2010: Salaries in India- Wake up time??

In the general "feel good" factor of the extended holidays and celebration time, amidst all the hopes of a great year ahead, I am probably going out to put the spanner in the works by addressing a sensitive topic such as salary increments!!

It is partly triggered off by

1.this blog post "Is 2010 going to be a good salary year" -which Ankit Agarwal has very well articulated the case for us to debate on. I did share a couple of my concerns there.

India Inc actually ‘aped’ a lot of their multinational branches behaviour by laying off or cutting costs. The tightened belt of course helped improve the bottom line eventually, but I am not sure if the HR folks in India could have been more sensitive (!!

The skills of professionals needed in a stagnant or a slow economy are different from that one was accepted in a growing economy- the increase will be surely in relation to performance. And so, one cannot expect a largesse across the levels in any company :-)!

2. a question I posed on Linkedin early last month "What do you think should be a decent salary hike when one changes a job in the present job market?" which evinced a fair amount of opinions, hopes& wishful thinking :-)!!

The answers varied across the different stakeholders, namely the aspiring job seekers, and the corporate HR/recruiters making politically correct statement, as also from commentating recruiters in the thick of the action.

There are some larger issues related to salary hikes that are a function of the hiring game in India, which has been distinct in the recent past.

But the most thought provoking comment came offline from a CEO of a sunrise company!

"The bane of the Industry today and the one of the prime reasons for attrition is that there are a lot of lateral movements for insignificant( by my definition) increase in responsibility or remuneration. Many of these lateral changes maybe for reasons other than significant career progression and the new employer too will have to contend with the "what next" question very soon.

Employers too must learn to sieve the lateral movers from those moving for real progression, invest in them and reap the benefits of getting truly satisfied employees- and that comes only from true and significant progression.If employers don't hire predominantly hire laterally shifts where is the question of a mindless inflation of wages ebbs?"

Isnt it time to get real ?? I shall be glad to have your feedback!!