If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it, you almost don't have to manage them.
– Jack Welch

Taking the road less travelled always has its pitfalls. One, you don't know what lies ahead. Two, the path itself may be strewn with obstacles, ensuring that the journey is not a smooth one. And that's exactly what we realised in our association with ORDC and Lighthouse, as they attempted charting a course in the hitherto unfamiliar territory – a national compensation survey.

This was the first time such an endeavour was attempted in the sultanate. Despite sceptics, the survey got going in July 2006 and here we have the findings. It took a couple of more months than initially thought, but proving the cynics wrong, a lot of Omani companies – 73 to be precise – did participate in the survey. Some sectors like the telecom and oil and gas industry did not participate, and some players in the automobile industry preferred to stay out, but then who says pioneers have their task easy?

Considering the fact that this was the first time such an attempt was being made, and Oman has this long-standing culture of family owned businesses, where information dissemination was looked upon rather suspiciously, the data collated over the last six months is commendable. Also, with the dynamics changing irreversibly with the opening up of the sultanate's job market, enabling movement of workforce between companies, the survey provides HR managers a roadmap to consult.

Of course, there are many ifs. If only all the sectors had participated, if only all the players in each category had taken part...but the fact is that a beginning has been made, a new road has been charted. It is possible the next traveller may not find the task so daunting.

Mohana Prabhakar
Managing editor