India Inc. Loosens its Purse Strings for Sales and IT Functions States TeamLease Report

MUMBAI:
With technology and Sales becoming critical functions required for business continuity and recovery, not only has the demand for the IT and Sales profiles grown, but the salaries that they command have also increased significantly as per the latest ‘TeamLease Jobs & Salaries Primer Report 2021’. According to the report, while the median salary increment was 7.12%, the average growth of salary for talent in IT and Sales functions has been 8.55% and 9.82% respectively.

As the leading in-depth analysis of the job market, TeamLease Jobs & Salaries Primer Report 2021 brings to light the dynamics that govern payout related decisions across 8 functions, 2,63,000 temp profiles, 17 industries and 9 cities. As per the report, the positivity is not restricted to Sales and IT functions alone, but also to super specialised jobs that are being rewarded handsomely. Super specialised jobs have commanded a salary increment of over 11%. Similarly, COVID proof jobs also echo similar sentiments. COVID proof job profiles have not only come out unscathed even through the second wave but are experiencing a steady growth in demand. Out of the 350 job roles surveyed, 35 have stood the test of COVID and have seen a healthy salary growth of more than 8%. In fact, some of these profiles are expected to continue to witness a healthy growth in FY 2021-22 as well.

While there is exuberance in certain sections, the sentiment is definitely not universal. In fact, a significant number of profiles across sectors are still under the scrutiny for increments and fall in degrowth or stagnant (0-3%) category. Out of the 17 sectors studied, only 3 sectors seem to have been generous on hikes. The 3 sectors where the salaries have witnessed a 10% growth are namely Banking, Financial Services & Insurance, Healthcare & Allied Industries and Information Technology & Knowledge Services. From a geographic spread perspective, the top paying cities (increments of 12% and above) were Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Kolkata.

Key findings
The necessity to innovate translates into a flurry of hot jobs: 5 out of the 17 sectors created new Hot jobs and 7 sectors created new Upcoming jobs this year. Corresponding stats for the 2020 edition: Hot jobs –7 of the 17 sectors; Upcoming jobs –5 of the 17 sectors.

· Hottest Hot jobs: Artificial Intelligence Specialist – (BPO and IT Enabled Services), Augmented Reality Expert – (Ecommerce and Tech Start-ups), Genomic Portfolio Director – (Healthcare and Allied Industries), Master Edge Computing – (Information Technology and Knowledge Services), Digital Imaging Leader – (Retail)

Super-specialized jobs are here to stay: High expertise-based job profiles have steadily grown in criticality, over the last 12 months, and are seen by employers to be indispensable. These attract around 11% salary increment or more, as compared with market averages ranging between 1.73% (minimum) and 14.07% (maximum) across sectors and cities. Corresponding stats for the 2020 edition: Salaries grew by a minimum of 4.26% and a maximum of 11.22%

● Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, Healthcare and Allied Industries & Information Technology and Knowledge Services exhibited growth in excess of 10%

● Agriculture and Agrochemicals, Automobile & Allied, BPO and IT Enabled Services, Construction & Real Estate, Ecommerce and Tech Start-ups, Educational Services, Fast Moving Consumer Durables, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Hospitality, Industrial Manufacturing and Allied, Media and Entertainment, Power and Energy, Retail, Telecommunication exhibited less than 10% growth

● Top super-specialized profiles: Banking Trainer–(Banking, Financial Services and Insurance: 11.32%), Compliance Officer (Construction & Real Estate: 11.10%), Software Test Specialist (Information Technology and Knowledge Services –10.58%)

● Top Sector-Cities: Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals -Delhi [maximum 10.33%] and Banking, Financial Services and Insurance –Bangalore [maximum 10.03%] exhibited the maximum salary growth across cities/sectors

Sales and IT functions are all the rage: With technology becoming ubiquitous, and a necessary condition to operate during the pandemic, the IT function has grown in stature across businesses over the year. The hiring of Sales roles has gained momentum ever since the lockdowns were phased out.

● Top Sales profiles: Brand Center executive, Merchant Relationship Executive, CRM and Sales Administrator, and Influencer Marketer.

● Top IT profiles: SQL Analyst, UI Designer, Software Test Specialist, and IT Infrastructure Engineer

● Average salary growth for Sales profiles: 9.82%

● Average salary growth for IT profiles: 8.55%

Pay parity wins big: The variance between salaries for permanent and temporary job profiles is down to less than 5% in case of nearly 30% of all profiles across all sectors. Corresponding stats for the 2020 edition: Variance less than 5% for 33% of the profiles and in 15 sectors

● Less than 5% variance: Agriculture and Agrochemicals, Automobile & Allied, Construction & Real Estate, FMCD, FMCG, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Hospitality, Industrial Manufacturing & Allied, Media & Entertainment, Power & Energy, Retail and Telecommunications

● Significantly less than 5% variance: Automobile and Allied Industries, BPO and IT enabled Services, Fast Moving Consumer Durables, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Media & Entertainment, Power and Energy, Retail

