Average Increments To Drop To 9.1% In 2023 Across Sectors: Study

Average increments are likely to drop to 9.1% this year in almost all sectors. This due to inflation, higher interest rates and a slowdown in the economy, as per the Deloitte India Talent Outlook 2023. The average increment in 2022 was 9.4%.

The study found that in 2023 increments are expected to be lower across almost all sectors, compared to 2022 actual increments. While the Life Sciences sector is expected to witness the highest increments in 2023, the IT sector will likely witness a major drop in increments as compared to last year, the study said. Additionally, attrition in India reached 19.7% in 2022, up from 19.4% in 2021, it stated.

The significant attrition levels across industries in late 2021 continued until early 2022. We saw Indian organizations budgeting the highest increment in 2022 over the last four years. What they also did was hire aggressively. This led to employee costs rising faster than revenue growth over the last 34 years in almost every other company.

The Deloitte India Talent Outlook 2023 study is based on a survey in January 2023, done among 300 organizations across seven sectors and 25 sub-sectors.

Meanwhile, the study further observed that while almost three in every four organizations recognized the value of a common skills framework primarily for learning and development and career progression, around 42% did not revise their framework regularly to contextualize it to changing business requirements.

Additionally, the study found only 19% of organizations - mostly in the IT, ITeS, and Consumer sectors - confirmed that their employees have visibility of skills beyond their current role. This indicates a major gap in the awareness of skill requirements and associated learning, Ghose said.

This aspect is further pronounced by the fact that more than 80% of organizations reported that leadership teams have no structured data or reporting mechanisms to understand the current skill capital, it noted.

The study found that 27% of organizations have gone beyond their permanent workforce and invested in skills-based training for gig workers while 13% reported planning to do so.

Meanwhile, the study stated that as technology has come to the forefront for businesses in a post-Covid-19 operational context the Manufacturing and IT sectors have emerged as the biggest investors in HR Tech in 2022.