Published by - JobStreet.com · 2014. 7. 14. · ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE, 2014...

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ISSN No: 2180-267XRelease date: June, 2014

Editor-in-Chief: Ramachandran Ramasamy, Head of Policy, Capability and Research, PIKOMSub-editor: Debby Ho, Senior Marketing Manager, Jobstreet.comReviewed by: Woon Tai Hai, PIKOM Research Committee Chairman

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ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE, 2014ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE, 2014

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Foreword by the PIKOM ChairmanCheah Kok Hoong

Preamble from the PIKOM Research Committee ChairmanWoon Tai Hai

PIKOM’s ICT Job Market Outlook 2014 is an annual report that PIKOM is proud to present this year again. This annual series, once again is made possible with the continuing support of Jobstreet.com, who has been sharing the average salary records of ICT job registrants from their collections of data over the last twelve months.

As in the previous series of the ICT Job Market Outlook report, this year’s series will again publish the average monthly salary of ICT professionals, dissected into industry classifi cations, job categories, job functions, employment size and years of working experience, geographical locations and genders. Acknowledging the increasing globalization of the job market for the fi rst time an attempt was made to benchmark the average salary earned by local ICT professionals against 70 other cities globally that are deemed potentially attractive markets for Malaysian professionals. For international and regional benchmarking, we have made due references to PayScale web published information, wherever possible.

PIKOM also fully acknowledges that quantitative dimensions alone would not suffi ce to understand the inner dynamics of the job market outlook. Besides highlighting the economic and ICT industry outlook at the macro level, the series also published a number of qualitative highlights. These were based on job sentiment provided by an index measure, top paying ICT jobs, ICT jobs in demand, anticipated hiring activities, employment prospects and sought-after top specialization areas.

As the PIKOM Chairman, I am glad that once again the average salary of ICT professionals netted an upward trend of 7.2% in 2013. Given the tempo of positive economic growth, I concur with the forecast of a further 8.7% rise in 2014. Nonetheless, talent migration to better paying destinations is still haunting not only the industry players but also mainstream policy makers and development practitioners. PIKOM hopes that industry players and policy makers will continue to adopt eff ective strategies to enhance the attraction and retention of talents in particular the many Malaysians who are currently residing in foreign land.

Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to Jobstreet.com and PayScale web publishers for their invaluable contributions and the PIKOM Research Committee for again spearheading this project. PIKOM is optimistically looking forward to greater support in the years ahead so that the scope and coverage of the published content can be broadened for the benefi t of all players in the industry, including Government agencies.

PIKOM is again pleased to publish the annual “PIKOM ICT Job Market Outlook 2014” report. As in the past, this series continues to provide information on average monthly salaries earned by Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals in Malaysia. To further understand the nuances of the job market, this series, as in the previous publications, also highlight the economic and ICT industry outlook by viewing key macro indicators and measures such as gross domestic growth (GDP) rate and share of ICT to GDP as well as key issues and challenges that warrant due attention. For better understanding of the salary movements, the report also supplies information on top paying ICT jobs, high demand ICT jobs, hiring patterns, employment prospects and sought after top specializations.

Average ICT Salary increased by 7.2% in 2013For the year 2013, it is pertinent to note that the average monthly salary of ICT professionals for 2013 was RM7,152, registering an increase of 7.2% from RM6,673 in the previous year. Gauging against the forecasted positive economic growth of 5.2% (Government forecast 4.5% to 5.5%) by PIKOM, the industry projects the average salary of ICT professionals to register a minimum 8.7% growth in 2014, touching the RM7,776 fi gure. As the PIKOM Research Committee Chairman, I believe, this is an achievable target assuming that political stability and economic fundamentals continue to prevail. The imminent implementation of the GST in Malaysia on 1st April 2015 will also provide an impetus to the growth of the ICT industry for 2014 and 2015, as organisations ‘rush’ to replace and/or upgrade their systems to be in compliance with the GST requirements.

2013 was indeed a bumper year for all sectors of ICT professionals. In particular, senior managers registering the highest pay rise of 9.6%, followed by senior executives at 7.5% while junior executives and managers enjoyed a 7.3% and 7.2% increase respectively. Fresh graduates too had their fair share of a decent 4.6% rise from the average salary of RM2,343 in 2012 to RM2,451 in 2013. Nonetheless, it is also apparent that the salary gap between senior managers and fresh graduates has further widened from 5.74 fold in 2012 to 6.01 fold in 2013. Overall, the gap has widened 2.92 times in 2013 compared to 2.83 times in 2012. This is deemed unhealthy for the ICT industry where the employment market has been tight over a number of years and, as such, the industry will continue to face challenges in retaining its younger employee including attracting potential talents into the industry.

Oil and Gas being most attractive sectorThe oil and gas sector emerged (again) as the most attractive sector for ICT professionals in 2013. Remuneration packages in this sector has on an average off ered RM8,324 in comparison to RM8,089 in science and technology, RM7,917 in logistics and RM7,903 in the automotive industry.

The study also revealed that ICT professionals working in the ICT enabled / call centre segments took home higher salaries than those employed in ICT hardware and ICT software industries. Specifi cally, in the senior manager category the average salary of ICT professionals in ICT enabled services / call centre rose by 20.7%, whereas it registered only a 4.7% increase in ICT software and hardly any rise in the ICT hardware segment. This confi rmed the continuing uptrend and demand in value–added services for the ICT services component; and over the years has outweighed the hardware and software sectors that once dominated the job market. PIKOM anticipate that this trend will continue in the years ahead.

Project Managers earned more than others in 2013Among the various types of job functions investigated, those in ICT Project Management appear to earn


6 7

signifi cantly higher salaries than those in the technical or engineering fi elds. For instance, in 2013 a typical ICT Project Manager earned a median monthly salary of RM8,947, which is much higher than the salary earned by a Senior Software Engineer who on an average netted only RM6,956. Specialists, like AutoCAD engineers or web designers earned relatively lower amounts that is RM3,459 and RM3,173 respectively. However, comparing against 2012 all ICT job functions registered increases in salaries with a much more pronounced increase in the ICT project management, software engineering and database system administration categories.

Kuala Lumpur and Cyberjaya cities pay higherIn terms of geographical location, the study reported that the typical salary of ICT professionals in major cities like Kuala Lumpur and Cyberjaya is 1.75 times higher than of those who work in smaller cities like Ipoh or Kuching. If this disparity remains unchecked it is likely to accentuate youth migration to cities resulting in talent depletion in smaller towns. The attraction to major cities and industrial zones is also attributed to the locality of large companies (in excess of 2000 employees) in particular multi-nationals. Many of these are in industrial and business zones and pay as high as 1.78 times more as compared to the small and micro categories which have fewer than 10 employees. Interestingly, the study also revealed that male ICT professionals’ salaries are on average 38% higher than their female counterparts, albeit the absence of gender discrimination policies or practices in the country. One reason can be attributed to the fact that female workers tend to retire earlier from the workforce to tend to their families.

Benchmarking with other countries - Vietnam and HK topped the scaleBesides publishing the average annual salaries earned by ICT professionals in seven Asian countries, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Thailand, India, the Philippines and Indonesia, this year’s report also provides data for fi ve English speaking nations namely United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia that typically attract Malaysians for employment.

For meaningful benchmarking, the regional salary data took into consideration the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) factor. Instead of just publishing the average annual salaries, once again the comparison is reported in terms of scaling numbers, which essentially highlight how many times higher or lower the salaries are compared with other regional markets. Among Asian countries, Vietnam and Hong Kong topped the salary scale, where the salary was 2.19 and 2.12 times (with PPP adjusted), which showed up 1.50 and 2.46 times (without PPP adjustments or Atlas criterion) higher than their counterparts in Malaysia in 2013. Similarly, Australia and USA topped the list among the English speaking destinations. Specifi cally, ICT professionals in Australia netted salaries 3.46 times (without PPP adjustments) higher or 1.52 times (with PPP adjusted) higher than the data reported for Malaysians in this report.

Attributes of hot ICT jobsHot ICT jobs varied across technical, business applications and soft skills categories. In the technical domain, ICT professionals equipped with Java, C#, C++, .Net, SharePoint and Web Application Developers are highly sought after. Under business applications, the fast growing jobs are notably IT Security Analyst and Big Data Analytics, two imperative skills for fending off cyber threats and culling out customer insights from petabytes systems respectively. The demand for both the technical and business applications jobs are also attributed to prolifi c growth experienced in cloud computing and mobile applications. With the fast declining trend in the usage of desktops and laptop PCs, in particularly replaced by tablets and smart phones, mobile architects who can provide Android, iPhone or Blackberry based content are poised to proliferate the market in the years ahead. The report also carries information on the perception of job seekers and potential employers, in particular pertaining to economic performance and the ICT job market outlook as gauged by Jobstreet.com on a regular basis. Generally the job seekers and providers indicated a positive outlook for Malaysia in 2014.

Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to record my sincere appreciation to Jobstreet.com and PayScale web publishers for their valuable data including PIKOM Research Department in making this publication a success again for PIKOM.

INTRODUCTION

PIKOM, the National ICT Association of Malaysia, has once again taken the lead to compile the “ICT Job Market Outlook in Malaysia, 2014” in collaboration with JobStreet.com. Besides coordinating the publication process, PIKOM was mainly responsible for data collation and analysis of ICT industry-specifi c information and outlook as well as Malaysia’s economic outlook. For its part, Jobstreet.com provided the latest salary reports of ICT professionals by industry, job market outlook in the respective ICT segments, and survey-based economic perception of job seekers and industry players.

For regional comparisons, due references were made to three sources of web published salary information by PayScale Salary Report. The average salary of ICT professionals in Malaysia is compared against selected Asian and English speaking countries that have become attractive destinations for Malaysian talent migrations or talent soliciting. The Asian countries considered in the report include Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, China, Korea and India. The English speaking nations covered include United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

PIKOM is the national representative of the information and communications technology (ICT) industry with 946 members as at end of March, 2014. Its members contribute about 80% of the total ICT revenue in the country. About JobStreet.com

JobStreet.com (www.jobstreet.com) is a leading online recruitment company presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam. The Group currently services over 230,000 corporate customers and over 13 million jobseekers in its database. JobStreet.com is listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities (JOBST).


8 9

MALAYSIA ECONOMIC AND ICT INDUSTRY OUTLOOK

The Malaysian economy grew at an average rate of 4.7% in 2013. Since Q3 2010 till Q4 2014, the quarterly growth rate has fl uctuated between 4.1% and 5.1%, giving rise to a steady inherent growth trend fl uctuating marginally between 4.9% and 5.3%. Over these periods the economic fundamentals largely remained unperturbed, supported in particular by a low infl ation rate (2%), low unemployment rate (3%), low overnight lending rates (3.0%) stimulating business investments and the resilience of the Malaysian Ringgit against US dollar in the monetary market.

Strong domestic demand arising from economic transformation programmes and on-going mega projects have also been providing the impetus for sustained private and public consumption and expenditure.

The prevailing high economic growths of China, India and ASEAN countries, where at least 60% of Malaysia’s total trade is concentrated, has been a plus factor for the Malaysian economy. The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have forecasted a 5.5% growth for the Malaysian economy in 2014. International institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasted a slightly lower growth rate for Malaysia in 2014, at 4.8% and 4.9% respectively. The recovering global economy and exports growth, the implementation of tax reforms, improvement in the current account balance, subsidy rationalisation, and other initiatives in the government’s Budget 2014 would also bring higher revenues and contain the fi scal defi cit at 3.5% of the gross domestic product were some of the reasons cited by these institutions in support of their growth forecast.