Top and bottom sectors
● Top paymasters [Greater than 10% salary growth]: Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, Healthcare and Allied Industries & Information Technology and Knowledge Services

● Bottom paymasters [Lesser than 10% salary growth]:Agriculture and Agrochemicals, Automobile & Allied, BPO and IT Enabled Services, Construction & Real Estate, Ecommerce and Tech Start-ups, Educational Services, Fast Moving Consumer Durables, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Hospitality, Industrial Manufacturing and Allied, Media and Entertainment, Power and Energy, Retail, Telecommunication

The second wave leaves COVID-proof jobs untouched: Despite the severity of the second wave, the market demand for COVID-proof job profiles is likely to remain steady across sectors. With familiarity of operating protocol under restricted conditions, employers are continuing to acquire critical talent that is pandemic-resilient –

● Job profile| Sector | Salary growth- Market Development Officer| Agriculture and Agrochemicals | 9.46%, Finance Consultant| BFSI | 9.13%, Team Manager | BPO and IT Enabled Services | 9.05%, Merchant Relationship Executive | Ecommerce and Tech Start-ups | 8.81%, UJ Promoter| Fast Moving Consumer Durables | 8.61%, Commercial Coordinator | Healthcare and Allied Industries | 8.43%, Sales Campaigner | Industrial Manufacturing and Allied | 8.19%, Software Test Specialist| Information Technology and Knowledge Services | 8.04%, Content Writer| Media and Entertainment | 7.75%, Senior Relationship Manager-Retail | Retail | 7.53%

The salary shake up is, however, more widespread: Strained financials and re-induced uncertainty have meant even more job profiles under scrutiny for increment decisions. The funnel of salary growth is likely to be narrower this year –

● Stagnation: Job profile| Sector | Salary growth- Project Lead| BPO and IT Enabled Services |2.69%, Design Engineer | Construction and Real Estate |2.41%, UI Designer| Ecommerce and Tech Start-ups |2.28%, Demand Generation Officer| Industrial Manufacturing and Allied |1.53%, District Manager | Power and Energy |1.19%

● De growth: Job profile | Sector | Salary de-growth- Farm Assistant | Agriculture and Agrochemicals | -1.92%, Supplier-Water Boy | Construction and Real Estate | -0.88%, Repair Technician | Fast Moving Consumer Durables | -0.63%, Tour/Travel Guide | Hospitality | -0.41%, Planning Executive | Media and Entertainment | -0.27%

● Growth: Job profile | Sector | Salary growth- Brand Manager | Fast Moving Consumer Goods |8.34%, Product Promoter | Agriculture and Agrochemicals |7.61%, IT Executive [Software systems]| Educational Services |7.03%, Training Co-ordinator| Automobile and Allied Industries |6.49%, Operator-Helpdesk | Information Technology and Knowledge Services |5.67%

Sectors with significant work-from-home (WFH) profiles: to benefit on account of business continuity
● Sectors likely to benefit on business continuity from WFH profiles: Banking, Financial Services and Insurance, BPO & ITeS, E-Commerce & Tech Startups, Educational Services, Information Technology and Knowledge Services

● Sectors with WFH roles but unlikely to benefit on business continuity : Agriculture and Agrochemicals, Automobile & Allied Industry, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, FMCD, FMCG, Retail, Media & Entertainment, Industrial Manufacturing & Allied

Elaborating on the report, Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder & Executive Vice President, TeamLease Services said, “Though employers are still cautiously optimistic, they are trying to minimise the COVID gloom and correspondingly making pay decisions. But, what is standing out is the trend of betting big on skills that will help them to ensure business continuity while fostering a spirit of innovation and growth. The biggest testimony of this is the increments that India Inc. is willing to dole out to the hot and super specialised job roles. While the median salary growth is 7.12%, industries are willing to offer 11% and more to the hot as well as super specialised jobs respectively.”

Another interesting aspect that the report has brought to light is the growing pay parity between temporary and permanent profiles. In almost all sectors (17 out of the 17 reviewed) the salary variance between permanent and temporary job profiles is down to less than 5%. In fact, the number of sectors wherein the pay-out difference is less than 5% has increased by 2 (last year only 15 sectors had shown a pay-out difference of less than 5% between temp and perm profiles).

A detailed analysis of workplace practices and its corresponding impact on the demand and pay outs for roles, the report indicates that more and more businesses seem to be leveraging work from home as a solution. In fact, the number of sectors that have benefitted from Work From Home arrangements, has grown significantly from 3 in the last edition of the report to 5 in the current edition.

The Jobs and Salaries Primer is an annual report from TeamLease Services Limited that analyses the hiring and salary trends across industries. It provides an overview of unified salaries across temporary and permanent profiles across markets. This edition of ‘The Jobs and Salaries Primer’ has taken into consideration the salary payouts of more than 2,63,000 candidates across 17 sectors and 9 cities.