Ict Job Market Outlook

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA
JUNE 2013
P U B LI S HE D BY
I N CO L L A B O R AT I O N W I T H
ICT Job Market Outlook in Malaysia June 2013
Published by:
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Wisma JobStreet.com, 27, Lorong Medan Tuanku 1, (off Jalan Sultan Ismail), 50300 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia T: +(603) 2176 0493 (DL); F: +(603) 2698 7200 W: www.jobstreet.com E: marketing-kl@jobstreet.com
KPMG Malaysia, Level 10, KPMG Tower, 8, First Avenue, Bandar Utama, 47800 Petaling Jaya T: +(603) 7721 3656; F: +(603) 7721 3399 W: www.kpmg.com.my ISSN No: 2180-267X Release date: June, 2013 Editor-in-Chief: Ramachandran Ramasamy, Head of Policy, Capability and Research, PIKOM Contributor: Dominic Wong, Senior Marketing Manager Malaysia, JobStreet.com Reviewed by: Woon Tai Hai, Executive Director, KPMG Malaysia DISCLAIMER This publication contains ndings based on data provided by JobStreet.com Sdn Bhd (449122-K). KPMG Business Advisory Sdn Bhd (150059-H) and PIKOM Services Sdn Bhd (801999-W) collaboratively carried out the data analysis. Although professional effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of data analysis and presentation, all information furnished in this publication are provided strictly on an as is and as available basis and is so provided for your information and reference only. With this caution, kindly be informed that this release is not presented to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. As such, JobStreet.com, KPMG and PIKOM including their sponsors, partners and associates, whether named or unnamed, do not warrant the accuracy or adequacy of the data and ndings. Moreover, all parties concerned explicitly disclaim any liability for errors or omissions or inaccuracies pertaining to the contents of this publication. Therefore, the use of data and ndings presented in this publication is solely at the users risk. PIKOM, JobStreet.com and KPMG shall in no event be liable for damages, loss or expense including without limitation, direct, incidental, special, or consequential damage or economic loss arising from or in connection with the data and / or ndings published in this series. However, professional advice can be sought from the producers of this publication.
COPYRIGHT Copyright 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, including recording or the use of any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from PIKOM.
Contents
Message by PIKOM Chairman Message by PIKOM President/CEO Preamble Malaysian Economic and ICT Industry Outlook ICT Job Market Salary Trends Regional Benchmarking Employment Outlook and Perceptions Rethinking HR in a Changing World: A Practitioners Discourse The Right Talent Development Strategy for Top Talents? Closing The Demand-Supply Gap in ICT Talents iv v 6 9 14 25 28 33 39 44 iii
ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013
Message by PIKOM Chairman

WOON TAI HAI
In its endeavour to champion the Information Communications Technology (ICT) industry, PIKOM has once again successfully produced the annual ICT Job Market Outlook in Malaysia report. This outlook is made possible with the continuing support of Jobstreet.com and KPMG. In order to provide more comprehensive information, due references have also been made to PayScale web-based information, wherever possible. As in the past, the typical information published includes average monthly salaries of ICT professionals, job sentiment index, top paying ICT jobs, hot ICT jobs in demand and the hiring outlook. The salary information is broken down by industry, job category, employment size and geographical location. As an additional feature, this series is accompanied by median data for various types of job functions, gender and years of working experience. Regional data on selected Asian countries and English speaking nations that Malaysia has close diplomatic and trade ties, is provided once again. This time, however, besides atlas based criterion the publication also included Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted salary information that essentially takes into account foreign exchange uctuations and ination rates as well as living standards and costs. As the PIKOM Research Committee Chairman, I would like to see more effort taken in addressing the human capital development issues and challenges. From the employees perspective, the issues and challenges of talent migration to better paying destinations are still affecting the industry. As reected once again in this outlook, countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore and China in Asia and Australia, New Zealand and United States of America in the English speaking world have a much higher capacity for remuneration which is bound to attract competent Malaysian ICT professionals. If timely efforts are not taken in addressing this dilemma, it will be harder for the industry and the nation as a whole to become globally competitive and productive. On the other hand, employers are equally facing a quandary in getting industry ready ICT graduates. Employers are hesitant to invest in training or equipping fresh graduates with the right skills and knowledge in an employment environment where job hopping is highly prevalent. To overcome this problem, the industry needs to put in place appropriate strategies and measures that can help to enhance staff loyalty. Obviously, competitive remuneration is one of the options for staff retention. PIKOM would like to take this opportunity to record its sincere thanks and appreciation to Jobstreet.com and KPMG for their invaluable contributions. PIKOM is optimistic that these industry partners will continue to offer their enduring support in the years ahead. PIKOM believes that with its expanded scope and coverage, this outlook will continue to serve its members, industry players and investors, as well as mainstream policy formulators.