In June, research fi rms have also reported strong rebound in export for April 2014, suggesting a steady GDP growth ahead, including the GDP growth for the second quarter in 2014 is maintained between 5.0% to 5.5% with an upside trend. Taking all these into consideration, account the aforementioned contributing factors, PIKOM has forecasted a projection of ed a healthy economic GDP growth of 5.2 % in 2014 with an upwards bias.

This report is structured in the following manner:-

i. Average ICT Salaries by IndustryICT users in Non-ICT Sectors

• Agriculture / Plantations / Aquaculture• Automotive / Heavy Industry / Machinery• Banking Institutions• Chemical Industries• Construction / Building, including Civil

Engineering• Consulting, both Business and Technical• Private Education• Financial Services / Securities/ Insurance/• Hotel / Restaurant / Food Services • Manufacturing• Oil / Gas / Petroleum Industries• Printing / Publishing• Property / Real Estate• Technology / Aerospace/ Bio-technology• Services• Textiles / Garment• Transport / Storage /Freight / Shipping• Utilities• Wholesale / Retail/ Trading

ICT users in ICT Sectors • Telecommunication• Semiconductor/ Wafer Fabrication• Electrical & Electronics Sector• Call Centre / ICT-Enabled Services• Computer / ICT (Hardware)• Computer / ICT (Software)

ii. Average Monthly Salaries of ICT Professionals by Job Category

• Overall ICT Professional• Fresh Graduates• Junior ICT Executive – fewer than 4 years of

experience including fresh entrants • Senior ICT Executive –5 years and above of

working experience; • Middle ICT Manager – as declared by the job

seekers;• Senior ICT Manager – as declared by the job

seekersiii. Average Monthly Salaries of ICT Professionals

by Key ICT Industry Segments • ICT Hardware• ICT Software• Call Centre

iv. Regional Benchmarking with Selected Asian Economies

• Comparison against Asian countriesv. Employment Outlook and Perception

• Jobstreet.com Employee Confi dence Index (JECI)

• Anticipated Hiring Activities


10 11

its own impact on Malaysian trade as European nations account for some 14.2% of total exports, both direct and indirect. Thus, the weakening Malaysian Ringgit in the international monetary market not only aff ects trade and investment but is also likely to widen the GDP gap in real terms.

v. Macro indicators: Malaysia also appears to be overly dependent on low-skilled foreign workers. It also has low productivity, lower technological capabilities, a weak innovation culture and R&D capacity, and a low affi nity in seeking globally recognised quality and standards. All these, together with the risk aversion strategy among potential investors may prove unhealthy for her economy in the long term.

ICT Industry OutlookGiven the orientation towards a service focus economy, it is not un-expected that the ICT Service (ICTS) segment in Malaysia is again projected to register signifi cant growth in 2014. The ICTS segment grew at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.4% lifting its value-added services from RM11.77 billion in 2000 to RM59.83 billion in 2013 (see Table 1). The ICTS segment is poised to reach the mark of RM67.99 billion in 2014 by registering a repeat annual growth rate of 12.4%. In tandem, the share of ICTS in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 3.3% to 6.4%, almost doubling over the period of 2000-2014.

Year

ICTS ValueAdded

Services(‘000)

Share of ICTS

to Overall

GDP (%)

Telecommunication

Services(‘000)

ComputerServices

(‘000)Sub-total

Publi-shing(‘000)

MotionPicture,

video andTelevision

Programme(‘000)

Program-ming and

Broad-casting(‘000)

Infor-mation

Services(‘000)

Sub-total

2000 11,771,057 3.3 10,335,256 868,758 11,204,014 193,273 373,770 567,043

2001 12,744,792 3.6 10,815,979 1,257,657 12,073,636 269,319 401,837 671,156

2002 14,652,306 3.8 12,261,462 1,412,888 13,674,350 254,765 723,191 977,956

2003 14,992,154 3.6 12,368,517 1,916,304 14,284,821 255,963 451,370 707,333

2004 16,087,422 3.4 12,773,701 2,056,348 14,830,049 356,714 900,659 1,257,373

2005 20,187,921 3.9 16,352,349 2,718,059 19,070,408 387,730 729,783 1,117,513

2006 23,858,012 4.2 19,252,783 3,125,191 22,377,974 419,412 1,060,626 1,480,038

2007 25,036,393 3.9 19,532,436 3,772,887 23,305,323 427,088 1,303,982 1,731,070

2008 30,090,354 3.9 22,655,972 5,168,116 27,824,088 447,618 1,818,648 2,266,266

2009 31,999,469 4.5 22,912,378 6,496,356 29,408,734 271,688 1,483,674 1,839,604 3,594,966

2010 42,095,951 5.3 27,106,855 9,363,020 36,469,875 503,080 1,056,006 1,565,327 2,001,388 5,125,801

2011 45,259,877 5.1 29,778,845 9,945,621 39,724,466 590,079 1,065,823 1,690,288 2,189,221 5,535,411

2012 52,430,520 5.6 33,166,728 11,862,431 45,029,159 719,835 1,405,592 2,150,865 3,125,069 7,401,361

2013 59,835,527 6.1 36,386,010 12,774,925 49,160,935 1,038,179 2,027,211 3,102,079 4,507,122 10,674,592

2014 67,991,747 6.4 39,810,610 13,687,420 53,498,030 1,409,616 2,752,501 4,211,933 6,119,667 14,493,717

Projected Sub-Sector Share (%)

in 2014

100.0 58.6 20.1 78.7 4.0 6.2 9.0 21.3

CAGR (%): 2000-2014 12.4 9.4 20.2 11.0 21.1 22.8 20.5 24.1

Table 1: Distribution of ICT Services by Sub-sectors, 2000-2014Source: Department of Statistics and economic Planning Unit, various publications; and Projection for 2013 and 2014 by PIKOM

Nonetheless, the Malaysian economy is not totally free from economic encumbrances and faces a number of investment related risk factors such as:-

i. Subsidies: One of the challenges that the Government faces is rationalizing subsidies without exerting too much of a burden to the lower and middle income families. When the petrol price hike was announced as part of the subsidy rationalization strategy the Government faced a backlash from many learned quarters fearing an outfl ow of money to poor and needy citizens through the “Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BRIM1)” programme. Many economists are critical that such fi scal measures are too small to have an eff ect in averting any negative impact on the Malaysian economy.

ii. High Government Expenditure: One of the strategies that the Government has adopted to reduce its expenditure in view of reducing its fi scal defi cit is sequencing or re-scheduling megaprojects. Specifi cally, projects that have high import content or those with little add-on value to the economy warranted due attention such as the high speed rail project connecting Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. This strategy may alleviate fi scal defi cit or rising debt only in the interim. However, poor management on the part of the Government in its ambitious task to reduce the fi scal defi cit from 5.4% of GDP in 2011 to 3% in 2015 may dampen public expenditure and investments, unless the Government achieves the target through revenue-increasing measures or operational cost reduction strategies.

iii. Goods and Services Tax (GST): The Government has announced the implementation of a broad based GST which basically imposes a value added tax on consumer goods by April 2015. The proposed GST is essentially aimed at broadening the current tax base, towards which only an estimated 1.7 million of the 12 million working population currently pay. Migrating from the direct system regime into a value-added consumption tax scheme is also in view of reducing the national debt, which apparently is hovering around 53% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is anticipated that the implementation of the GST will result in a one-off increase for some of the price of goods and services, thus exerting infl ationary pressure that is likely to burden the middle and lower income groups in the immediate term.

iv. Weakening Foreign Exchange: The weakening of the Malaysian Ringgit against the US dollar from RM3.06 in 2011 to RM3.09 in 2012 and further down to RM3.15 in 2013 has become a major concern. Malaysia suff ered its worst rate of capital withdrawals in the third quarter of 2013. The Euro crisis had

Quarterly GDP Growth Rate 4.8 5.1 4.3 5.7 5.2 4.7 5.4 5.2 5.6 4.1 4.4 5 5.1Trend Line 4.9 5.0 5.1 5.0 5.3 5.1 5.2 5.1

4.0

4.2

4.4

4.6

4.8

5.0

5.2

5.4

5.6

5.8

6.0

Q4 2013Q3 2013Q2 2013Q1 2013Q4 2012Q3 2012Q2 2012Q1 2012Q4 2011Q3 2011Q2 2011Q1 2011Q4 2010

Gro

wth

Rat

e (%

)


12 13

Supply of ICT Graduates: In recent years, ICT enrolment in both public and private institutions has stagnated. As reported in the ICT Human Capital Development Framework 2012, a high number of graduates were churned out during the early 1990’s up to the year 2001. This was attributed to, (i) the government’s policy emphasising ICT as a driver and enabler of a knowledge economy and society in the mid-nineties; (ii) the launch of MSC Malaysia and its Flagship Applications in 1996; and (iii) the liberalisation of the higher education sector whereby many new universities were established, especially by the private sector, with the many of them off ering various types of ICT degree or diploma programmes. However, 2002 marked the beginning of a drastic fall in enrolments and subsequently graduates with ICT-related qualifi cations. Statistics from the Ministry of Education revealed that there were over 119,000 students enrolled in ICT courses in 2002, with a production of over 53,000 graduates. However, by 2012 both fi gures fell drastically to 80,000 and 19,500 respectively. A number of factors have been cited as the reason for the decline in the supply of ICT graduates:-a. The perception that the ICT industry does not off er promising career opportunities especially the

disillusionment arising from the “dotcom bubble burst” in 2000. Since then prospective students have been gravitating to other emerging courses especially health-related studies that Government also strongly promulgated;

b. A widespread misconception among students that ICT courses require extraordinary skills in mathematics, which in fact is only a necessity for computing and engineering sciences, and not other ICT disciplines that mainly emphasizes on innovation and creativity skills;

c. A lack of current knowledge about ICT trends, opportunities and career prospects among school teachers and counsellors, which also signifi cantly contribute to dampening student motivation;

d. The lack of professional recognition and prestige in the ICT industry, unlike that which is accorded to the fi elds of medicine, engineering, architecture, law and accountancy. This pushes students to other more seemingly lucrative courses.

e. The Computer Science paper at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) level is only considered as an elective subject and is not taken into account for Matriculation in-take, thus further discouraging interest in the ICT fi eld.

Demand for ICT Graduates: From the demand side the human talent supply issues plaguing both ICT producers and user industries can be surmised as follows:-a. Quality, competency and employability of ICT graduates in meeting industry demands continue

to remain a critical issue. According to PIKOM’s past fi ndings only 10% of the new entrants to the workforce are directly employable, while the remaining require training before they can fully undertake the work. Companies, especially the smaller ones, are not willing to mobilize their scarce resources for training, coaching or mentoring activities considering the prevalence of job hopping among new recruits. Low remuneration, especially in comparison to regional markets, also contributes to the problem of job-hopping, as people constantly look for better terms of employment not only within the country but also regionally.

b. As Gartner highlighted, declining interest among young people in ICT jobs that demand long working hours continue to plague the growth of the ICT industry. This is a global phenomenon. However, initiatives by TalentCorp, which was established in January 2011, are helping to fi ll in some of the talent gaps in the ICT sector. The initiatives are carried out via three strategic thrusts: optimizing Malaysian talent, attracting and facilitating global talent and building networks of top talent. As these initiatives are at the early stages of deployment,a newcomer, the fruition of these endeavors is yet to be realized.

Traditionally, telecommunications and computer services constitute the ICTS segments as per Malaysian Standard Industry Classifi cation 2000 (MSIC 2008). The introduction of MSIC 2008 saw the inclusion of publishing services, motion pictures, video and television programmes, programming and broadcasting and information services as additional items. The new additional segments make up about 21.3% of the total ICTS sector contribution in terms of value-added services.

