Indian salary hikes highest

Staffing solutions provider Kelly Services India on Tuesday said that brisk recruitment by organisations will continue for the rest of 2006 but there was increasingly unmatched demand for emerging skill sets.

"India reported the highest average salary increase at 13.9 per cent, and employees in the Indian IT-enabled industry received the highest increase across all five groups surveyed at 17.9 per cent. This increase is of no surprise and is the highest compared with the rest of Asia since there has been heavy investment in the country from global firms," said Achal Khanna, country general manager, Kelly Services India.

The company also announced the release of its first salary guide for India.

Based on the information and trend data collected from the specialised operation units, and experience from dealings with clients, both local and foreign, Kelly Services, said that due to a major boost in construction and manufacturing, rising automobile sales, and higher consumer spending, the overall recruitment outlook has been very encouraging. This has been reflected in the salaries.

The Kelly Services 2006 Salary Guide showed that there is a strong demand in the banking industry for entry-level positions.

The call centre industry is facing a bigger churn and there is a need to employ attractive means to retain talent by the sector.

"India still maintains the competitive advantage by providing a fine combination of cost-effective and high-quality manpower. Given the current situation of the Indian economy, companies need to pay added attention to their existing salary packages and compensation benefits because it will make a key difference in retaining good talent," Khanna added.

The salary guide studied 140 positions from entry-level to senior positions. The guide covered wideranging sectors such as banking, call centre, engineering and technical, finance, human resources, IT, logistics and warehousing, office support and sales, marketing & advertising.