Candidates in the Driving Seat!
25th January 2022
The Cpl Salary guide 2022 for Ireland has found that Ireland is experiencing one of the strongest job markets in years. Cpl are reporting growth across most sectors, with Technology, Life Sciences and Financial Services leading the way. This growth has led to an unprecedented talent shortage, giving qualified candidates a stronger position when negotiating contracts.
With salaries expected to rise 5% this year (regions outside of Dublin are seeing particularly strong growth), the big focus this year is on benefits.
Wellness programmes and Hybrid working are no longer considered benefits, but essential to securing talent. Sectors such as Marketing, Legal and Office Support are now offering expanded benefit packages including increased annual leave, with some multinationals offering unlimited annual leave. An increasing number of Technology clients are allowing employees to work abroad for up to two months of the year.
Cpl’s salary guide, which portrays an in-depth look at 15 different sectors in Ireland for employers and employees, has also found that 80% of employers see identifying talent attraction and retention as their greatest challenge as they find themselves offering more pay and benefits to lure, attract and retain qualified staff.
Cpl CEO, Lorna Conn said: “The big focus in 2022 is on benefits. Employees are looking beyond salaries.
Work-life balance, more annual leave days and hybrid working are dominating the ‘how we work’ discussion.
Getting ahead of the curve and winning the battle for talent is going to require innovative thinking that goes beyond salary increases and extra benefits.
A company’s reputation, sustainability credentials and future prospects will all feature heavily in candidates’ minds.”
Cpl’s guide examines the changes as industries such as Technology, Financial Services and Marketing, that were traditionally Dublin-centric, begin to adopt hybrid working as standard. This means that companies are now looking further afield for qualified talent and are not geographically bound to a talent pool within commuting distance of the office. Job seekers outside of the Dublin region can now compete for roles that were previously based too far from home. Cpl’s Salary Guide gives the example of a Social Media Executive who can now expect pay parity across the country – last year the expected rate varied by about 10% between Dublin and other regions.
Cpl’s Future of Work Institute explores, questions and designs future work solutions and has seen a fundamental evolution in the value system of businesses towards a more human and societal centred model. More than 57% of business are aiming to be more human centric and 80% more society centric in the next five years. The challenge for businesses going forward is to attract and retain the best talent globally.
Chief Strategy Officer at Cpl and Head of Future of Work Institute, Barry Winkless, said: “It is essential that tech organisations get serious about defining holistically the value they are providing to current & future employees, nail what makes them unique, and communicate effectively to the talent market. This means fully designing and deploying a People Value Proposition (PVP).
A PVP is a total design of the value that people receive when they join and stay in a business. It is the essence, the experiences, the culture, and the story of an organisation all rolled into one.”
Candidates applying for Executive and Engineering roles can expect to see better bonuses on offer with benefits such as work from home allowances, gyms and health insurance becoming standard across the board.
“Ensuring flexible time and working from home arrangements don’t impact on the ability to get recognition or promotion will be a big challenge for employers going forward”
continued Mr Winkless, “Getting this wrong could see non-traditional workers churn at a higher rate than expected.”
You can view the salary guide here>>