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Message by PIKOM President/CEO

SHAIFUBAHRIM SALEH
PIKOM is once again pleased to publish the annual ICT Job Market Outlook in Malaysia 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 in 2012. The report revealed that the ICT job market in Malaysia is expanding and evolving in tandem with the growing demand for information age services such as system integration, cloud computing, data warehousing, software development as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), web and portal development, multimedia content provision, big data analytics and networking. In meeting the changing demands of the industry and human capital requirements, PIKOM has reviewed and realigned its ve-year strategy plan during its 2013 planning session. Specically, human capital development is positioned as one of the six key strategies. The others include enhancing value to members, accelerating growth demand, leading the digital trend and increasing competitiveness and globalisation of the Malaysian ICT industry. In human capital development, PIKOM has embarked on programmes to publicise ICT courses through social media networks, re-skill the current talent pool, conduct cross-disciplinary training, promote industrial guided projects for students and to attract Malaysian talents from overseas as well as the Board of Computing Professionals Malaysia (BCPM). v Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to record my sincere appreciation to Jobstreet.com and KPMG for their effort in making this publication into another milestone for PIKOM.
Preamble
PIKOM, the National ICT Association of Malaysia, has once again taken the lead to compile the ICT Job Market Outlook in Malaysia, 2013 in collaboration with JobStreet.com and KPMG. PIKOM was mainly responsible for data collation and coordination over and above its provision of ICT industry-specic information and outlook. On its part, Jobstreet.com provided the latest salary report of ICT professionals by industry, job market outlook in the respective ICT segments, and survey-based economic perception of job seekers and industry players. Meanwhile, KPMG took on the task to present Malaysias economic outlook. For regional comparisons, due references were made to 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 migration 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 more than 1,500 members as at end of 2012. Its members contribute about 80% of the total ICT revenue in the country. JobStreet.com is the largest online recruitment service provider for all categories of jobseekers,
from fresh jobseekers after graduation to senior level positions. Job Street operates the JobStreet. com (www.JobStreet.com) websites presently covering the employment markets in Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Japan and Thailand. The group currently services over 50,000 corporate customers and over 6 million jobseekers. Job Street is listed on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities (JOBST). KPMG is an international network specialising in audit, tax and advisory service. KPMG rst established a presence in Malaysia in 1928 and the Malaysian rm now has 65 partners and over 1,700 staff located across 10 ofces. Globally, KPMG operates in 144 countries with a staff size of 137,000 people.
The main objective of this report is to provide data and information on the following:i. Average ICT Salaries by Industry Agriculture / Plantations / Aquaculture Automotive / Heavy Industry / Machinery Banking Institutions Chemical Industries Construction / Building, including Civil Engineering Consulting, both Business and Technical Private Education Electrical & Electronics Sector Financial Services / Securities / Insurance/ Hotel / Restaurant / Food Services Manufacturing Oil / Gas / Petroleum Industries Printing / Publishing Property / Real Estate Technology / Aerospace / Bio-technology Semiconductor / Wafer Fabrication Services Telecommunication Textiles / Garment Transport / Storage / Freight / Shipping Utilities Wholesale / Retail / Trading Call Centre / ICT-Enabled Services Computer / ICT (Hardware) Computer / ICT (Software) ii. Average Monthly Salaries of ICT Professionals by Job Category Overall ICT Professional 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 seekers iii. Average Monthly Salaries of ICT Professionals by Key ICT Industry Segments ICT Hardware ICT Software Call Centre iv. Top 10 Specialisations Sought v. Regional Benchmarking with Selected Asian Economies vi. Perception by Job Seekers and Employers Jobstreet.com Employee Condence Index (JECI) Anticipated Hiring Activities Top 10 Specialisations Sought Position Level Sought
