In its latest study on remuneration, Mercer's study— reaching out to over 14 lakh employees across 988 companies in India—  stated that data analytics, internet engineering, and sales and marketing job portfolios were the most difficult jobs when it came to recruitment and retention.

Pointing to the competition for hiring talent in a post-pandemic world, Mercer’s Total Remuneration Survey stated how companies are slowly reverting to pre-pandemic levels of rewards to attract talent. The annual projected increase in remuneration remains at around 9% across industries in 2022.

With companies finding their foothold in the post-pandemic world, the report notes how new hires are attracting significant premium over the career level median salaries. Software development, pre-sales product consulting and data sciences remain key specializations commanding top remuneration packages. 

Commenting on the Total Remuneration Survey, Mansee Singhal, Senior Principal, Rewards Consulting Leader India remarked, “The TRS overwhelmingly confirms that technology-related skills will be rewarded with a high premium in the current and next few talent cycles till some sort of correction sets in. A key positive is that organizations across the board are reverting to pre-pandemic levels of investment in rewards, expected to be at about 9% for all industries in 2022, compared to 7.7% in 2020, signaling positive economic and business sentiment. The differentials of salaries basis skills, locations, and performance will continue to challenge HR leaders as they look to do more with their rewards budgets.”  

One of the key objectives of the survey was decoding the investment in rewards for organizations in 2022. After a brief dip in 2020, the survey revealed that almost all organizations have slowly begun reverting to pre-pandemic levels of investment in rewards and incentives. While the industry average for an increment is expected to be at 9% in 2022 compared to 7.7% in 2020, sectors such as consumer, life sciences, technology and GIC have all forecasted increments to be higher than the industry average in 2022.  

The report also showcases varying salary trends across hierarchal designations. While managers in the manufacturing sector commanded a raise of around 10.2%, executives within the sector witnessed lower than the level median pay. Consumer-oriented sectors have been faring better when it comes to rewarding their employees. The Mercer report showed that while a starting professional in the sector commanded a raise of over 3.2%, an executive commanded a premium of 10.7% when compared to other industries. The survey also found that the salaries for new hires across tenure continued to remain highly competitive. 

Tech-based jobs continued to command larger raises over the past few years. In addition to higher investment in rewards for tech-based functional roles in 2021, the Mercer report notes that increments in tech have remained high for the past few years. Back in 2019, the increment for tech roles was around 9%, higher than all industries with an average of 8%. This trend continues this year. From a location standpoint, while Bangalore still commands most of the well-paying jobs for software development engineering roles, average high-tech salaries in Delhi and Mumbai have started showing an upward trend due to the many e-commerce companies in these two locations.