SLASSCOM salary and benefits survey 2014:

IT and BPM - a high growth sector

The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have published the SLASSCOM Salary and Benefits Survey for the fourth consecutive year.

IT and BPM staff are much sought after today not only in the outsourcing industry but also in more traditional industries such as banking, insurance, manufacturing, tourism and telecom.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of emerging HR trends and issues of the staff in the IT and BPM industry while providing a comprehensive understanding of employee retention strategies executed by industry players.

The report also analyses a wide range of job positions and benefit packages offered by companies to retain employees. The sample of the study comprised small, medium and large IT, ITES, BPO and KPO companies operating in Sri Lanka, providing a broad industry perspective on HR practices.

Chairman, SLASSCOM, Madu Ratnayake said, "IT and BPM will be a high growth sector for years to come and offers excellent opportunities for young and seasoned professionals. Our objective is to drive professional and ethical people practices across the industry to help manage this growth effectively."

"The annual survey is a compressive guide that enables companies to determine their compensation and benefit mix. It is an invaluable source for HR leaders in IT and BPM and any company which employees IT and operations staff," he said.

"We are glad to have PwC as a partner to deliver this report for the fourth consecutive year," Ratnayake said.

The report provides a wide range of statistical data such as market mean, median and percentiles for job positions in the IT sector, BPM sector and support functions. It provides an opportunity for the reader to understand the structure of compensation and benefits in the industry.

The report also covers entry level salary scales of selected job positions to provide a benchmark to fresh graduates and school-leavers salary scales in the IT and BPM sector of Sri Lanka.

Local salary data are also benchmarked against regional salary data to highlight the competitiveness of HR practices in the country.

SLASSCOM Board Member and the Head of HR and Capacity Forum, Anuradha Tennakoon said, "This is one of the most comprehensive compensation and benefit studies conducted on the Sri Lankan IT and BPM industry covering emerging trends in HR practices."

"It will serve as an important tool for all stakeholders to set their remuneration packages in place to adequately reward and retain the best talent in their entities," he said.

"We believe that the report will add value to the industry in reaching the target of creating 200,000 job opportunities by 2022."