It is pertinent to note that the average monthly salary of ICT professionals for 2012 was RM6,784, registering an increase of 8.7% from RM6,240 the previous year. The record also showed that the ICT professionals in the Senior Manager, Middle Manager and Senior Executive categories experienced signicant pay rise of 14.1%, 9.9% and 9.6% respectively in 2012. It is also observed that the salary gap between the Senior Managers and the fresh graduates has widened from 5.44 times in 2011 to 5.71 times in 2012. Such trends are considered 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 problems in retaining its younger staff from job hopping in search of higher remuneration. Like in the previous years, the oil and gas sector continued to be one of the attractive sectors for ICT professionals, especially those in the junior categories. In terms of geographical locations, the study discovered that the typical salaries 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. Such disparity is likely to continue in accentuating youth migration to cities that are already overcrowded. The data also showed that big companies tend to pay as high as 1.88 times more than those in the small and micro categories which have less than 10 employees. The study also interestingly revealed that male ICT professionals earn, on average, 34% higher salary than their female counterparts. Among the various types of job functions investigated, those in ICT Project Management tend to earn signicantly higher salary than those in the technical or engineering elds. For instance, in 2012 a typical ICT Project Manager earned an average monthly salary of RM9,700, which is almost twice of that earned by a Junior Software Engineer or 50% more than that of a Senior Software Engineer. Besides publishing average annual salaries earned by ICT professionals in seven Asian countries, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Thailand, India, the Philippines and Indonesia, the report also provides data for ve English speaking nations namely United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia that typically attract Malaysians for employment. For making meaningful comparisons, the regional salary data took into consideration the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) factor. Instead of just publishing the average annual salaries, once again the reporting is done in terms of scaling numbers, which essentially highlighted how many times higher or lower the salaries are compared with other regional markets. Among Asian countries, Hong Kong once again topped the salary scale, where the salary was 1.90 times (with PPP adjusted) higher or 2.53 times (without PPP adjustments) higher than their counterparts in Malaysia in 2012. Similarly, Australia and USA topped the list among the English speaking destinations. Specically, ICT professionals in Australia netted 3.76 times (without PPP adjustments) higher or 1.90 times (with PPP adjusted) higher than the data reported for Malaysians in this report. Hot ICT jobs varied across technical, business applications and soft skills categories. In the technical domain, ICT professionals equipped with Java, C#, C++, dotNet, SharePoint and Web Application Developers are highly sought after. Under business applications, the notable fast growing jobs are IT Security Analyst and Big Data Analytics 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 attributed to prolic growth experienced in cloud computing and mobile applications. The report also carries information on the perception of job seekers and potential employers, in particular pertaining to economic performance and 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 2013.
Malaysian Economic and ICT Industry Outlook
The Malaysian economy grew at an average rate of 5.2% in 2012. The Government of Malaysia has projected an economic growth of between 4.5% and 5.5% in 2013 (Figure 1). However, Malaysias economic growth predictions for 2013 vary widely among private nancial institutions, international agencies and research institutions. Specically, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) has predicted continuity of resilience in the Malaysian economy in 2013 with a growth rate of 5.6%. The economic growth predictions made by Royal Bank of Scotland and the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporations (OCBC) were 5.5% and 5.2% respectively, which were much higher compared to other private institutions. The predictions made by International Monetary Fund (IMF), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and World Bank (WB) were 4.7%, 4.8% and 5.0% respectively, which is signicantly lower than MIER, citing the effect on the export market by the continuing global economic slowdown as the key reason for the lower forecast. Although Malaysias growth rate was lower than expected at 4.1% in Q1, 2013, the economy is expected to rebound with economic improvement in the US and positive growth in China.
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Pre Asian Financial Crisis 1997: 9.2% p.a. Pre Global Financial Crisis 2009: 5.6% p.a. Projected to grow by 5.5% p.a. in 2013 by Economic Report
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Figure 1: Malaysias GDP Growth (%): 1990-2013
However, PIKOM is optimistic and concurs with MIERs prediction of 5.6%. The resilience in the Malaysian economy is poised to continue in 2013 and can be attributed to the following factors:i. strong domestic demand arising from economic transformation programmes and on-going mega projects;
ii. increased export earnings owing to strengthening of Ringgit Malaysia against US dollars; iii. stable overnight lending rates stimulating business investments; iv. sustained private and public consumption and expenditure; v. low ination rate;
vi. low unemployment rate; vii. steady and positive growth in the various economic sectors, especially in the Information Communications Technology Services (ICTS); and viii. higher economic growth forecasts for China, India and ASEAN countries, where at least 60% of Malaysias total trade is concentrated at and is highly likely to bring a positive impact on the Malaysian economy in 2013.
