Salary survey results revealed

* Guest blog from Nel Woolcott, Recruitment Partner

At last – some evidence to back up what we’ve been noticing over recent months. The results of our annual Local Market Salary Survey have been collated. And they show an average two per cent increase in wages over the past 12 months.

That may not sound a lot but bearing in mind last year’s survey revealed a 3.6 per cent downturn it’s definitely a reason to be cheerful.

The other significant thing to mention is the number of businesses which took part in this year’s survey – 32 – which is a third more than last year. The conclusion we’ve drawn from this is that companies are keen to buy in to key decision making tools, which is what we like to think the survey is.

Contributors receive detailed reports showing how their salary scales match up to other companies in the same sector. They provide the perfect benchmark when setting salary levels. This is now more important than ever as companies have to position themselves as employers of choice to attract the right candidates to lead them out of the recession.

We’ve noticed a sea change in candidates’ attitudes. With the slight upturn in the economy, candidates do now feel like they can pick and choose roles – certainly to a bigger extent than they could last year when it was a case of ‘any job’ rather than ‘that job’.

Employee retention is vital too – especially for those companies who were forced to shed jobs. They need to hold on to those who are left.

There were fluctuations in the results, as always, with secretarial and admin staff receiving the biggest rise – five per cent - on average. And, drilling down to specific roles - call centre advisers were the biggest winners with an average increase of 10.3 per cent.

To register an interest in taking part in next year’s survey please email us.