Asia's Salary Trends: Are You Paid Enough?

by Cesar Bacani, 14 April 2011

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Human Capital Management Management

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benefits hiring boom retention programme Robert Half salaries

Last month, I met a European finance professional who, until recently, was the CFO of a manufacturing company with factories in China. This finance chief had come to Asia on an expatriate package, which includes a flat in Hong Kong’s high-end Mid-Levels neighbourhood.

“I cleaned up financial management and put systems in place for faster monthly closing and reporting,” this CFO told me. “I worked closely with the CEO on providing insight, business partnering and strategy. Then when everything was running smoothly, I was fired.”

The company had found a Hong Kong financial controller who was happy to join on local terms, without the housing and other perks enjoyed by the European CFO. Granted a generous separation package, the former finance chief is currently looking for another position preferably in Hong Kong – but is insisting on an expat package.

This is yet another piece of data in the renewed finance recruitment dance across Asia’s resurgent economies. Research by specialist financial recruitment firm Robert Half finds that 18% of employers in Hong Kong, for example, will be hiring senior finance executives, 68% are looking for middle managers and 61% entry-level finance staff.

“Now that the economy is improving, a host of new positions have opened up and companies need to do what they can, especially from a financial perspective, to protect their business from losing key talent,” Robert Half notes in its Asia Pacific Salary Guide 2010/2011.

At the same time, however, cost management is a key plank in corporate initiatives to deal with inflation and other problems associated with recovery and growth, given the surging prices of oil and other commodities and the strengthening local currencies against the U.S. dollar.

The CFO’s compensation package, as are those of other C-level executives, is not exempt from scrutiny by the board. Directors will be asking whether expat positions can now be filled by local talent, given that the localization process has been ongoing for quite some time.

Job Hopping

This is not to say that highly compensated finance executives and staff across the board are losing their jobs. Demand for finance talent remains relatively tight as Asia’s economic recovery continues. The jobless rate in Hong Kong is currently a low 3.6% and even lower in Singapore (2.2%). In China, the urban jobless rate is 4.1%.

Indeed, what is happening, according to Robert Half, is that finance professionals are starting to switch jobs. “Employees who were reluctant to move during the economic downturn have a renewed optimism and are likely to make higher demands on their current employers or review other options,” the recruitment firm notes.

As CFO, how do you know that you are being paid enough (or are too richly compensated and therefore run the risk of getting replaced)? Robert Half’s latest salary survey, fieldwork for which was done from 24 March to 8 April 2010, gives useful benchmarks.

Hi, Jonathan. I hope to do a

Submitted by Cesar Bacani on 16 April 2011 - 6:24pm

Hi, Jonathan. I hope to do a follow-up on finance salaries in Shanghai and Beijing, and also Shenzhen and Guangzhou. And perhaps convert the figures into purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars. My theory is that Singapore salaries will probably rise in PPP terms -- and those in Hong Kong may go down a bit. it's so expensive living in this city, much as I like the convenience and cosmopolitan lifestyle of this place

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