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Nonetheless, the Malaysian economy is not totally free from economic encumbrances and faces a number of investment related risk factors such as:i. External environment: Risk aversion strategy among potential investors due to globalisation and market liberalization phenomena;
ii. Macro policy environment: Any slacking in the delivery of economic transformation initiatives, mega projects and geographically dened corridor projects; iii. Reducing scal decit: Poor management on the part of the Government in its ambitious task in reducing the scal decit 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; iv. Macro indicators: Fluctuation in oil and commodity prices in global markets could result in higher prices for consumers through increasing ination and base lending rates; v. Capital ight: Massive capital outow arising from volatile foreign exchange rates is also bound to hurt export and import earnings;
vi. Quality of Malaysian workforce: Over dependence on low skilled foreign workers may not be healthy for the Malaysian economy in the long term unless a concerted effort is made to increase the quality of the local workforce, ingrained with technological capabilities, innovation culture, R&D capabilities, productivity, quality and competitive edge best practices; vii. 13th General Election: Typically, during the post-election period the Government takes cognizance and reminds the public of its pledges and promises, and therefore tends to implement developmental projects. From a business perspective, it is imperative and crucial to ensure a familiarity of policies and regulations now that GE13 is done and dusted. The Government should also review policies that may have run their course as this will garner wider public support and boost investor condence. 11
ICT Industry Outlook

As it was in the past, the ICTS segment in Malaysia is projected to register signicant growth in 2013. The ICTS segment grew at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.3% by increasing its value added services from RM12.3 billion in 2001 to RM55.1 billion in 2012 (Figure 2). The ICTS segment is poised to reach the mark of RM61.7 billion in 2013 by registering another annual growth rate of 12%. In tandem, the share of ICTS in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 3.4% to 6.3%, almost doubling during the period of 2001-2012. Traditionally, telecommunications and computer services constitute the ICTS segments as per Malaysian Standard Industry Classication 2000 (MSIC2000). The introduction of MSIC2008 saw the inclusion of publishing services, motion picture, video and television programme, programming and broadcasting and information services as additional items. The new additional segments constitute about 11% of the total ICTS sector contribution in terms of value added services. PIKOM is condent of achieving 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. To name a few, the ICT intensive big projects include My Rapid Transit (MRT) linking Kajang and Sg. Buluh, Petronas Renery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang, Tun Razak Exchange, River of Life, Bandar Malaysia at Sungei Besi as well as the various economic corridors
Iskandar Malaysia, Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), East Coast Economic Region (ECER), Sabah Development Corridor (SDC) and Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).
80 (RM Billion) Value in Ringgit Malaysia 70 60 50 40 30 20 10
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Figure 2: ICTS Value Added Services : 2001-2013 Source: Department of Statistics and PIKOM Estimates
The ICT sector, in its contemporary form, has evolved to be more than a mere collection of technological tools. As a socio-economic enabler and key driver of businesses, ICT is poised to increases the process efciency and product and services delivery effectiveness. ICTs ubiquity and pervasive features and characteristics are continually impacting the way one works, plays and learns. In the early stages of information age, such changes were succinctly harnessed through the MSC Malaysia initiative that saw its introduction in the mid-nineties. Having gone through two decades of new age experiences and exposures, viewing from a public policy perspective, the country is migrating into its next phase of inection point by creating a digital innovation economy through the Digital Malaysia Programme (DMP). From a private sector lens, the DMP is expected to increase business activities while at the same time addressing key national concerns such as creating opportunities for the B40 income group (the lowest 40% in household income), youth, women and digital entrepreneurs. In 2013, industry pundits are projecting at least four key trends changing the way in which rms work, which in turn, impacts on economic growth. The four key trends are: i. Big data analytics, which are deployed in a variety of industries to serve customers better by culling out insights and predictions that the data can generate. The process can help to improve the protability 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, organise 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 smartphones and tablets. With such a work culture, people need not be in the ofce to complete their tasks; they can do their work from the train or bus on their daily commute, besides teleworking 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;
