What employers from the marketing & advertising industry are saying about salaries in the MENA region.
After we looked into the salaries as shared by the industry here, and the salaries as shared by recruitment companies here, in Part 3 of Communicate's Salary Survey series, we explore what industry players told us about the state of their workforce.
Indeed, in this revamped edition of Communicate’s infamous Salary Survey, we go a step further than simply featuring the salaries in 2021; we examine the distribution of these salaries, along with bonuses and benefits, and explore how the crisis has led agencies and in-house marketing departments to reconsider the ways in which they compensate and rewards their employees.
In part 4, we'll look at what employees themselves told us about their situation and their feelings about their current work situation.
Key insights
• Agencies in the region did their utmost not to let go of their employees but, sadly, many couldn’t avoid doing so (75%).
• Similarly, and often to avoid redundancies, most agencies implemented salary cuts (87.5%) that were meant to be temporary but, as of printing date, remain in place in 42.9% of cases.
• It is appreciable that a vast majority of agencies that were able to restore salaries also paid back for the shortfall (79.2%) and many who haven’t yet say they will do so in the near future.
• Many agencies (62.5%) also handed bonuses, either as a reward for high performance under harsh conditions or as compensation for earlier salary cuts. Unsurprisingly, though, these bonuses were less substantial than in 2019 for 75% of agencies.
Key insights
• It comes as no surprise that, in order to manage the hectic circumstances of 2020, many agencies implemented flexible work policies – there wasn’t any other option, really – along with wellbeing programs to care for their employees’ (and sometimes their family’s) mental health. Notably, a number of industry players already had such programs in place and simply had to enhance them if needed.
• Looking forward, agencies – under heaving business pressure from the market – are considering non-financial drivers to attract and retain their workforce. Namely, upskilling programs are an area of intense scrutiny (at 57.1%), offering talent the opportunity to learn and grow while improving the organization’s skillsets and performance in a win/win strategy.
• Although the subject of fiery discussion amongst industry players, the option of giving high-performing employees the opportunity to partake in the agency’s profits is gaining traction, illustrating the industry’s realization that a more entrepreneurial compensation model is in order.
This article was published in Communicate's latest issue.
