A strong recruitment market has led to a surge in salary levels, according to north east recruitment firm TMM.
There has been realignment across many of the agency’s specialisms, averaging between five and 10%.
The highest salary increases - of up to as much as 15% since the start of the year - have been observed for specialist roles in corporate finance, IT and technical disciplines.
Colin McKay, business manager at TMM Recruitment in Aberdeen, said that from the employers’ perspective, higher salaries are a result of several factors, but many are playing ‘catch-up’ in situations where rates of pay were not reviewed during the pandemic.
“There’s no doubt that salary and counteroffers are being used as retention tactics and that’s inflating rates, but the protracted cost of living crisis is too with employers responding to this by offering higher rates or making one-off cost of living payments.”
While increasing salary levels has obvious advantages for candidates, there are secondary considerations for the employer.
“The current market conditions have implications for employers of all sizes,“ said McKay. “Consider the scenario where a larger employer has a team of software engineers and needs to grow the team - if the only way you can attract candidates is to offer an inflated rate of pay, then you risk destabilising the entire team or bumping up everyone’s remuneration.
“Conversely, smaller employers may lose out on experienced candidates because they can’t compete on salary levels.“
Meanwhile, market conditions are creating unrealistic expectations from candidates, with many employers finding that salary expectations have increased.
“In general terms, candidates know that the employment market is tight and that employers might therefore be pressured to pay higher salaries to secure their desired candidate,“ explained McKay.
“The knock-on effect of this approach is that it can lead to candidates expecting to achieve higher salary levels.
“We also caution candidates in circumstances where the allure of a higher salary blinkers them from other aspects of the offer as they may find themselves in a job that doesn’t have the development or progression potential they thought, and in fact leaves them stagnating professionally.”
TMM Recruitment was established in 1997 and now places people in sectors such as accountancy and finance, engineering, HR, IT, legal, office support and supply chain.
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