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iv. Social media, an offspring of the Internet age. This new age media, though seen as a disruptive and unproductive activity when staff unnecessarily waste time, can be a powerful tool for customer engagement, relationship building, networking, information sharing, and soliciting feedback, as well as branding products and services. Despite growing dynamism, the nations ICT sector continues to face several persistent challenges: i. Supply of ICT Graduates: As it was in the recent past, ICT enrolment in both public and private institutions has stagnated. The ICT enrolment in the public universities has not improved much, as the gure has been lingering around 25,000 per year over the past three years. Understandably, with budget constraints, it will be difcult for public universities to increase their capacity to produce more ICT graduates. ICT enrolment in private universities also has not improved very much and averages around 50,000 per year, which, notably, is half than what it was a decade ago. ii. Quality of ICT Graduates: Quality, competency and employability of ICT graduates in meeting the industrys demands continue to remain a critical issue. Low remuneration, especially in comparison to regional countries, rampant job-hopping for better terms of employment, and a declining interest among young people in ICT jobs that demand long working hours continue to plague the growth of the ICT industry. However, initiatives by TalentCorp, which was established in January 2011, helped to redress some of the talent gaps in the ICT sector. The initiatives are carried out via three strategic thrusts: optimise Malaysian talent, attract and facilitate global talent and build networks of top talent. Being new, these endeavours are yet to be realised. iii. Quality and Competency Standards of Human Capital in ICT Firms: The ICT industry, including its workforce, generally lacks the interest in attaining global standards in process and quality improvement activities. PIKOMs internal investigation revealed that only 6% of Malaysian Information Communications Technology Service (ICTS) providers have attained Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) certications and less than 1.5% are equipped with the People Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) certication. The numbers were further disheartening upon realising that less than 2% of PIKOM members in the ICTS segment have employees certied with Six Sigma or Lean Six Sigma accreditations. Green ICT Certications have yet to gain a foothold in the Malaysian ICTS landscape. Pursuant of these certications is critical for globalising Malaysian ICT products and services, or to solicit ICT contracts from developed economies like USA; and iv. Research, development and commercialisation culture: Public and private universities and industries are still behind in creating globally-recognised 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 difculties 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.
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ICT Job Market Salary Trends
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Job Category Overall

The average monthly salary of an ICT professional in Malaysia in 2012 was RM6,784 (Figure 3). This represents an increase of 8.7% from RM6,240 in 2011. This increase was well above the average ination rate of 3.2% in 2011 and 1.6% in 2012, resulting in a comfortable living for ICT professionals in Malaysia. Given the optimistic outlook of the economy and other positive factors within the ICT industry, PIKOM anticipates an 8.9% rise in the average salary of ICT professionals in 2013, to a gure no less than RM7,387 per month.
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Figure 3: Average Salary of ICT Professionals: 2006-2013 Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
By Job Category and Years of Working Experience

It can be seen from Table 1 that all ICT job categories, except Junior Executive, registered signicant increase in the average salary in 2012. ICT professionals in the middle management level received the highest average rate of pay rise of 14.1%, followed by senior management (9.9%) and senior executive category (9.6%). Junior executives received only a raise of 1.7% where their average monthly salary increased from RM3,151 in 2011 to RM3,206 in 2012. The fresh graduates are, on average, netting a monthly salary of RM2,343, which is considered as a signicant rise from RM2,238 in the preceding year . 15
By Job Category
Junior Executive: (1-4 Years Working Experience) 2,936 3,151 3,206 1.7 Senior Executive: (> 5 Years Working Experience) 4,514 5,039 5,521 9.6
Year
Fresh Graduates: (Entry Level)
Middle Management: (Manager)
Senior Management: (Senior Manager) 10,795 12,166 13,374 9.9
Overall
2010 2011 2012 Percentage Change (%)
2,238 2,343 4.7
7,005 7,837 8,946 14.1
5,626 6,240 6,784 8.7
Benchmarking Against Average Monthly Salary of Fresh Graduates 2011 2012 1.00 1.00 1.41 1.37 2.25 2.36 3.50 3.82 5.44 5.71
Table 1 : Average Salary of ICT Professionals by Job Category: 2010-2012 Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
From Table 1, it can also be observed that Senior Managers earned 5.44 times higher than fresh graduates in 2011 and 5.71 times higher in 2012. Similarly, the gures for Middle Manager level were 3.50 and 3.82 while for Senior Executives it were 2.25 and 2.36, indicating a widening disparity in the salary structure.
Industry Category
Table 2 and Table 3 show the average monthly salary of ICT professionals by industry.
Industry (Central Malaysia)
Fresh Graduates / Entry Level (Less than 1 year working experience) Percentiles (Ringgit Malaysia) 25th 50th 2,300 2,500 2,300 2,400 2,500 1,800 2,350 2,000 2,310 2,230 1,800 2,540 2,800 2,000 2,500 3,280 2,030 2,200 2,300 1,950 75th 2,300 2,700 2,700 2,670 2,800 2,775 2,600 2,331 2,800 2,800 3,750 2,800 3,200 3,200 2,500 3,280 2,500 2,500 2,800 2,300 Weighted Mean 2012 2,175 2,425 2,275 2,368 2,450 2,023 2,325 1,983 2,343 2,350 2,288 2,508 2,775 2300 2500 3280 2115 2150 2250 1925 2343 1925 3280 2011 2,175 2,225 2,275 2,213 2,400 1,800 2,275 1,975 2,063 2,225 2,225 2,508 2,418 2,225 2,350 3,280 2,000 2,120 2,284 1,800 2,238
% Change
Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery Bank Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services Computer/IT (Hardware) Computer/IT (Software) Construction/Building Consulting (Business/Technical) Education Electrical & Electronics Financial Services/Securities/Insurance Hotel/Restaurant/Food Service Manufacturing Oil/Gas/Petroleum
1,800 2,000 1,800 2,000 2,000 1,715 2,000 1,600 1,950 2,000 1,800 2,150 2,300 2,000 2,500 3,280 1,900 1,700 1,600 1,500
0.0 9.0 0.0 7.0 2.1 12.4 2.2 0.4 13.5 2.6 2.8 0.0 14.8 3.4 6.4 0.0 5.8 1.4 -1.5 6.9 4.7
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Printing/Publishing Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication Services Telecommunication Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping Wholesale/Retail/Trading Geometric Mean (GM) : (Ringgit Malaysia ) Minimum (Ringgit Malaysia ) Maximum (Ringgit Malaysia )
Table 2: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Graduates by Industry in 2012 Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
Fresh graduates by Industry

Table 2 shows that the Semiconductor and Wafer Fabrication industries paid the highest monthly salary of RM3,280 for fresh graduates in 2012 but had not changed since 2011. However, the Oil and Gas industry registered a signi cant rise in the monthly salary for fresh graduates from RM2,418 in 2011 to RM2,775 in 2012, recording the highest percentage increase of 14.8%. This is followed by the Electrical and Electronics industry where the average salary for fresh graduates increased by 13.5%, which is an increase from RM2,063 in 2011 to RM2,343 in 2012. ICT graduates in the Construction and Building industry also experienced a signicant increase of 12.4% in their salary. Besides Semiconductor and Wafer Fabrication, industries like Automotive and Heavy Industry, Manufacturing, Transport, Storage, Freight and Shipping as well as Call Centre and IT enabled Services did not show any improvement in the average salary for fresh graduates in 2012.
Senior Management (Senior Manager) Weighted Mean 25th 7,300 6,775 7,000 5,300 6,000 6,200 6,300 3,800 5,365 7,500 5,000 7,000 9,016 5,500 6,200 8,500 9,000 6,630 7,170 6,400 6,975 8,050 9,000 7,000 10,000 8,800 8,600 15,500 10,000 10,000 8,000 11,785 11,000 13,730 10,600 11,000 10,175 11,183 9,833 8,693 8,600 7,244 9,959 8,946 6,625 14,091 7,000 8,200 7,100 7,000 7,000 6,625 10,000 13,000 10,504 5,500 3,116 5,100 4,500 4,500 3,800 5,200 4,100 4,402 3,900 8,190 10,000 8,345 4,000 7,800 8,346 7,237 3,605 5,000 5,396 7,500 4,000 6,000 6,750 5,275 5,200 6,500 5,420 5,000 4,800 8,320 9,000 8,285 4,300 5,500 17,000 17,000 14,091 4,500 5,138 5,500 6,100 5,225 3,100 4,150 5,000 5700 6,500 5,600 6,400 9,500 5,500 6,200 8,000 7,200 6,650 8,500 7,500 6,400 5,700 8,600 11,000 8,625 4,300 5,857 7,500 6,300 7,500 6,575 3,500 4,250 6,000 7,500 9,300 7,575 4,000 5,070 6,500 5,160 4,500 5,879 4,100 5119 5,450 4,801 5,298 7,500 4,154 5,825 6,500 5,563 5,213 6,675 5,610 5,201 4,800 5,521 4,154 7,500 6,500 8,900 6,800 3,600 4,700 6,338 4,835 5,100 7,363 8,600 7,107 4,500 2,200 2,500 2,500 2,700 2,100 2,810 3,000 2,500 2,660 3,000 2,400 2,900 2,500 3,010 2,075 2,750 2,200 3,000 3,000 8,500 9,200 8,300 3,800 4,500 6,200 4,750 2,700 8,500 10,200 8,494 4,600 5,500 6,700 5,575 3,000 8,800 11,100 9,000 4,400 5,050 5,700 5,050 2,400 3,950 3,400 3,200 4,600 3,200 3,000 3,000 3,200 2,600 3,300 3,400 2,600 3,000 3,600 2,700 3,000 3,100 3,700 3,400 3,300 3,200 3,202 3,350 3,400 4,000 8730 5,033 1,468 2,500 50th 75th 25th 50th 75th 25th 50th 75th 2,750 3,950 4,100 3,800 7,158 3,800 3,750 3,300 4,030 3,000 3,500 4,100 2,600 3,966 4,500 2,996 3,960 3,577 4,600 3,600 4,200 3,800 3,500 4,000 17,438 13,961 17,400 10,375 11,000 8,125 13,961 14,150 16,521 13,680 15,313 12,925 13865 12,175 13,374 8,125 17,438 Percentiles (Ringgit Malaysia) Weighted Mean Weighted Mean Percentiles (Ringgit Malaysia) Percentiles (Ringgit Malaysia)
Middle Management (Manager)
Senior Executive (5 or more working experience)
Junior Executive (1-4 working experience) Weighted Mean 2,305 3,563 3,475 3,225 5,215 3,100 3,063 2,950 3,283 2,575 3,228 3,475 2,575 3,157 3,675 2,699 3,215 3,069 3,753 3,119 3,388 3,100 3,226 3,425 3,206 2,575 3,753
Industry (Central Malaysia) 75th 20,800 19,800 21,600 13,500 15,000 8,500 19,800 17,350 20,000 15,400 21,250 15,500 17,460 14,700
Percentiles (Ringgit Malaysia)
25th -
50th
Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture
Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery
7,350
20,800
Bank -
10,045
13,000
Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services
Chemical
Computer/IT (Hardware)
15,000
16,500
Computer/IT (Software) -
8,000
10,00
Construction/Building
Consulting (Business/Technical)
8,000
10,500
Education -
8,000
8,000
Electrical & Electronics
Financial Services/Securities/Insurance -
10,045
13,000
Hotel/Restaurant/Food Service
Manufacturing
11,429
14,000
Oil/Gas/Petroleum -
14,085
16,000
Printing/Publishing
Property/Real Estate
Science & Technology/Aerospace/ BioTechnology -
9,321
12,989
Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication
Services
13,000
13,500
Telecommunication
11,000
12,600
Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping -
8,000
15,000
Utilities
Wholesale/Retail/Trading
10,000
12,000
Geometric Mean (GM): (Ringgit Malaysia)
Minimum (Ringgit Malaysia)
Maximum (Ringgit Malaysia)
Table 3 : Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Industry, 2012
Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
Industry (Central Malaysia) 2012 17,438 13,961 17,400 10,375 11,000 8,125 13,961 14,150 16,521 13,680 15,313 13,925 13,865 12,175 13,374 13,680 15,313 12,800 11,365 12,175 12,166 16,146 13,550 4.4 2.3 0.0 0.0 1.0 22.0 0.0 9.9 10,250 36.2 14,091 8,285 7,237 8,345 10,504 6,625 7,100 10,175 11,183 9,833 8,693 8,600 7,244 9,959 8,946 8,125 0.0 5,225 11,000 0.0 8,625 6,575 6,575 8,013 4,950 14,091 7,575 7200 8,340 9,760 6,524 6,350 7,339 9,496 9,800 8,537 7,967 7,244 9,888 7,837 10,000 3.8 7,575 7,263 14,475 20.2 6,800 5,963 14.0 4.3 0.0 7.6 5.6 0.0 9.4 0.5 0.1 7.6 1.5 11.8 38.6 17.8 0.3 1.8 7.9 0.0 0.7 14.1 8,300 7,258 14.4 11,887 17.4 8,494 7,983 6.4 9,000 8,925 0.8 5,050 5,575 4,750 7,107 4,835 5,160 4,500 4,879 4,100 5,119 5,450 4,801 5,298 7,500 4,154 5,825 6,500 5,563 5,213 6,675 5,610 5,201 4,800 5,521 5,033 2011 % change 2012 2011 2012 % change 2011 4,600 4,989 5,395 4,556 6,417 4,769 5,019 4,100 5,525 4,100 4,750 5,261 4,801 5,175 7,500 4,150 5,300 