctuation, remuneration policies, types of benefits for employees on short and long term (type and value them), how often they are paid, critical positions for hiring suitable candidates, personnel and salary detailed statistical data for each item included in the study.

The companies participating in Mercer Salary Survey 2012 are multinational companies from more than 13 industries. There were analyzed over 100.000 remuneration packages of employees in Romania. The results cover more than 400 jobs in all departments and industries, and the number of employees and remuneration packages that were processed exceed 100,000.