Corporate Oman gets ready for the first compensation survey by ORDC in the wake of new developments in the job market
Letha Jose

There are three things that a man must know to survive in this world: what is too much for him, what is too little, and what is just right - African proverb

The job market in Oman has never been so volatile. There's movement of workforce across companies, and with the economy booming in South Asia – the primary job sourcing market for most of the companies here – finding the right talent with the existing compensation packages has become tough. Tailoring a competitive benefits package and fine-tuning it on a continuous basis has become a major challenge for organisations in Oman, used to near static compensation levels, almost throughout their existence.

There could have been no better time to launch a compensation survey in the sultanate with most HR managers on an overdrive to search for the right compensation strategy for these uncertain times. Oman Resources Development Consultants (ORDC), with Lighthouse, a leading business consultancy firm in India, is conducting the sultanate's first annual compensation survey, in association with BusinessToday. Till a few months ago, the job market in the sultanate, as in most of the other GCC countries, had not acquired the dynamism visible now, with protectionist policies in place that restricted movement of workforce between companies. But with the economy opening up, the sultanate eyeing an FTA with the US and the WTO ripples melting down country-specific labour policy rigidities, the rules of the game seem to have changed forever.

Confidentiality factor
In a market like Oman, where such a survey is being conducted for the first time, confidentiality of the whole process is likely to be uppermost in the minds of most people. Says Devarath Nambiar, business development manager, ORDC, "Participant confidentiality will be maintained at all costs and we are ready to sign non-disclosure agreement. Also, we will not show company-wise details of compensation elements in the survey but use percentiles instead."

There's also the moot question whether some of the big companies, specially the family owned ones, will be willing to participate in the survey as this is a novel concept, alien to their hitherto operational practices. "The salary information in even the most closely held companies is no longer a secret. Data is available for tabulation even if a company is not participating in the survey," says Nambiar.

Corporate takes
Nambiar is optimistic about companies' willingness to be part of this process. A reconnaissance across a spectrum of industries showed that his confidence is not misplaced. Nasser Said al Khanjari, employees relation team leader, Omantel, says time is ripe for such a survey. "I believe that such survey should be done every two years as the market is changing rapidly and development is taking faster pace. More and more multinational companies are coming to Oman for big projects with so many positive changes in commercial laws aimed at attracting foreign investors." He adds, "As of now, with a lot of new multinational companies coming into Oman, sometimes the salary hike they offer is almost 60 per cent. They can afford to do that as they are weaning away experienced staff and save huge sums on training. At present, attrition rates are high. However, when reliable data is available, companies will be able to arrest such exodus."

This is a view seconded by Sunny Thomas, HR manager, Dalma Energy. "Oman is now a market where industries are coming up in a fast pace with new industrial areas being set up. The timing of the survey could not have been better because the market needs standardised data in the current scenario. In fact, with the opening up of the job market and entry of multinationals, we lost quite a few people to our competitors. If we had data on compensation packages earlier we could have stemmed this."

Bilal Khabori, divisional manager, HR, Port Services Corporation, says Oman market needs a survey like this in the current scenario. Khanjari says companies must acknowledge that those employees with experience and knowledge are the most sought after ones by newcomers. "Every incumbent company should have an in-depth study on the impact of the market opening up on the salaries to experienced people."

On how open the companies here will be when providing necessary information for the survey, Thomas says, "Public limited companies will be open though family held firms may be a little reluctant even though they would like to be competitive." Khanjari says the participating companies stand to benefit from the survey. "Most of the companies will be interested in participating. With the job market opening up, it was high time someone studied the market and gave reliable feedback. Once this kind of a survey is done, companies become aware of the prevailing compensation packages in any particular industry. So, when a person is offered a position, the compensation package will neither be too high nor too low vis-à-vis a competitor."

A national perspective with global overview
Nambiar says ORDC is also considering the fact that a survey, which takes into account only the Oman market, will not work due to workforce movement across countries. "We have done surveys in the Middle East and India, so we have data from there. We also have tie-ups around the world. Expertise and data from all these associates will be used to arrive at statistics that will be relevant for companies here."

The findings of the survey, which will commence in July, will be published in January 2007. Three kinds of reports will be available at the end of the survey. The Oman All Industry Report will carry compensation details of all the sectors put together in percentile forms, benefits analysis, performance pay details and terms and conditions of services analysis. The Sector Specific Report will have all of the above plus details on any specific sector, while the Gold Report will have all of the above plus clients data compared against the market and ORDC's recommendations.

The ORDC-Lighthouse compensation survey will provide companies with valuable compensation data from all industrial sectors. It will cover base salary and variable pay data for the full spectrum of organisation's responsibility levels, enabling it to develop competitive and effective compensation plans for employees. The survey will also throw light on competitive compensation levels industry and profession wise. Says Nambiar, "The systems have to be fine-tuned for the Omani market. There is no concept of standardised compensation pac-kages here except for a few big companies and the multinationals in the oil and gas sector."

One thing is sure: Compensation policies in Oman are in for major changes. And there cannot be anything better to come by for the companies and their HR managers than an authentic survey in these choppy waters.