5,031 5,563 3,925 6,193 5,400 4,710 4,800 5,039 Agriculture/Plantations/Aquaculture Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery Bank Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services Chemical Computer/IT (Hardware) Computer/IT (Software) Construction/Building Consulting (Business/Technical) Education Electrical & Electronics Financial Services/Securities/Insurance Hotel/Restaurant/Food Service Manufacturing Oil/Gas/Petroleum Printing/Publishing Property/Real Estate Science & Technology/Aerospace/ BioTechnology Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication Services Telecommunication Transport/Storage/Freight/Shipping Utilities Wholesale/Retail/Trading Geometric Mean (GM): (Ringgit Malaysia)
Senior Management (Senior Manager)
Middle Management (Manager)
Senior Executive (5 or more working experience) % change 9.4 1.2 3.3 4.3 10.7 1.4 2.8 9.8 6.4 0.0 7.8 3.6 0.0 2.4 0.0 0.1 9.9 29.2 0.0 32.8 7.8 3.9 10.4 0.0 9.6
Junior Executive (1-4 working experience) 2012 2,305 3,563 3,475 3,225 5,215 3,100 3,063 2,950 3,283 2,575 3,228 3,475 2,575 3,157 3,675 2,699 3,215 3,069 3,753 3,119 3,388 3,100 3,226 3,425 3,206
ALL JOB CATEGORIES
2011
% change
2012
2011
% change
3,405
3,100
14.9
7,289
5,168
41.0
3,400
2.2
6,923
6,459
7.2
3,225
0.0
5,028
4,742
6.0
4,890
6.6
6,087
5,601
8.7
3,002
3.3
6,489
5,929
9.4
3,025
1.2
5,936
5,762
3.0
2,900
1.7
4,436
4,276
3.7
3,150
4.2
6,541
6,258
4.5
2,523
2.1
4,601
4,516
1.9
3,113
3.7
6,152
5,928
3.8
3,400
2.2
6,841
6,105
12.1
2,525
2.0
4,473
4,436
0.8
3,095
2.0
6,666
6,552
2.2
3,500
5.0
8,316
8,020
3.7
2,500
8.0
4,204
4,075
3.2
3,905
-17.7
5,104
5,084
0.4
2,925
4.9
7,259
6,200
17.1
3,700
1.4
6,157
5,803
6.1
2,794
11.6
7,034
6,369
10.4
3,250
4.2
7,099
6,848
3.7
2,964
4.6
6,748
6,170
9.4
3,092
4.3
4,953
4,725
4.8
3,300
3.8
6,682
6,608
1.1
3,151
1.7
6,784
6,240
8.7
Table 4 :Comparison of Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Industry, 2011 and 2012 Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
Experienced ICT Professionals by Industry

The highest salary earned by ICT professionals differed among industries as well as by the number of years of working experience held. Table 3 shows that the Automobile, Heavy Industry and Machinery as well as the Computer Hardware industries were the top-paying ones in the senior management category, where the maximum monthly salary recorded was RM17,438 in 2012. No data was reported for Semiconductor and Wafer Fabrication, Construction and Building and Chemical industries where the pay could also be equally high. In the middle management level, the maximum monthly salary of RM14,091 was reported in the Electrical and Electronics industry. In the senior executive level, the Oil and Gas industry reported the highest monthly salary of RM7,500. For the junior executive level, the Semiconductor and Wafer fabrication industry offered the highest salary of RM3,753 per month.
Comparison Between 2011 and 2012 by industry

Table 4 shows that, on overall, the Automotive, Heavy Industry and Machinery, Science & Technology, Aerospace and Bio-technology as well as the Financial Services industries registered a signicant rise in the salary for the ICT professionals of not less than 10% between 2011 and 2012. Discounting the sectors lacking data, Table 4 also shows that ICT professionals in the Senior Management category working in the Financial Services industry received the highest salary increment of 36.2%, which is an increase from RM10,250 to RM13,961 . Further scrutiny revealed that in the Middle Management category, the Science & