9^th November 2018 – Salary increase budgets at technology companies are expected to increase in China, India, Japan and South Korea in 2019 according to new data from Radford, a division of the rewards solutions practice at Aon plc (NYSE: AON). In Singapore, salary budgets are expected to remain flat at 4.0% in 2019. The fast-growth, developing markets of China and India report the highest increases in salaries at 7.8% and 10.5%, respectively.

Meanwhile, technology companies across Asia-Pacific also report increasingly optimistic hiring plans despite battling high employee turnover at the same time. The prevalence of technology companies reporting aggressive hiring plans– defined as actively planning and recruiting for organisational growth– increased during the third quarter of this year in five of eight key Asia-Pacific markets. In Singapore, the percentage of technology companies that plan to hire aggressively increased for the second consecutive quarter to 4.9%. Companies reporting aggressive hiring plans in India saw the biggest jump with an increase from 16.8% in Q2 2018 to 21.1% in Q3 2018.

Voluntary employee turnover – another key metric on the health of the overall technology sector – is up for the past quarter in six out of eight markets. Voluntary employee turnover is highest in Australia at 13.8% followed by China (13.7%), Singapore (13.2%) and India (12.6%).

While salary increase budgets are forecasted to be up in several markets, merit increases alone won’t be enough to hire, engage and retain talent in a hot labor market. “Companies must assess what jobs are needed for future growth and hire for those roles in a competitive marketplace while also engaging and retaining their current talent when many other job opportunities exist. Businesses with a voluntary turnover of above 10% should evaluate their employee value proposition and talent practices carefully,” says Alexander Krasavin, Partner and Radford Leader for Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa.