Salary increase for 2016 at R&D GICs rose to 11.9%: Zinnov

Zinnov, a Management Consulting firm released its sort after annual study for R&D GICs (Global In-house Centres) in India titled, “Salary Increase, Hiring & Attrition Trends in GICs - 2016”. The study witnessed participation from 40+ R&D GICs across Software, Semiconductor, Engineering Services, Telecom and Networking and other verticals.

The study indicated that lucrative offers from digital native companies, growth in the number of global leaders from India and emergence of niche technology skills are some of the key factors that are driving an increase in average salaries. In 2016, the salary increase in R&D GICs rose to 11.9%, a 0.3% increase compared to the previous year.

The Software / Internet vertical witnessed a salary increase of 12.1%, ~1% more than the Engineering Services vertical. However, the study predicts that the increasing penetration of Software in traditional Engineering verticals will lead to a surge in people cost in the coming years. Close to 76% of R&D GICs conduct the annual salary reviews during the month of April or January.

Speaking about some of the key findings, Anand Subramaniam, Delivery Head (G.A.P), Zinnov, said, “Individual performance is the core influencer and mantra for determining pay policy within GICs. We are observing a massive difference in the KRAs and success metrics associated with top performers in the organization vis-à-vis the average ones. The bar has been set high especially at Top and Senior levels, who are now expected to drive a lot more disruptive thinking, global leadership and contribute to the strategic direction of the company”

To facilitate the right expectation setting and performance management, GICs are moving towards real time feed forward loops, incorporating multi-modal communication mediums and increasing the frequency of interactions between managers and their directs.

On the hiring front, Zinnov’s study indicates that the focus on hiring has gone up considerably, with the average hiring increasing by 2.7% to 27.3% in FY 2016. Gender diversity continues to be at the top of the agenda in R&D GICs, exhibited by an increase in women hiring by 1.3% in FY 2016.

R&D GICs have been to control voluntary attrition to 13.6%, a marginal 0.5% increase compared to 2015. This is attributed to the continuous investment on employee growth opportunities such as cross functional lateral movement, leadership development, establishing a technical career path etc.

In summary, the study clearly highlights that R&D GICs are on a growth path towards driving higher value by building new competencies and hiring for the future in addition to institutionalizing programs and policies to retain top performers