Business confidence in Malaysia is growing with 73 per cent of organisations expecting business activity to increase in 2018. This is just one of the key findings from the 2018 Hays Asia Salary Guide which in its 11th year, highlights salary and recruiting trends based on responses from more than 3,000 employers across Mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and Singapore.
66 per cent of those surveyed also saw an increase in business activity in the last 12 months. Optimism is also growing about the expected performance of Malaysia’s economy in 2018 with 23 per cent of employers expecting the economy to strengthen further in 2018. This figure has increased by ten per cent from last year’s survey and highlights a growing optimism that all major engines of growth in Malaysia’s business and economic landscapes are synchronized in an upward trajectory.
However, despite the positive feel good factor in the country, employers will remain cautious when it comes to increasing headcount with only 46 per cent intending to do so in 2018 vs the 44 per cent who did in 2017.
Salary increases will also be moderate in 2018 with 49 per cent planning to offer salary increases from between 3-6 per cent, one per cent down from the actual reported in 2017. 39 per cent of employers in 2018 plan to offer salary increases of more than six per cent in the year ahead.
“The economic outlook for Malaysia is very positive, but our research shows employers will take a conservative approach to both permanent hiring and salaries in 2018 to make the most of these conditions,” said Tom Osborne, Regional Director of Hays Malaysia.
“Although most companies in Malaysia plan to award only modest salary increases during their next review period, we do expect to see significant increases for candidates with niche skills moving jobs as well as those with skills in short supply in 2018,” said Tom.
“For candidates, these conditions represent something of a challenge. Those staying in a job are likely to see only modest salary increases while those changing employers have a better chance of securing a higher salary, but there are likely to be fewer new jobs coming to market.”
“Candidates must do their research on what is happening in their sector to assess how much power they have in the market in 2018 and whether they need to do more to develop the skills in greatest demand,” said Tom.
A preoccupying worry for many employers in Malaysia is the continuing skills shortages issue in the country that is also a prevailing theme across the Asia region. Down one per cent from last year, 96 per cent of employers believe that skills shortages (without doubt or will be some impact) will hamper the effective operations of their businesses.
Areas of greatest skill shortages
In Malaysia, employers reported that the top five hardest roles to recruit for are:
Middle management Accountancy & Finance roles (nominated by 29 per cent of employers)
Middle management IT roles (nominated by 25 per cent)
Middle management Sales roles (nominated by 23 per cent)
Entry up to middle management Sales roles (nominated by 20 per cent)
Middle management Marketing roles (nominated by 19 per cent)
Benefits
The majority of employers in Malaysia (93 per cent) offer staff benefits with 92 per cent providing ‘health/medical benefits’, 58 per cent ‘car/car allowance’, 52 per cent ‘life assurance’ and 17 per cent a ‘club/gym membership’.
Bonuses
55 per cent of employers told us they plan to award bonuses to more than 50 per cent of staff, down three per cent from last year.
Most of our respondents in Malaysia (89 per cent) said bonuses would be based on ‘company performance’ with a further 87 per cent indicating ‘individual performance’ as the reason why bonuses would be paid in their organisation.
Main candidate findings for Malaysia
Candidate trends revealed in the 2018 Hays Asia Salary Guide include:
- 71 per cent of candidates are willing to relocate for a job (down eight per cent from last year).
- 67 per cent of candidates believe their skills will be relevant in five years’ time; ten per cent do not expect their skills to be relevant and 23 per cent were unsure.
- 30 per cent of candidates spend little to no personal time on professional development,
- 39 per cent spend 1-2 hours weekly, 21 per cent spend 3-5 hours weekly, seven per cent spend 6-10 hours weekly, two per cent 10-24 hours weekly and one per cent more than 24 hours weekly.
- 33 per cent regard their current work-life balance as “good” and a further 11 per cent as “very good”. 37 per cent rate their work-life balance as “average”, 16 per cent as “poor” and four per cent as “very poor”.
- Women held 38 per cent of management roles at the time of our survey – up three per cent as reported in our previous survey.
- Ten per cent of roles in Malaysia are held by foreigners, down one per cent from our previous survey.
- 37 per cent see career progression opportunities where they work currently while 32 per cent see none. 31 per cent are unsure.
- 50 per cent believe their performance is fairly evaluated by their employer.
Source: Hays