It can be also seen in Table 1 that new segments have been registering signifi cant growth over the past fi ve years, illustrating dynamic growth in digital services in various forms and functions. The ICT sector, in its contemporary form, has evolved to become more than a mere collection of technological tools. As a socio-economic enabler and key driver of businesses, ICT is poised to increase the effi cacy of process effi ciency and product and services delivery. The pervasiveness and ubiquity of ICT are continually impacting the way we work, play and learn in today’s world. In the early stages of the information age, such changes were succinctly harnessed through the MSC Malaysia initiative that was introduced in the mid-nineties.

As surmised by Gartner, in 2014 industry pundits are projecting at least four key trends, changing the way in which organisations fi rms work, which in turn will contribute to economic growth. The four key trends are:

i. Big data analytics, which is deployed in a variety of industries to serve customers better through culling out insights and predictions that data can generate. The process can help to improve the profi tability of the company by assessing credit worthiness, risk analysis and/or data supported decision making processes;

ii. Cloud computing, which is one of the fastest growing technological advances, helps companies to structure, organize and store large amounts of data without investing heavily on hardware and software tools. More importantly, company employees always remain connected with the help of smart phones and tablets. With such a work culture, people need not be in the offi ce to complete their tasks; they can do their work from the train or bus on their daily commute, besides tele-working from home;

iii. Mobile device usage, particularly smart phones and tablets, make customers and clients more mobile and also provides access to companies’ websites, applications and records wherever they happen to be;

iv. Social media, an off spring of the Internet age. This new age media, though seen as a disruptive and unproductive activity among employees at work, can be a powerful tool for customer engagement, relationship building, networking, information sharing, and soliciting feedback, as well as for branding products and services.

PIKOM is confi dent of achieving a double digit growth rate in the years ahead through on-going capital intensive economic transformation programmes and mega-projects that have been stimulating domestic demand for ICT Services. “The government expects more mega infrastructure and property developments to be launched this year to support the construction sectors growth”, as announced by Works Minister Datuk Fadillah Yusof recently, will augur well for the economy.

Despite its growing dynamics, the nation’s ICT sector will continue to face several persistent challenges. The most critical challenge lies in the provision of ICT human capital, which can be seen through the side lenses of supply and demand, as follows:-


14 15

ICT JOB MARKET SALARY TRENDS

Job CategoryOverallThe average monthly salary of an ICT professional in Malaysia in 2013 was RM7,152 (Figure 2). This represents an increase of 7.2% from RM6,673 in 2012. This increase was well above the average infl ation rate of 3.2% as cited earlier, off ering a comfortable lifestyle for ICT professionals in Malaysia.

Aver

age

Mon

thly

Sal

ary

(Rin

ggit

Mal

aysi

a)

4.0

4.5

5.0

5.5

6.0

6.5

7.0

7.5

8.0

201420132012201120102009200820072006

Average Monthly Salary 4,184 4,443 4,807 5,200 5,714 6,165 6,673 7,152 7,776

4,184

4,807

5,200

5,714

6,165

6,673

7,152

7,776

8.7%

7.2%

4,443

Note: The past data for the period 2006-2012 has been smoothened for gauging the inherent trends that is critically important for making more realistic projection for the year 2014.

Figure 2: Average Salary of ICT Professionals: 2006-2014 Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2014

c. The ICT industry, including its workforce, generally lacks interest in attaining global standards and competencies in process and quality improvement activities. PIKOM’s internal investigations revealed that only 6% of Malaysian Information Communications Technology Service (ICTS) providers have attained Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certifi cations and less than 1.5% is equipped with the People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) certifi cation. More disheartening is the realization that less than 2% of PIKOM members in the ICTS segment have employees certifi ed with Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma accreditations. Green ICT Certifi cations have yet to gain a foothold in the Malaysian ICTS landscape. The pursuance of these certifi cations is critical for globalising Malaysian ICT products and services, or to solicit ICT contracts from developed economies like the USA;

d. Public and private universities and industries are still behind in creating globally-recognized ICT products and services due to the lack of a strong R&D and patenting culture. Despite the long established presence of some multi-nationals, the country still has weak links in the global R&D and innovation network. This is due to diffi culties in getting the right candidates to embark on high value adding ICT activities that the Government has been passionate about over the past two decades.


16 17

Industry CategoryTable 3 and Table 4 show the average monthly salary of ICT professionals by industry.

Fresh graduates by IndustryTable 3 shows that the Semiconductor and Wafer Fabrication industries paid the highest monthly salary of RM3,280 for fresh graduates in 2013 but this has not changed much since 2012. However, the Automotive and Heavy Industries Manufacturing sector registered a signifi cant rise in the monthly salary for fresh graduates from RM2,175 in 2012 to RM2,763 in 2013, recording the highest percentage increase of 27%. This is followed by Construction and Building where the average salary for fresh graduates increased by 18.3%, which is an increase from RM2,023 in 2012 to RM2,394 in 2013.

The education industry also registered signifi cant rise in the average salary from RM1,983 to RM2,305, recording a 16.2% increase. Apparently, It was noted that in the recent years the demand for employment in the private education sector has been on the rise following increasing enrolments not only in private schools and home-based schools but also in international schools where Malaysians are allowed to pursue their primary and secondary education.

Industry

Central Malaysia

25th

Percentile(RM)

50th

Percentile(RM)

75th

Percentile(RM)

Weighted Mean Salary (RM) Percentage

Change:2012-20132013 2012

Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery 1,800 3,000 3,250 2,763 2,175 27.0

Bank 2,000 2,500 2,700 2,425 2,425 0.0

Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services 1,800 2,500 2,700 2,375 2,275 4.4

Computer/IT (Hardware) 2,000 2,400 2,740 2,385 2,368 0.7

Computer/IT (Software) 2,200 2,580 2,850 2,553 2,450 4.2

Construction/Building 2,000 2,400 2,775 2,394 2,023 18.3

Consulting (Business/Technical) 2,100 2,500 3,000 2,525 2,325 8.6

Education 1,800 2,310 2,800 2,305 1,983 16.2

Electrical & Electronics 1,950 2,310 2,800 2,343 2,343 0.0

Financial Services/Securities/Insurance 2,000 2,400 2,800 2,400 2,350 2.1

Hotel/Restaurant/Food Service 1,800 1,800 3,750 2,288 2,288 0.0

Manufacturing 2,150 2,540 3,000 2,558 2,508 2.0

Oil/Gas/Petroleum 2,300 2,800 3,200 2,775 2,775 0.0

Printing/Publishing 2,000 2,000 3,200 2,300 2,300 0.0

Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 2,500 0.0

Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication 3,280 3,280 3,280 3,280 3,280 0.0

Services 1,900 2,030 2,800 2,190 2,115 3.5

Telecommunication 1,921 2,300 2,600 2,280 2,150 6.1

Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping 1,800 2,450 2,800 2,375 2,250 5.6

Wholesale/Retail/Trading 1,700 2,000 2,300 2,000 1,925 3.9

Summary Statistics

Average (Ringgit Malaysia ) 2,451 2,343 4.6

Minimum (Ringgit Malaysia ) 2,000 1,925

Maximum (Ringgit Malaysia ) 3,280 3,280

Table 3: Average Monthly Salary of Fresh Graduates / Entry Level of ICT Professionals by Industry: 2012-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM, 2014

Given the optimistic outlook of the economy and other positive factors within the ICT industry, PIKOM anticipates an 8.7% rise in the average salary of ICT professionals in 2014, to a fi gure no less than RM7,776 per month. By Job Category and Years of Working ExperienceIt can be seen from Table 2 that all ICT job categories have registered signifi cant increase in average salary in 2013. ICT professionals at the senior management level received the highest average rate of pay rise of 9.6%, followed by those in the senior executive category (7.5%) who has at least 5 years of working experience. The junior executives and middle management workers also received a notable 7.3% and 7.2% increase in average remuneration respectively. As in the previous year, fresh graduates netted the lowest rise in average salary of 4.6%, clocking in an average increase from RM2,343 in 2012 to RM2,451 in 2013.

By Job Category

Year

Fresh Graduates:

(Entry Level)

Junior Executive:(1-4 Years Working

Experience)

Senior Executive:(> 5 Years

Working Experience)

Middle Management:

(Manager)

Senior Management:

(Senior Manager)

Overall(Smoothened

Series)

Ringgit Malaysia (RM)

2010 - 2,936 4,514 7,005 10,795 5,714

2011 2,238 3,151 5,039 7,837 12,166 6,165

2012 2,343 3,206 5,344 8,381 13,446 6,673

2013 2,451 3,439 5,744 8,986 14,738 7,152

Percentage Change (%): 2012-2013

4.6 7.3 7.5 7.2 9.6 7.2

Benchmarking Against Fresh Graduates Monthly Salary

2011 1.00 1.41 2.25 3.50 5.44 2.75

2012 1.00 1.37 2.28 3.58 5.74 2.83

2013 1.00 1.40 2.34 3.67 6.01 2.92

Table 2: Average Salary of ICT Professionals by Job Category: 2010-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM, 2014

From Table 2, it can also be observed that the average salary gaps have widened in all job categories. Specifi cally, Senior Managers earned salaries 6.01 times higher than fresh graduates in 2013, which was only 5.74 times higher in 2012. Similarly, the fi gures for Middle Managers were 3.67 times higher in 2013 and 3.58 times higher in 2012; while, for Senior Executives it was 2.34 times and 2.28 times higher for the two years respectively. These fi gures indicate a widening disparity in the ICT salary structure in particular the salary of fresh graduates.


18 19

Experienced ICT Professionals by Industry: Senior ExecutiveAs in the middle management category, the ICT senior executive category recorded an average increase of 7.5% from RM5,344 in 2012 to RM5,744 in 2013. The three top performing industries registering growth in excess of 17% are Agricultural / Plantation / Aquaculture, Hotel / Restaurant / Food and Chemical.

The record 64.2% increase from RM5,033 in 2012 to RM8,263 for ICT professionals in the Agricultural/Plantation/Aquaculture category which went against the norm and expectations certainly requiring careful interpretations. The ICT senior executive in the Hotel / Restaurant / food services sector experienced a 23.4% increase in average salary from RM4,801 in 2012 to RM5,925 in 2013, and the Chemical sector registering 17.3% increase from RM7,107 in 2012 to RM8,340 in 2013.

Industry

Central Malaysia Weighted Mean Salary (RM) Percentage

Change:2012-201325th

Percentile(RM)

50th

Percentile(RM)

75th

Percentile(RM)

2013 2012

Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture 7,000 9,603 9,700 8,977 - -


Bank 7,000 8,849 10,400 8,775 8,494 3.3

Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services 7,500 8,900 10,800 9,025 -





Education 5,500 6,000 9,500 6,750 5,225 29.2




Manufacturing 6,980 8,200 11,500 8,720 8,345 4.5



Property/Real Estate 6,600 8,200 8,400 7,850 7,100 10.6



Services 8,532 12,000 15,500 12,008 9,833 22.1



Utilities 7,000 7,600 8,000 7,550 7,244 4.2


Geometric Mean (GM): Ringgit Malaysia 8,986 8,381 7.2

Minimum (Ringgit Malaysia ) 6,750

Maximum (Ringgit Malaysia ) 14,475

Table 5: Average Monthly Salary of Middle Management (Manager Category) ICT Professionals by Industry: 2012-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM Estimates, 2014

Experienced ICT Professionals by Industry: Middle Management (Manager)The middle management category on an overall basis registered a 7.2% increase in average salary from RM8,381 in 2012 to RM8,986 in 2013. In this job category, ICT managers in the Construction / Building industries registered the highest percentage increase of 30.4%, that is a rise from RM6,575 in 2012 to RM8,575 in 2013, followed by 29.2% in the Education sector. The Computer / IT hardware and Property /Real Estate sectors also showed signifi cant improvements in average salaries for ICT professionals by 21.7% and 10.6% respectively. Whilst signifi cant growth was registered in these sectors, many sectors in the chart are experiencing low growth to the extent that some experienced zero growth e.g. Science Technology / Aerospace; Semi-Conductor / Wafer and Wholesale / Retail /Trading.

Industry



Percentile(RM)

50th

Percentile(RM)

75th

Percentile(RM)

2013 2012


Bank 10,045 13,000 19,800 13,961 13,961 0.0

Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services 16,500 18,000 20,000 18,125 - -




Education 8,500 9,000 12,500 9,750 8,125 20.0


Manufacturing 11,429 14,000 17,350 14,195 14,150 0.3



Services 13,000 14,500 12,250 15,813 15,313 3.3




Geometric Mean (GM) : Ringgit Malaysia 14,738 13,446 9.6



Table 4: Average Monthly Salary of Senior Managemnet ICT Professionals by Industry: 2012-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM, 2014

Experienced ICT Professionals by Industry: Senior Management Table 4 shows the average salary of the senior manager category, grouped by industry. Overall, the ICT senior manager category registered a 9.6% increase from RM13,446 in 2012 to RM14,738 in 2013. On an industry basis, it was heartening to note that ICT senior managers employed in the transport / storage / freight / shipping industries recorded the highest salary increase of 33.4%, that is, from RM13,865 in 2012 to RM18,500 in 2013. Similarly, ICT senior management professionals in science & technology / aerospace /biotechnology sectors also registered a 32.0% rise in average salary in 2013. The education sector also registered double digit growth with an increase of 20% in 2013.


20 21

Industry



Percentile(RM)

50th

Percentile(RM)

75th

Percentile(RM)

2013 2012

Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture 3,030 3,900 3,900 3,683 2,305 59.8


Bank 3,000 3,500 4,170 3,543 3,475 1.9


Chemical 4,500 4,600 7,646 5,337 5,215 3.6





Education 2,450 2,800 3,500 2,888 2,575 12.1




Manufacturing 2,800 3,200 3,966 3,292 3,157 4.3






Services 2,500 3,400 3,600 3,225 3,119 3.4



Utilities 3,000 3,320 3,800 3,360 3,226 4.2





Table 7: Average Monthly Salary of Junior Executive (1-4 years of working experience) ICT Professionals by Industry: 2012-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM Estimates, 2014

Comparison Between 2012 and 2013 by industryTable 8 shows that, overall, at least twelve industries registered more than a 10% increase in average salary of ICT professionals in 2013 compared to the previous year. Among these, call centres / IT enabled services registered the highest change of 51.1% with an increase from RM5,028 in 2012 to RM7596 in 2013. This is followed by 23.4% in the construction / building arena and 22.9% in the agriculture / plantations / aquaculture industry segments. This is perhaps due to the strong activities in the construction and plantation sectors including IT enabled services driven by mobile applications and security.

Experienced ICT Professionals by Industry: Junior ExecutiveThe ICT professionals in the junior executive category who have between one to four years of working experience netted an average increase in salary by 7.3%, moving up from RM3,206 in 2012 to RM3,439 in 2013. Besides the agricultural / plantation/ aquaculture segments, where the increase in average salary showed up exorbitantly high at 59.8%, the hotel restaurants / food services industries registered a pay rise of 26.5%; see Table 7. This is followed by printing / publishing industries where ICT professionals in the junior executive category earned an average 19.1 % higher in 2013 in comparison to 2012. The ICT professionals in the junior executive category in the transport / storage / freight / shipping industries earned an average 17.3 % higher in 2013. Notably, as in the middle management and senior executive categories the ICT professionals in the junior executive segment in education recorded 12.1% higher earnings in 2013.

Industry



Percentile(RM)

50th

Percentile(RM)

75th

Percentile(RM)

2013 2012

Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture 5,500 8,150 11,250 8,263 5,033 64.2


Bank 4,700 5,800 7,000 5,825 5,575 4.5


Chemical 7,300 7,878 10,302 8,340 7,107 17.3





Education 3,500 4,080 5,000 4,165 4,100 1.6




Manufacturing 4,300 5,843 7,300 5,822 5,298 9.9






Services 4,500 5,500 6,650 5,538 5,213 6.2


Textiles/Garment - - -


Utilities 4,402 5,000 6,400 5,201 5,201 3.9





Table 6: Average Monthly Salary of Senior Executive (5 or more years of working experience) ICT Professionals by Industry: 2012-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM Estimates, 2014


22 23

Industry(Central Malaysia)

All Job categories Industry (Central Malaysia)

Senior Executive (5 or more years of working Experience)

Oil/Gas/Petroleum 8,324 Chemical 8,340

Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology

8,089 Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture

8,263

Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping

7,917 Oil/Gas/Petroleum 7,575

Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery

7,903 Telecommunication 6,675

Services 7,755 Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology

6,500


Senior Management (Senior Manager)

Industry (Central Malaysia)

Junior Executive (1-4 years of working Experience)

Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery

18,725 Chemical 5,337

Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping

18,500 Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication

3,753

Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services

18,125 Oil/Gas/Petroleum 3,725


18,097 Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture

3,683

Computer/IT (Hardware) 17,400 Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery

3,663


Middle Management (Manager)

Industry (Central Malaysia)

Fresh Graduates

Electrical & Electronics 14,475 Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication

3,280

Services 12,008 Oil/Gas/Petroleum 2,775

Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication

11,183 Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery

2,763

Oil/Gas/Petroleum 11,025 Manufacturing 2,558


10,175 Computer/IT (Software) 2,553

Table 9: Top Five Paying Industries by Category, 2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM Estimates, 2014

Top Five Paying Industries Table 9 shows the top fi ve paying industries for each ICT job category. Of the 25 industries covered in the study, the results showed that the Oil, Gas and Petroleum industry emerged as one of the top fi ve industries in all the categories except in the senior management segment. Also, besides the oil / gas / petroleum sectors, the science & technology / aerospace / bio-technology, transport / storage / freight / shipping, automotive / heavy industry / machinery and services sectors all showed up as the most lucrative industry segments for ICT professionals in the country.

IndustryALL JOB CATEGORIES Percentage

Change:2012-20132011 2012 2013

Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services 4,742 5,028 7,596 51.1

Construction/Building 4,276 4,436 5,476 23.4

Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture - 3,405 4,184 22.9

Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping 6,170 6,748 7,917 17.3

Wholesale/Retail/Trading 6,608 6,682 7,683 15.0

Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication 5,803 6,157 6,937 12.7

Education 4,516 4,601 5,172 12.4

Chemical 5,601 6,087 6,838 12.3

Computer/IT (Hardware) 5,929 6,489 7,276 12.1

Property/Real Estate 5,084 5,104 5,708 11.8

Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology 6,200 7,259 8,089 11.4

Services 6,395 7,034 7,755 10.2

Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery 5,168 7,289 7,903 8.4

Utilities 4,725 4,953 5,370 8.4

Hotel/Restaurant/Food Service 4,436 4,473 4,799 7.3

Manufacturing 6,552 6,666 6,917 2.8

Electrical & Electronics 5,928 6,152 6,320 2.7

Telecommunication 6,848 7,099 7,177 1.1

Computer/IT (Software) 5,762 5,936 5,999 1.1

Consulting (Business/Technical) 6,258 6,541 6,585 0.7

Printing/Publishing 4,075 4,204 4,223 0.5

Oil/Gas/Petroleum 8,021 8,316 8,324 0.1

Bank 6,459 6,923 6,923 0.0

Financial Services/Securities/Insurance 6,105 6,841 6,841 0.0

Table 8: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Industry: 2011-2013 Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM Estimates, 2014

ICT Industry Segments by Job CategoryThe three industry segments namely ICT hardware, ICT software and ICT-enabled services including call centres are not only users but also suppliers of ICT services to other industries. ICT professionals working in these segments typically tend to have specifi c and higher technical capabilities than those who work in purely ICT user environments such as banking, insurance, oil and gas, transportation et cetera.


24 25

FRESH GRADUATES JUNIOR EXECUTIVE SENIOR EXECUTIVE MIDDLE MANAGEMENT SENIOR MANAGEMENT

2,5152,406

3,3963,453 5,531

5,817 9,7228,739

15,00714,660ICT Sector Users

Non-ICT Sector Users

Key ICT Job FunctionsThe average monthly salary earned by key ICT professionals is shown in Table 11. It can be seen from this table that ICT professionals in the management category, whether they are Java, HTML, SQL or MCP certifi ed, netted the highest earnings compared to other ICT job functions. IT Project Managers could nett a median monthly salary as high as RM8,947 in 2013, which is 24.9% higher compared to RM7,165 in 2012.

Being a highly specialized job, the average monthly salary earned by SAP Consultants in 2013 was RM7,817, which marginally increased by 2% from RM7,647 in 2012; however, from past record it can be seen that experienced SAP Consultant ones can still nett double this amountcommand a higher salary package. With the advent of the GST implementation in 2015, such specialised skill sets will certainly be in greater demand.

Those in the technical line especially the software engineers, Senior Software Engineers and Programmer and System Analysts too registered signifi cant growth in median salary by 31.8%, 19.4% and 16.5% respectively.

Figure 3: Average monthly salaries by Job Category in ICT Sector and Non-ICT Sector users, 2013Source:Jobstreet.com and PIKOM, 2014

Job Functions 2013 2012 % Change

Information Technology, Project Manager (Java, HTML,SQL, Microsoft Certified Professional) 8,947 7,156 24.9

SAP Consultants 7,817 7,647 2.2

Senior Database/ System Administrators (Microsoft and Cisco Certified) 7,580 6,867 10.4

Information Technology Consultants (Java, HTML and MCP..) 6,967 6,920 0.7

Senior Software Engineer (Java, HTML,SQL, Microsoft Certified Professional) 6,956 5,973 16.5

Database/System Administrators/SQL (Microsoft and Cisco Certified) 5,044 4,327 16.6

Programmer/System Analyst (Java, HTML,SQL) 4,099 3,432 19.4

Software Developer/Programmer (Java, HTML,SQL) 4,034 3,778 6.8

Software Engineer (Java, HTML,SQL, Microsoft Certified Professional) 3,949 2,997 31.8

AutoCAD: Civil Engineering 3,459 3,149 1.2

Web Designer, HTML 3,173 2,773 14.4

Table 11: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Job Function, 2012-2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM

ICT Industry Segments and ICT User Industries Figure 3 shows the diff erences in the average monthly salary earned by ICT professionals working in the ICT sector and non-ICT sector or user sector. Of the 25 industry segments assessed in this compilation, the ICT sector comprised fi ve segments namely ICT hardware, ICT software and ICT-enabled services including call centres, telecommunications, electrical and electronics, semiconductor and wafer fabrication; the rest are considered ICT user industries. It is conjectured that ICT professionals working in the core ICT sector tend to earn higher incomes than their counterparts in the ICT user segments. However, the data in hand did not adequately support this. Specifi cally, it can be seen in Figure 3 that generally there is no distinct diff erence in salaries earned by ICT professionals in these two segments except in the middle management category where the average salary in the ICT user industries was 11.3% higher compared to their counter parts working in the ICT core sector.

Year

ICT Executive ICT Senior Executive

ICT Hardware

ICT Software

Call Centre/ICT

Enabled Services

ICT Industry

ICT Hardware

ICT Software

Call Centre/ICT

Enabled Services

ICT Industry

2008 2,325 2,500 2,500 2,440 3,400 3,924 3,749 3,681

2009 2,767 2,557 2,748 2,689 4,130 3,869 4,190 4,061

2010 2,720 2,750 2,925 2,797 4,320 4,505 4,428 4,417

2011 3,002 3,025 3,225 3,082 4,769 5,019 4,556 4,778

2012 3,100 3,063 3,225 3,129 4,835 5,160 4,750 4,912

2013 3,213 3,275 3,400 3,296 5,110 5,400 5,054 5,186

% change2012-2013 3.6 6.9 5.4 5.3 5.7 4.7 6.4 5.6

Year

ICT Middle Manager ICT Senior Manager

ICT Hardware

ICT Software

Call Centre/ICT

Enabled Services

ICT Industry

ICT Hardware

ICT Software

Call Centre/ICT

Enabled Services

ICT Industry

2008 5,075 5,995 6,538 5,837 7,971 8,475 10,700 8,975

2009 5,052 5,930 4,018 4,939 9,405 8,998 11,350 9,567

2010 6,625 6,646 7,548 6,957 10,900 9,250 12,758 10,876

2011 6,718 7,263 8,051 7,322 14,475 10,000 13,779 12,588

2012 6,800 7,575 8,300 7,533 17,400 10,600 15,019 14,044

2013 8,275 7,675 9,025 8,307 17,400 11,094 18,125 15,181

% change2012-2013 21.7 1.3 8.7 10.3 0.0 4.7 20.7 8.1

Table 10: Average Monthly Salary by Category in ICT Industry Segment of ICT Professionals by Job Category: 2008-2013Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM, 2014

Table 10 shows that the manager in the middle management category in the ICT hardware segments recorded the highest average salary increase of 21.7%, moving the fi gures up from RM6,800 in 2012 to RM8,275 in 2013. The senior manager category in the call-centre / ICT enabled services arena also recorded a signifi cant increase in average salary by 20.7%, increasing from RM15,019 in 2012 to RM18,125 in 2013.


26 27

Geographical Location As shown in Figure 6, ICT professionals working in Kuala Lumpur and Cyberjaya tend to earn 1.7 times higher than their counter parts working in smaller locations like Ipoh. Even within the Klang Valley, the disparity in salary is quite obvious, where the average median salary of ICT professionals in Petaling Jaya or Shah Alam tends to be lower than their counterparts in the capital.

Figure 6: Average monthly salary of ICT professionals by Geographical locations in Malaysia, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM, 2014

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

KUALA LUMPUR CYBERJAYA PETALING JAYA JOHOR BAHARU SHAH ALAM IPOH KUCHING

Monthly Median Salary (RM)

Monthly Median Salary (RM)

5,1965,092

5,1085,024

4,0964,0223,661

3,4993,584

3,4723,008

2,9062,9652,982

1.75 1.72

1.381.23 1.21

1.01 1.00

GenderDespite gender equality, the salary data interestingly revealed that male ICT professionals tend to earn a median salary of RM5,201 while females earned a median salary of only RM3,855, which works out to a 35% diff erence.

Table 12: Gender Disparity in ICT Salary in Malaysia, 2012-2013, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/) and PIKOM, 2014

GenderMonthly Median Salary 2013

(RM)Monthly Median Salary 2012

(RM) % Change

Male 5,509 5,201 5.9

Female 3,990 3,855 3.5

Years of Working Experience Typically one expects the salary of an employee to go up in tandem with the number of years of working experience. As shown in Figure 4 in 2013, the median salary of those have more than 20 years of working experience earned 4.97 times more than those who have less than one year of working experience; this ratio was 5.22 times in 2012.

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

LESS THAN 1 YEARS

2.21

3.28

4.97

1-4 YEARS 5-9 YEARS 10-19 YEARS 20 YEARS AND MORE

2,244 2,4532,935

3,069 5,019 5,426 7,616 8,059 11,71712,195Monthly Median Salary 2012 (RM)

Monthly Median Salary 2013 (RM)

1.251.00

Employment Size The size of a company’s workforce matters in determining the average monthly salary of employees. As shown in Figure 5, large corporations or multinationals (MNCs) tend to pay higher than smaller ones. Comparing against the smallest companies in the 1-9 employees category, which is taken as the baseline, the median salary paid by companies with more than 2,000 employees was 1.78 times more in 2013; this ratio was higher by 1.88 in 2012.

Figure 4: Median monthly salary of ICT professional and benchmarking employment size by Year of Experience, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM, 2014

Figure 5: Median monthly salary of ICT professional and benchmarking employment size by Employment Size, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM, 2014

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

1-9 10-49 50-199 200-599 600-1999 MORE THAN 2000

1.191.33

1.49

3,7743,390 3,8723,493 4,506

4,321 5,0034,805

1.78

6,7056,363

5,6365,426

1.031.00




28 29

Figure 7: Hot ICT Jobs by Area of Applications

TEC

HN

ICA

LA

PP

LICA

TIO

NS

SOFT

SK

ILLS

C# C++

Java

.Net Web Developer

CertifiedNetwork/

SystemEngineers

CertifiedDatabase

Administrators

SAP

ProjectManager

ITConsulting

Business ProcessImprovement

QualityImprovement

ITAudit

ITSecurity

Help DeskAnalysts

Big DataAnalytics

ERP

Hot ICT Jobs Currently, there is a shortage in the supply of qualifi ed and experienced candidates across many areas of the industry including software engineering, web development, database administration, security and project management, ranging from junior positions to graduate roles as well as more senior levels. Software development is an area in which the industries are straining to fi ll vacant roles. As shown in Figure 9, anyone with qualifi cations in C++, Java development, J2EE, .Net, HTML5, JavaScript, Php, J2ME, OOP, Python, Flex, AJAX and Silverlight is highly sought after.

Within the Business Applications domain, the demand for ICT professionals also varies greatly. Though demand for certifi ed professionals in SAP or ERP are at an all-time high, professionals specializing in IT audit and IT security are proliferating, especially to fend off malware makers and cyber thieves. Mobile technology to access information on the move is rapidly increasing while the use of desktops and PCs is slowing down in the midst of intense eff orts to create mobile rich content. As a result, mobile architects who can provide this service on Android, iPhone and Blackberry platforms are going to be in high demand in the coming months.

In addition, organizations shifting towards cloud computing are spurring the need for infrastructure professionals. Big Data Analytics is also a fast growing job area, especially in big companies desiring to extract insights from their petabytes of stored data. The best candidates for Big Data Analytics jobs are those equipped with inter-disciplinary knowledge and experience pertaining not only to technical know-how but who also have a strong statistical/mathematical background. Similarly, demand for mobile application developers and user interface designers who can develop user friendly and versatile applications are also on the rise.

Irrespective of the evolution of technology, the demand for soft-skilled professionals especially in project management, consulting, process and quality improvement is ever present.

As acknowledged, the use of desktops and PCs are slowing down, rapidly replaced by tablets and smart phones that have greater convenience in terms of mobility, versatility and fl exibility as well as having user friendly features and characteristics. In tandem with this, with such technological, business and market changes many companies are striving to create mobile rich content. As a result, mobile architects who can provide this service on Android, iPhone and Blackberry platforms are growing in high demand in the years ahead.

Gaming technologies like cloud based gaming, F2P (Free2Play), social media & subscription games and online gambling are also garnering a lot of attention in Ireland which will translate into a large demand for those with experience and qualifi cations in these areas.


30 31

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

PhilippinesIndiaindonesiaMalaysiaThailandViet NamChinaSingaporeUnitedKingdom

HongKong

NewZealand

CanadaUnitedStates

Australia

20132012

Ben

chm

arki

ng S

cale

Overall Benchmarking Using Atlas Criterion

0.44

0.44

0.49

0.480.

730.

781.00

1.00

1.361.43

1.201.

50

1.872.

032.26

2.282.

512.

402.53

2.46

3.05

2.773.

242.

87

3.24

3.13

3.76

3.46

Benchmarking Using Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Adjusted

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

PhilippinesindonesiaIndiaMalaysiaUnitedKingdom

CanadaAustraliaThailandNewZealand

SingaporeUnitedStates

ChinaHongKong

Viet Nam

20132012

Ben

chm

arki

ng S

cale

0.44

0.460.

560.65

0.660.72

1.00

1.00

1.47

1.40

1.72

1.44

1.90

1.52

1.361.

54

1.84

1.64

1.84

1.75

2.08

1.90

1.63

1.93

1.90

2.12

1.87

2.19

Figure 8: Overall benchmarking average salaries earned by ICT professionals in Malaysia against selected countries using Atlas Criterion, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM, 2014

Figure 9: Benchmarking average salaries earned by ICT professionals in Malaysia against selected countries using PPP method, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM, 2014

REGIONAL BENCHMARKING

Figure 8 shows a comparative analysis of the remuneration earned by ICT professionals in selected Asian and English speaking countries. Here, the average remuneration earned by each country is compared against Malaysia, giving rise to a scaling factor that is free from bias caused by foreign exchange fl uctuation. For the purpose of this benchmarking exercise, Malaysia assumes a scaling factor of one. The median data published by PayScale for the year 2013 was used. All measurements are tallied in US dollars. The average value for each country is compiled after taking into consideration three variables, namely IT skills, company size and years of working experience. Two types of benchmarking scales were published, specifi cally one with purchasing power parity (PPP) that takes into account infl ation rates and fl uctuations in the foreign exchange rate and the other without PPP adjustment. Indeed, technically speaking, ambitious job seekers should use PPP adjusted fi gures when searching for overseas jobs.

Comparison againts Asian Countries:Without any PPP adjustment, the results showed that more advanced Asian economies, in particular Hong Kong and Singapore, recorded average remuneration that were 2.46 to 2.28 times more than the average remuneration earned by Malaysian ICT professionals in 2013 (Table 13). Besides these two countries, China, Thailand and Vietnam off er higher remuneration for ICT professionals, off ering 2.03, 1.43 and 1.50 times more than Malaysia respectively. Comparatively, Indonesia, India and the Philippines off er lower remuneration to their ICT professionals. With PPP adjustment, which takes into account infl ation and foreign exchange rates as well as standards of living, the results showed that Hong Kong still ranked as the highest paying nation in Asia for ICT professionals. However, the scaling factor is only 2.12, which is signifi cantly lower than the non-PPP adjusted scale depicted earlier. Similarly, the scaling factors for Singapore and China lowered to 1.75 and 1.93 respectively. Surprisingly, Vietnam recorded a higher scale value of 2.19, indicating a much more attractive nation in Asia for talent migration from a salary perspective.


32 33

Year of Experience

ATLAS CRITERION PURCHASING POWER PARITY CRITERION

less than 1 year

1-4 years

5-9 years

10-19 year

20 years &

more

less than 1 year

1-4 years

5-9 years

10-19 year

20 years &

more

Malaysia 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Australia 4.75 4.41 3.27 2.64 1.85 2.09 1.94 1.44 1.16 0.81

United States 4.96 4.11 2.90 2.33 1.71 3.01 2.49 1.76 1.41 1.04

New Zealand 3.86 3.60 2.67 2.07 1.40 2.28 2.13 1.58 1.22 0.83

Canada 4.22 3.79 2.69 2.16 1.52 2.13 1.91 1.35 1.12 0.77

United Kingdom 3.34 3.14 2.32 1.93 1.34 1.95 1.83 1.35 1.12 0.78

Indonesia 0.61 0.60 0.72 0.94 1.41 0.51 0.50 0.60 0.79 1.18

Hong Kong 2.20 2.42 2.31 2.32 2.46 1.89 2.09 1.99 2.00 2.12

Vietnam 1.52 1.50 0.90 1.28 2.06 2.22 2.18 1.31 1.86 3.00

Phillipines 0.45 0.47 0.48 0.53 0.52 0.47 0.50 0.50 0.56 0.55

China 1.48 1.64 1.88 2.41 2.70 1.41 1.56 1.79 2.30 2.57

India 0.44 0.48 0.56 0.67 0.59 0.66 0.71 0.83 1.00 0.88

Singapore 2.57 2.52 2.19 2.18 2.06 1.98 1.93 1.68 1.68 1.58

Thailand 1.00 1.21 1.13 1.45 1.53 1.07 1.30 1.22 1.56 1.65

Employment Size


1-9 10-49

50-199

200-599

600-1999

2000-4999

5000 &

more1-9 10-

4950-199

200-599

600-1999

2000-4999

5000 &

more

Malaysia 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Australia 3.76 3.84 3.60 3.52 3.46 3.43 3.19 1.66 1.69 1.59 1.55 1.52 1.51 1.40

United States 3.62 3.68 3.31 3.17 3.03 3.05 2.92 2.20 2.23 2.01 1.92 1.84 1.85 1.77

New Zealand 3.18 3.37 3.15 2.82 2.78 2.60 2.41 1.88 1.99 1.86 1.67 1.65 1.54 1.43

Canada 3.34 3.38 3.11 2.97 2.78 2.85 2.60 1.68 1.70 1.56 1.50 1.40 1.44 1.31

United Kingdom 2.65 2.73 2.48 2.40 2.27 2.32 2.26 1.55 1.59 1.44 1.40 1.33 1.35 1.32

Indonesia 0.81 0.73 0.78 0.70 0.77 1.11 0.86 0.68 0.61 0.65 0.58 0.64 0.92 0.72

Hong Kong 2.69 2.58 2.37 2.53 2.45 2.43 2.70 2.32 2.22 2.04 2.18 2.11 2.10 2.33

Vietnam 1.24 1.51 1.18 1.29 1.10 2.33 1.98 1.81 2.20 1.72 1.88 1.61 3.40 2.88

Phillipines 0.41 0.39 0.40 0.41 0.40 0.39 0.39 0.43 0.42 0.43 0.43 0.42 0.41 0.41

China 2.10 2.07 1.99 2.05 2.27 2.76 2.16 2.00 1.97 1.90 1.95 2.17 2.63 2.06

India 0.52 0.35 0.37 0.42 0.44 0.45 0.42 0.78 0.52 0.56 0.63 0.65 0.67 0.62

Singapore 2.47 2.22 2.22 2.16 2.06 2.15 2.42 1.90 1.70 1.71 1.66 1.59 1.65 1.86

Thailand 1.50 1.70 1.22 1.46 1.79 1.41 1.63 1.61 1.83 1.32 1.57 1.93 1.51 1.75

CountryATLAS CRITERION PURCHASING POWER PARITY ADJUSTED

Skill & Speciality

Year of Experience

Employment Size

Skill & Speciality

Year of Experience

Employment Size

Malaysia 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Australia 3.74 3.20 3.45 1.65 1.41 1.52

United States 3.25 2.98 3.17 1.97 1.81 1.92

New Zealand 2.99 2.55 2.77 1.77 1.51 1.64

Canada 3.01 2.69 2.90 1.52 1.35 1.46

United Kingdom 2.51 2.29 2.40 1.46 1.33 1.40

Indonesia 0.71 0.81 0.82 0.60 0.68 0.69

Hong Kong 2.47 2.34 2.57 2.13 2.01 2.21

Vietnam 1.66 1.40 1.44 2.42 2.04 2.10

Phillipines 0.43 0.49 0.40 0.46 0.52 0.42

China 1.93 1.97 2.18 1.84 1.88 2.08

India 0.48 0.54 0.42 0.72 0.81 0.63

Singapore 2.26 2.30 2.28 1.74 1.76 1.75

Thailand 1.50 1.25 1.54 1.61 1.34 1.66

Table 13: Benchmarking Salaries Earned by ICT Professionals of Selected Countries and Malaysia, 2013Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM

Table 14: Benchmarking Salaries by Skills by Countries, 2013

Table 15: Benchmarking Salaries by Experience

Table 16: Benchmarking Salaries by Employment Size

Salary by Skill/Speciality


Microsoft Office

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

Project Management

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Word

Project Management

Malaysia 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00

Australia 3.87 3.88 4.08 3.18 1.71 1.71 1.80 1.40

United States 3.43 3.36 3.51 2.75 2.08 2.04 2.13 1.67

New Zealand 3.10 3.17 3.35 2.43 1.84 1.88 1.93 1.44

Canada 3.18 3.09 3.23 2.59 1.60 1.56 1.63 1.30

United Kingdom 2.62 2.53 2.67 2.24 1.53 1.48 1.55 1.30

Indonesia 0.72 0.68 0.68 0.78 0.60 0.57 0.57 0.65

Hong Kong 2.65 2.41 2.56 2.27 2.29 2.08 2.21 1.95

Vietnam 1.33 2.36 - 1.46 1.94 3.43 - 2.13

Phillipines 0.44 0.40 0.41 0.49 0.46 0.43 0.43 0.51

China 1.98 1.79 2.26 1.73 1.89 1.71 2.16 1.65

India 0.44 0.43 0.43 0.64 0.66 0.65 0.65 0.96

Singapore 2.33 2.30 2.36 2.06 1.79 1.77 1.82 1.58

Thailand 1.50 1.59 1.46 1.44 1.61 1.71 1.57 1.55


34 35

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

Rayong,Thailand

Dallas, USHongKong, HKChicago, USHouston,USLos Angeles,US

New York,US

Seatle, USShanghai, China

Da Nang, Vietnam

ATLAS CriterionPPP Adjusted Criterion

Ben

chm

arki

ng S

cale

1.99

1.852.00

3.30

2.01

2.33

2.01

3.31

2.11

3.48

2.14

3.52

2.15

3.54

2.17

3.58

2.262.

37

3.68

2.53

Table 17 shows that the Australian and USA job markets off er the highest remuneration, 3.76 and 3.24 times more respectively without PPP adjustments than what a typical ICT professional in Malaysia can earn. But, taking into consideration PPP adjustments, the USA becomes a higher paying destination than Australia, that is, 2.08 and 1.90 times respectively. Without PPP adjustments, Canada with its 3.05 scaling factor also appeared as an attractive destination for ICT jobseekers but the PPP adjusted value reduces it to 1.72, suggesting otherwise. Similarly, UK’s scaling factor reducing from 2.51 without PPP adjustment to 1.47 PPP adjusted does not position it as a very attractive destination as an ICT job market. Indeed, iIt can be seen that the cost of living and foreign exchange fl uctuations have signifi cant impacts on the salaries earned and thus, becomes a crucial consideration for potential job seekers before making any decision on job related migrations.

Malaysians are typically known for their mobility and adaptability in search of opportunities beyond the shores of Asia. The distant lands that become attractive destinations for Malaysians are mostly English speaking countries, in particular the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Despite the distance, these countries have long history of diplomatic and trade ties with Malaysia. Moreover, English is a popular lingua franca among Malaysian businesses especially among the private sector and there has always been a natural attraction for Malaysians to do more businesses with such English speaking countries. These destinations are no exceptions for ICT Professionals as well, especially software developers and networking engineers who are in demand at all times globally.

Country City ATLAS Criterion

PPP Adjusted Criterion

Country City ATLAS Criterion

PPP Adjusted Criterion

United States Seatle 3.58 2.17 Vietnam Da Nang 2.53 3.68

United States New York 3.54 2.15 China Shanghai 2.37 2.26

United States Los Angeles 3.52 2.14 Hong Kong Hong Kong 2.33 2.01

United States Houston 3.48 2.11 Thailand Reyong 1.85 1.99

United States Chicago 3.31 2.01 China Beijing 1.93 1.84

United States Dallas 3.30 1.94 Vietnam Hanoi 1.22 1.78

United States Atlanta 3.20 1.94 Thailand Phuket 1.64 1.76

New Zealand Wellington 2.78 1.64 Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City 1.20 1.75

United Kingdom London 2.80 1.63 Singapore Singapore 2.08 1.60

United Kingdom Aberdeen 2.77 1.61 China Tianjin 1.62 1.55

New Zealand Auckland 2.69 1.59 China Shenzen 1.58 1.51

Canada Calgary 3.11 1.56 Vietnam Vung Tau 1.02 1.48

New Zealand Christchurch 2.59 1.53 Thailand Bangkok 1.33 1.43

Australia Perth 3.41 1.50 China Suzhou 1.48 1.41

Canada Edmonton 2.95 1.49 Thailand Chonburi 1.19 1.28

Australia Sydney 3.36 1.48 Thailand Pattaya 1.18 1.27

Canada Toronto 2.90 1.46 China Guangzhou 1.23 1.18

Canada Ottawa 2.85 1.43 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 1.00 1.00

New Zealand Tauranga 2.41 1.43 Philippines Taguig City 0.80 0.85

New Zealand Hamilton 2.41 1.42 Philippines Gurgaon 0.56 0.84

Australia Canberra 3.22 1.42 China Hangzhou 0.88 0.79

Canada Vancouver 2.78 1.40 India Bangalore 0.53 0.79

Australia Brisbane 3.16 1.39 Philippines Makati City 0.73 0.78

Canada Montreal 2.75 1.39 Philippines Manila 0.72 0.76

New Zealand Palmerston North 2.30 1.36 Thailand Ayutthaya 0.59 0.74

Australia Melbourne 3.09 1.36 India Pune 0.49 0.73

New Zealand Dunedin 2.25 1.33 Thailand Chiang Mai 0.57 0.72

United Kingdom Bristol 2.27 1.32 India Mumbai 0.45 0.67

United Kingdom Edinburgh 2.25 1.31 India Hyderabad 0.43 0.65

Canada Mississauga 2.58 1.30 India New Delhi 0.43 0.64

Australia Adelaide 2.88 1.27 Indonesia Jakarta 0.72 0.60

United Kingdom Manchester 2.15 1.25 India Chenai 0.40 0.60

United Kingdom Glasgow 2.13 1.24 Philippines Cebu City 0.56 0.59

United Kingdom Birmingham 2.06 1.20 Philippines Pasig City 0.50 0.53

Australia Gold Coast 2.52 1.11 Philippines Quezon City 0.47 0.50

Philippines Mandaluyong City 0.26 0.27

Table 17: Salary Comparison with other Countries

Figure 10: Benchmarking Average ICT Salaries of Top Ten Cities Compared Against Kuala Lumpur, 2013


36 37

Month 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001

JAN 47.9 49.1 50.5 52.2 47.0 44.9 50.7 52.5 49.6 47.6 41.7 36.2 31.2 42.0

FEB 46.5 49.8 50.9 52.5 48.7 43.1 19.0 52.7 50.1 47.4 42.3 31.7 31.8 41.5

MAC 55.1 50.4 51.2 48.8 43.3 51.8 52.4 49.7 43.3 41.6 34.6 35.7 39.4

APR 56.5 48.8 53.2 51.4 46.9 49.7 51.2 50.4 42.8 39.0 31.0 35.2 40.1

MAY 56.7 49.7 51.9 51.9 47.3 49.2 50.0 49.9 44.0 39.0 28.7 30.9 37.5

JUN 49.4 49.8 53.5 48.1 48.5 48.9 50.1 50.2 41.1 46.4 64.1 35.0 37.5

JUL 48.1 41.3 54.1 50.2 49.7 47.9 50.4 47.8 42.0 43.5 32.5 34.7 34.9

AUG 51.0 50.9 52.3 51.9 50.2 50.1 48.7 50.1 49.6 45.1 32.7 36.2 32.9

SEP 44.4 48.7 48.8 61.0 48.7 49.6 59.5 50.7 48.6 51.9 34.7 34.0 30.5

OCT 48.7 48.8 51.0 53.7 48.3 49.6 48.6 49.6 46.8 49.6 32.9 32.7 32.4

NOV 46.7 48.7 49.2 51.6 50.0 47.6 59.3 51.7 47.1 51.3 37.0 34.5 31.2

DEC 47.9 48.1 49.4 49.7 50.2 47.3 49.6 51.9 49.0 49.9 36.8 31.6 31.5

Table 18: job Employment Confi dence Index: Januari 2001-February 2014Source: Jobstreet.com

Figure 11: Job Employment Confi dence Index: 2001-February 2014Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

FEB 20142013201220112010200920082007200620052004200320022001

36.0

34.1 33.6

45.2

45.8

50.1 50.4 49.3

47.7

51.2 51.6

48.9

50.3

46.5

EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK AND PERCEPTION

This report also attempts to present the overall ICT job market outlook from an industry perspective and from the perception of potential jobseekers. A total of 227 JobStreet.com clients, managers and senior managers across various industries in Malaysia participated in this survey conducted in February 2013.

JobStreet.com Confidence Index (JECI)The JobStreet.com Employment Confi dence Index (JECI), which is compiled on a monthly basis, is shown in Table 18. JECI ranges from zero (very poor) to 100 (very good). A low index shows a tough job market situation where employment seekers fi nd it diffi cult to get a job. A high index indicates a comfortable job market, where people are able to secure a good job easily.

As shown in Figure 11, the JECI dropped from 51.6 in 2011 to 48.9 in 2012, before it shot up to 50.3 in 2013 and then dropped to 46.5 in February 2014.


38 39

50%All OtherResponses20%

Sales

10%Accounting/

Finance

10%Marketing

6%Manufacturing

4%Engineering

Electrical

5TOP

Retaining Staff : A high staff turnover will cost business owners in time, money and work productivity due to rehiring and training. When polled, 56 percent of respondents said that they are willing to increase salary and benefi ts as a means to retain their staff . Others felt that beside a fair salary, it was important to ensure employees fi nd fulfi llment in their work. Most companies also look at training, career development and better work arrangements to manage staff retention.

Top specializations:Employers were also asked about the job specializations which are in current demand. For Q1 2014, Sales related are highly sought after, followed by Accounting and Finance, and Manufacturing specializations. In the science fi eld, Electrical Engineering comes at top 5 specializations wanted by employers.

By increasingsalary/benefits

By providingtraining/career

progressionopportunities

By providingbetter work

arrangement

By promotion56%

50%

40%

23%

37% 35%

16% 18%

7% 7% 6% 6%

34% 34%

We will be expending

and hiring

We willmaintaining our

hiring rate

We will hiringless compared

to last year

We will be only replacing/filling

essential positions

We will notbe hiring in the

foreseeable future

20142013

JAN - MAR APR - JUN JUL - SEP OCT - DEC

42% 46%10%

2%

Anticipated Hiring Activities for the next 12 monthAccording to a recent JobStreet.com Job Outlook Report, there is good news for Malaysians seeking employment as the job market is expected to be broadly consistent, with a positive employment expectation of a 2 percent growth compared to Q1 2013.

Employment Prospects: In the survey which was conducted for the First Quarter of 2014, 37 percent of respondents felt that employment prospects for the next 12 months will be better, while 16 percent said that the present rate will be maintained. Some 34 percent will be looking to hiring replacements. Only 13 percent said they will be hiring less or not hiring in the future.

Recruitment Period: When it comes to recruitment period, 88 percent of respondents indicated that the highest recruitment period will be between the fi rst and second quarter of the year, that is from January 2014 to June 2014. The lowest recruitment period would be the 4th Quarter of the year. During this period, many employees are not looking to leave their job yet until the bonus payout; hence hiring activities is seen to be slower this time.

Figure 12: Job Growth for the next 12 months

Figure 13: Recruitment period

Figure 14: Steps to Retain Staff

Figure 15: Top 5 Specialisation that employers look for in Q1 2014


40 41

POSITIVE DISRUPTION ON TALENT ANALYTICS: WHERE COMPANIES CAN STARTBy: Cheah Kok Hoong, ChairmanOng Kian Yew, Executive DirectorPIKOM

Potential in Big Data Talent AnalyticsCompanies trying to understand workforce data are not new. They can be traced back to as early as the 1900s. Critical questions duly addressed include whom to hire, how to manage people, what motivates performance, retention of staff and customer loyalty. In the past, these were understood by and large by intuition or opinion or experience. Some organized companies may compile regular numeric on human resource (HR) spending and basic HR metrics with little emphasis on the analytics approach. Today the discipline of talent analytics typifi es with big data characteristics and off ers fact-based decision making and actionable insights in view of transforming processes, organizations, entire industries and even society (Miele and Shockley, 2012).

Big Data Dimensions There is much more data around. Its volume is expanding. It’s getting faster and spreading everywhere. It is available through more channels and devices. As refl ected succinctly in Figure 1, it comes with volume,velocity, variety and value (Gartner Laney, 2001; McAfee and Brynjolff son, 2012). It integrates the structured database typically prevalent in any business intelligent (BI) system with external semi-structured data from logs and unstructured data like e-mails from multiple data centers across the globe (IBM, 2013; CIPD, 2013). The integration process can be a technological nightmare for IT departments and a formidable challenge for strategic planners and decision makers. However, it is worth the eff ort as big data analytics is poised to emerge as the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity (Manyika, et al, 2011).

CONCLUSION

The positive ICT job outlook in 2014 is very much attributed to the strong economic growth that spurs not only capital intensive projects but also ICT intensive technologies and content as well as the modernization of businesses and the lifestyle of individuals. Though the implementation of the GST beginning April 2015 is anticipated to push the infl ation rates up, it is also forecasted to intensify ICT deployment and the upgrading of existing accounting, budgetary, inventory and human resource systems especially the months leading up to 1st April 2015. PIKOM is confi dent that for 2014, the country’s GDP growth will meet its target rate of 5.2% and the ICT salary growth of 8.7%. It is anticipated that with such a momentum in 2014, the growth will also spill into 2015 in particular for the fi rst half of 2015. However the declining supply of quality graduates, rampant job hopping and talent migration are still haunting the industry and it is imperative that industry players continue to ensure that their remuneration structure encompassing cash and non-cash components are eff ective not just within Malaysia but also in comparison to the surrounding countries.


42 43

VOLUMEMore data, both retropective and real-time, is availaible and can be used.

More HR business by volume and value being done on the internet

VELOCITYIncreasing speed, scale and scope of HR information.

Information availaible everywhere and anywhere, and increasingly to everyone.

Fast, efficient, cheap and multi-channel means more HR can be generated and captured.

VARIETYGreater range of devices and platforms.

Social media capturing and transmitting data.

More aspects of life, networked smartphones to embedded chips, can be used in workplace settings.

VALUEIntegrate systems and structures.

Build skills and smarts for analysis.

Encourage collaboration and connectivity around data and information. Use data as a transformational tol

Figure 1: Four “V” of Big DataSource: Charter Institute of Personal Development (2013), UK

Strategic IntentThe envisaged transition from traditional practices to talent analytics may not happen overnight. However, strategies and plans need to be put in place at this juncture (Bayer, 2011; Bersin, 2012 ). This essentially requires focused investment, dedicated cross-functional or interdisciplinary teams and strong partnerships among HR, IT and business operations. When talent analytics is directly linked to business goals, HR will be in a strategic position to analyse the contribution of employees at all levels to improve business outcomes across the board – from sales and customer service to accident reduction and quality improvement.

HR Data and Analytical ChallengesThe CIPD report categorised the current HR records under three broad categories, fi rstly people data such as demographics, academic history, skills, reward, engagement and so on; secondly, programme data such as attendance, adoption, participation in programmes ranging from training and development and leadership programmes to talent management and key projects and assignments, and practices a number of shortfalls and thirdly, performance data such as ratings captured during 360 evaluation, goal attainment, talent, succession programmes and talent and assessment (Bersin, 2012).

HR records based on routine data are often diff used into the current HR systems and structures that exist in silos and are diffi cult to access (CIPD, 2013; Bersin et al, 2013). Even more so, this problem is compounded by rigid management structures, very hierarchical organizational charts and reporting lines that disrupt data integration across departments and functions and the free fl ow of data that that is

The fi eld of human resource is not an exception to the big data analytics phenomenon. However, HR’s use of BDA, however, is very much at its infancy (CIPD, 2013). A study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) indicated that nearly half of HR leaders who were canvassed do not use big data. It is also conjectured that two-thirds may not have a strategy on big data or are not even giving serious thought to it. Thus, this paper is calling on HR managers to take a leadership role by embracing a positive disruption approach, which demands creating an opportunity to bring together diff erent parts of the business to solve problems and drive business results (Bersin J., Houston J., and Kester B., 2014).

critical for an eff ective analytical approach. However, this is understandable in the business world that is concerned with hacking and cyber security issues. However, sometimes these obstacles can stifl e envisaged collaboration in pursuit of big data analytics. Thus, for talent analytics to be eff ective and take-off , the approach needs to be pragmatic, collaborative and more importantly, permissive security-wise. Besides infrastructure and system challenges, IT and database skills, especially the ability to use query languages or the ability to programme and run data queries or integrate older systems alongside with newer ones or transition totally to newer ones, can be a major implementation challenge in big data analytics.

Lack of Analytical SkillsStudies have shown that generally HR professionals lack analytics skills (CIPD, 2013; Bersin, 2012). This is attributable to many reasons, but the key ones include the lack of affi nity and consistent training for data analytics related tasks and on the contrary, many are comfortable and biased towards qualitative approaches or analytics that require basic arithmetic. Thus, there is always a growing tension between organizational leaders who constantly seek more insights about people, culture and behaviour versus solving business challenges. The key issue for HR is how to develop these skills within HR. The fi rst step and the easiest thing to do in addressing the skills gaps is to seek and fi nd individuals with analytical skills within existing HR sections or even the wider business entity. These individuals may come from reward backgrounds or workforce planning groups or may be business analysts with an affi nity for numbers to track sales in search of market opportunities or those with advanced IT and business skills having the ability to use tools like spreadsheet, database, writing queries and coding programmes as well as mathematical and statistical modelling.

More importantly, the analytics analysts should have the ability to understand key issues around the data and a readiness for questions and queries can help in-house teams to progress. Failing which, organizations can seek the appointment of highly qualifi ed analysts, modellers, data scientists or external consultants endowed with the requisite skills. In managing the development of analytics talents either from within or outside or a hybrid of both approaches, organizations should proactively develop coherent strategies for continuity and relevance. As Bersin (2012) succinctly put forth four suggestions; fi rst, developing junior analysts, advanced reporting function that can compare linked with business objectives and compare with competitors and trends, second, visualizations through dashboards and presentations; third, understanding segmentation and optimising talents using modelling and statistical tools; and fourthly, advanced analytics and predictive analytics skills that can help to develop scenarios, forecasts and algorithms.

What Big Data Talent Analytics can do?As such, big data talent analytics especially in the business environment can be of great value to business organizations (Laney,2012; Bersin et al, 2014),and can be surmised as contributing to :

• understanding the characteristics of high performing sales people especially looking at the factors that drive-them;

• customer retention gauged against the quality of service and customer satisfaction;• identifying work related factors associated with fraud, accidents and losses - who are they and how

much are the claims and damages incurred;• employee retention requiring strategic levels of engagement in preventing highly talented and

competitive people from leaving the organization;• undertaking loss analysis variations by location, by functional units and by employees as well as over

time, including seasonal variations;


44 45

• gauging potential leadership;• talent gap analysis to understand the current status and the anticipated talent requirements in the

future;• setting up platforms for matching skills with jobs;• monitoring candidate pipeline especially attracting and selecting quality candidates who will help

organizations sustain and remain relevant in the business;• creating analytic and predictive models that can help to gauge, understand and predict productivity,

trends and turnover in businesses

Where to start?Big companies have begun to realize the growing importance of talent analytics as an integral function of HR practices. According to a global study, 78% of large companies canvassed in 32 advanced economies have indicated there is a sense of urgency to embrace talent analytics. However, of these, 45% have indicated they are not ready and 86% are not equipped with the requisite analytics capabilities. From this trend is raised the question of where do small and medium companies that typically lack resources in terms of money, technology and human capital stand in this new wave of change sweeping the business world. Indeed, developing countries including Malaysia will not stand by and watch these opportunities simply pass by. Therefore, the pertinent question that warrants attention is where to start harnessing analytics talents.

Potential starting points include:

1. Employing skilled and competent analysts to lead the big data talent analytics team–The person can be askilled and matured salespersons within the organization or recruited talent from outside.

2. Employing multi-disciplinary profi les in the analytics team, such as econometricians, statisticians, demographers, computer/applied scientists, and business intelligence specialists. They usually bring in a diff erent view to the challenges at hand while being hands-on with numerical analyses, fact-fi nding, and generating insights from data.

3. Creating a community of practice where intrinsically interested professionals can share experiences, best practices and raise visibility by becoming the best ambassadors.

4. Equipping analysts with HR technology, performance consulting, visualization, and project management skills. More importantly, would be building a close relationship between HR, IT and business units.

5. Identifying and prioritizing specifi c business challenges to be addressed: Using data to meet visible business challenges by working with business units to agree on deliverables, reports, and expectations.

6. Building capabilities by experimenting: Choosing a business problem, bringing people from diff erent functions together, considering which types of data might help solve that problem, and fi nding the techniques that might help the team analyze the data and devise solutions. More importantly, understanding the institutional dynamics and people behaviours in cross-functional activities especially mitigating turf-wars and boundary watching.

Figure2: Bersin by Deloitte Talent Analytics Maturity ModelSource: Bersin& Associates

As shown in Figure 2, as promulgated by Bersin & associates (2012) such leadership seems to be emerging in assessing the talent analytics capability and capacity of implementing organizations. Therefore, it is imperative that Malaysian local information communications technology (ICT) companies gear up and eff ectively harness the emerging opportunities and challenges before becoming a dinosaur in this current digital age.

7. Making analytics user-friendly for the entire organization through the use of tools such as dashboards in order to provide maximum value to business units.

8. Not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good: Recognizing that without quality data, analytics projects will likely fail; at the same time, insisting on 100 percent data quality means a project will likely never begin. Data quality remains a challenge for all functions in analytics; it is valuable to leverage the data that does exist to start improving people-related decisions today.

Next Stage in Talent Analytics The next anticipated progress in talent analytics is seeking process and capability accreditations at organization and professional levels like Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and People Capability Model Integration (PCMM) for attaining maturity in software development and workforce competency respectively. As duly acknowledged, such organizational or individual certifi cations determine competency, authority, credibility and service level quality.

Bersin & AssociatesTalent AnalyticsMaturity Model® 4

32

1Level 1: Reactive - Operational Reporting

Operational Reporting for Measurement of Efficiency and Compliance,Data Exploration and Integration, Development of Data Dictionary

Level 2: Proactive- Advanced ReportingOperational Reporting for Benchmarking and

Decision Making, Multidimensional Analysis and Dashboards

Level 3: Strategic AnalyticsSegmentation, Statiscal Analysis, Development of “People Model”,

Analysis of Dimensions to Understand Cause and Delivery of Actionable Solutions

Level 4: Predictive AnalyticsDevelopment of Predictive Models, Scenario Planning,

Risk Analysis and Mitigation, Integration with Strategic Planning


46 47

Acknowledgements:The above article was written based on facts and data provided in the following sources on talent analytics and big data.

1. Bersin, J, 2013. Big Data in Human Resources: Talent Analytics Comes of Age (http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/02/17/bigdata-in-human-resources-talent-analytics-comes-of-age/)

2. Bersin, J, Karen O’Leonard, and Wendy Wang-Audia, 2013. High-impact talent analytics: Building a world-class HR measurement and analytics function, Bersin by Deloitte, October 2013,

3. Bersin, Josh. (2012). Big Data in HR: building a competitive talent analytics function – four stages of maturity [online ]. Oakland, CA: Bersin by Deloitte: Available at http://www. Bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx? docid=15430 & mode=search&p=Human-Resources.

4. Beyer, Mark (2011) .”Gartner Says Solving ‘Big Data’ Challenge Involves More Than Just Managing Volumes of Data”. Gartner. Archived from the original on 10 July 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2011

5. Chartered Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD),( 2013). Talent analytics and big data – the challenge for HR. Research Report November, 2013. CIP in partnership with Oracle: Human Capital Management Cloud. http://www.oracle.com/us/products/applications/human-capital-management/talent-analytics-and-big-data-2063584.pdf

6. Evelson, Boris (29 April 2010). “Want to know what Forrester’s lead data analysts are thinking about BI and the data domain?”

7. IBM, (2013) “IBM What is big data? — Bringing big data to the enterprise”. www.ibm.com. Retrieved 2013-08-26.

8. Josh Bersin, John Houston & Boy Kester (2014) Talent analytics in practice: Go from talking to delivering on big data. Deloitte University Press. http://dupress.com/articles/hc-trends-2014-talent-analytics/

9. Laney, Douglas (2012). “The Importance of ‘Big Data’: A Defi nition”. Gartner. Retrieved 21 June 2012.10. Manyika, James; Chui, Michael; Bughin, Jaques; Brown, Brad; Dobbs, Richard; Roxburgh, Charles; Byers,

Angela Hung (May 2011). Big Data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. McKinsey Global Institute.

11. Oracle, (2012). Oracle and FSN, “Mastering Big Data: CFO Strategies to Transform Insight into Opportunity”, December 2012

SKILL COMPETENCIES MATRIX FOR MALAYSIA ICT INDUSTRYTalent Division, Multimedia Development Corporation (MDec)

MSC Malaysia is a national ICT initiative that was introduced to the nation and the world during the mid-1990s. Since its inception, MSC Malaysia has steadily spearheaded the nation towards a technology-rich and knowledge based economy. It has been well supported by the ICT industry locally and internationally.

In the eff ort to grow the local ICT industry, the country faced several challenges. With talent as the main ingredient of economic growth, shortage of manpower was unavoidable as demand growth outpaced the supply of talent. The imbalance fuelled intense talent competition and in some cases limited the growth of companies and businesses.

Several immediate measures were taken by the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) as well as relevant government agencies to manage the imbalance. With the increase of unsatisfi ed feedback from the corporate sector between 2005 and 2010, the government commissioned MDeC to understand the talent gap. In order to structurally and systematically resolve the issue, a massive ICT Industry Talent Supply-Demand Study focused on MSC Malaysia companies was conducted in 2010.

On one hand, the Study managed to identify the gaps and problem areas but it was also discovered that there was no consistent nomenclature to represent the variety of jobs in the ICT industry. Diff erent companies would name the jobs diff erently and sometimes the job titles used were enlivened to attract applicants. Acceleration in technological innovation too drove the specialization needs and expanded the job types and skills required.


48 49

Figure 1. Participated companies and job types involved.

While manageable in a smaller ICT industry, the inconsistencies could amplify as the industry size multiplies. This could lead to inaccurate and inconsistent strategic decisions. Anticipating a rapid industry growth beyond 2010, MDeC took the lead to initiate an eff ort to standardize the nomenclature of the variety of jobs in the ICT industry.

This marked the creation of the Terms of Reference for ICT jobs. The eff ort was targeted at establishing a “common language” between the relevant parties such as the industry, academia, researchers, and government planners. In the year 2010, the fi rst MSC Malaysia Skills Competency Matrix (SCM) was developed. The SCM provides the industry with a reference point for job functions and experience required, and the academia with a document on industry relevant skills and knowledge required. In a nutshell, the SCM links the job functions with the skills required.

Since then, the SCM became an important reference point for most ICT researches and career mapping. Data gathering, tabulation and analysis processes were accelerated. It has successfully eliminated the confusion and streamlined the expectations between employers and employees. The SCM also helped to manage the rapid changes in job functions and specializations.

Fast forward to 2014, the SCM is being revised to capture the evolution of job functions, skills and knowledge required. New job elements such as certifi cation, salary scale, etc. were included to enrich the nomenclature and classifi cation. It captures the changes in the market place and provides relevant and useful information to the users.

More than 2,000 companies from both MSC Malaysia and non-MSC Malaysia companies helped to develop the Skills Competency Matrix. These companies were selected from a good representation of the ICT industry players (Figure 1).

LOW

NON ICT ICT

JOB

VA

LUE

JOB TYPE

MSC(ICT FOCUS)

NON MSC(ICT RELATED)

HIGH

The methodology of the SCM mirrored the hierarchical system of biological classifi cation. The taxonomy approach provided the best structure to set the nomenclature and classifi cation for the SCM (Table 1). Job types are grouped by the value chains (or job groupings) within industry clusters namely Creative Multimedia, Systems Design and Development, Information Technology and Shared Services Outsourcing. The grouping is expected to grow corresponding to the growth in the ICT industry of Malaysia.

Living Organism Skills Matrix

Level 1 Order Industry

Level 2 Family Value Chain

Level 3 Genus Function

Level 4 Species Skills

Table 1. Approach in classifi cation of job types.

The SCM document is presented at individual job type level. Each job type contains 15 pieces of information that was collected from companies participated in the development of the SCM (Figure 2):

1. Industry Cluster in which this Job Type falls under2. Most common Job Title used for this Job Type3. Job Code assigned to this Job Type4. Description of job function of the Job Type5. Job Grouping within this Industry Cluster6. Academic qualifi cation preferred by employers for the Job Type7. Other Job Titles used for the Job Type8. Job level & industry experience applicable for this Job Type9. Relevant industry certifi cation and salary range10. Description of technical skills associated with this Job Type11. Required skills12. Elective skills13. Level of core soft skills preferred by employers14. Description of competency expectation15. Indication of entry level Job Types

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE, 2014

50

It is interesting to note that between 2011 and 2014, the number of job groups remains rather constant. There was only an addition of one job group over the three-year period. The Job Types and Job Titles, however, expanded at a 10% rate over the same period (Table 2). The growth was driven by the introduction of new technology in the ICT industry. There was no Job Types or Titles that became obsolete.

Category SCM 1.0 (2010) SCM 2.0 (2014) Changes

Industry Cluster 4 4 0

Job Group 17 18 +1

Job Type 114 128 +14

Job Title 432 479 +47

Table 2. Findings of SCM 2.0.

With the SCM 2.0 in place, MDeC is confi dent that we have bridged the missing link between industry and academia by improving the communication and interpretation of new job functions and knowledge requirements. It will also certainly assist in reducing the demand and supply gap thus enabling the rapid growth of ICT industry.

MDeC strongly recommend that the ICT industry and institutions of higher learning embrace and adopt the Skills Competency Matrix as the standard Terms of Reference for talent development program design and enhancement. It is imperative that we increase the availability of ICT talent pool and enhance the competitiveness of human capital in Malaysia.

The complete Skills Competency Matrix can be obtained by contacting the Talent Division of MDeC at [email protected].

5

1

2

3

4

6

7

8

9

10

13

11

Figure 2. Information contained in each Job Type.

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