Pay is stagnant but perks may soften the blow
“Planning on offering your staff a pay rise, better benefits, both or neither this year?
Wage growth has become a hot topic in Australia of late, courtesy of the fact there’s been very little of it. The average worker received a wage increase of just 2 per cent last year, a situation Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has pledged to address via a series of workplace law reforms should Labor come to power in 2019.
A flexible approach
It’s an approach that is working for Adelaide accountancy practice dmca Advisory, which employs 18 professional and administration staff. The firm turned over $2.2 million in 2017 but tight trading conditions meant increases were capped at CPI, when salaries were reviewed in January. Staff always get a raise but in more buoyant times it was by more, according to dmca co-owner Tania Tonkin.
“It’s difficult to be able to ramp the wages up when you’re not getting the same return in the growth in the revenue,” she says.
Offering flexible working hours, the ability to work from home, a clear career path and financial support for professional education, in lieu of bigger bucks, helps keep staff engaged and motivated, Tonkin says. The firm is also considering the introduction of an equity scheme and bonus leave days for staff who hit their key performance indicators by June 30.
“Providing an environment where [staff] actually enjoy coming to work and feel engaged in what they’re doing but kind of remove the focus on just coming to work to get my pay cheque – I think that’s actually a really, really important thing,” Tonkin says.
Read the full article by Sylvia Pennington here.