Pharmaceutical salaries up most in 2014

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In terms of specific sectors, the pharmaceutical industry saw the highest average salary increase at 11.2 per cent, but also the highest staff turnover rate, at 15.9 per cent.

The insurance industry witnessed the lowest average payment increase, at only 7.2 per cent and also a 13.9 per cent turnover rate, followed by financial services with 13.6 per cent.

Explaining this high turnover rate, Global Data Services practice manager of Towers Watson Trang Vu said the characteristics of these sectors result in a limited available human resource pool and therefore an imbalance of workforce supply and demand.

For example, despite high demand for personnel, pharmaceutical enterprises can only recruit doctors with a deep understanding of medicine or pharmacy graduates.

Similarly, insurance companies usually have the need for a large number of claim adjusters, but training programmes in this field are very limited in Vietnam at present.

“Employers should be flexible and recruit staff from different sources. The job market needs to be wider, and only then can we solve the staff turnover issue,” Trang noted.

Trang also pointed out some challenges facing businesses, such as keeping employees engaged and not getting caught up in a pay-inflation spiral.

“From our global workforce study, we know that base salary is the number one driver for attracting and retaining highly skilled staff. Additionally, employers should highly value their staff and offer great workplaces in order to achieve employee loyalty.”

Salaries in Vietnam are expected to rise an average of 9.2 per cent in 2015, down a fraction against 2014, before inflation is accounted for. After inflation is built in, they are set to increase by only 3.1 per cent, making Vietnam one of the leading countries in Asia in terms of salary increases in 2015.