A survey conducted in October 2017 of employers across Ireland has found that 94pc will raise wages in 2018.
Be it a harbinger of economic growth or a worrying omen of the Irish talent pool drying up, the news of pay rises in 2018 will invariably delight employees across the country.
A new survey conducted by Performance Reward Consulting has found that 94pc of Irish employers expect to offer beefier pay packets, with increases as much as 8pc, in order to fight increasing issues with staff retention.
Almost half of the 76 organisations polled – representing a total of 110,616 employees across Ireland – 46pc stated that they were implementing new structures and employee recognition schemes to counteract the potential deleterious effects of an impending talent shortage.
Of those surveyed, 36pc of respondents both from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland indicated that their employee turnover had increased in 2017, and 27pc anticipated an increase in worker turnover in 2018.
As a means of circumventing this, employers in the Republic of Ireland forecast pay increases of 2.5pc in 2018. In Northern Ireland, increases of 3pc are anticipated. For specific employee groups, however, these increases could be as much as 8pc.
Brexit, an enduring hot-button issue in the working world, also seems to be at the forefront of employers’ minds as we head into 2018, with 51pc of those surveyed stating that they were either “concerned” or “somewhat concerned” that Brexit would impact their ability to hire and retain staff in their sector.
Commenting on the figures, Patrick Robertson, managing director of Performance Reward Consulting, said: “As the economy on both sides of the border has improved, Irish employers now face a real challenge to retain staff, particularly their high-performing and high-potential employees who are often the first to move.”
The survey was sent to HR directors, CEOs and business leaders in both NI and the Republic of Ireland in October 2017. Of these, 47 had employees located in the Republic of Ireland only, 13 had employees located in Northern Ireland only and 16 had employees on both sides of the border.
The majority of those surveyed described themselves as working in tech, finance or medical devices/pharmaceutical industries (21pc, 19pc and 13pc respectively).
Respondents indicated that employee turnover in the Republic of Ireland was 8.3pc on average and 13.pc in Northern Ireland.
