UAE companies plan to raise employees’ salaries by 4% in 2022-news

According to research by Willis Towers Watson, after the global turmoil in the labor market, employers in the UAE plan to provide their employees with an average annual salary of 4% in 2022.

This increase is an improvement over the 3% average increase in payments this year. At the same time, the proportion of companies that are expected to freeze their wages completely will drop from 15% this year to almost zero (0.6%) next year.

As many as 316 UAE companies have participated in global research on salary budgeting and recruitment conducted by Willis Towers Watson, the world’s leading consulting, brokerage and solutions company.

Some industry plans are more generous than others. Medical technology (up 4.4%), pharmaceuticals (4.3%), and manufacturing (4.3%) will have even higher average growth rates in 2022. Workers in the insurance industry (3.2%), business consulting (3.2%), and energy and natural resources (3.3%) performed poorly.

During the pandemic, the battle for talent continues. In 2021, UAE companies are trying to motivate and retain the best performing employees, with a salary increase of 2.7 times the average performance rating of employees.

Laurent Leclère, senior compensation chief in the Middle East, said that the compensation budget has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, but employers are clearly showing signs of increasing optimism, and they have reflected this in their plans to raise wages.

“In recent months, our conversations with HR leaders and customers have shown a more optimistic sense of recovery and growth. These are positive signs in the labor market under heavy pressure during the global pandemic,” Leclerc said.

More than half (53%) of UAE companies stated that their business prospects were “leading” or “far ahead” than they believed, while only 3% said their business prospects were below expectations.

Twenty-six percent plan to hire more employees in the next 12 months, while 10% expect layoffs. More than half (57%) of recruitment companies said they are trying to fill sales positions, while technical skills trade (43%) and engineering (30%) are also hot spots. The least active recruitment areas are human resources (3%), finance (4%) and marketing (20%).

“It is important that in many different industries, there is a real focus on attracting and retaining digital roles. This is largely due to changes in consumer behavior since the pandemic began. As we anticipated trends, digital roles will continue Earning higher remuneration packages continued or even accelerated during Covid,” Leclère added.

muzaffarrizvi@khaleejtimes.com

Muzaffar Rizvi

The business editor/news editor of Khaleej Times is a well-connected reporter and economic and financial commentator. Since 1997, he has been engaged in mainstream journalism, covering the UAE’s economy and key sectors. He holds a graduate degree in economics and has won many awards for his true and insightful reports on global and regional business and economic trends.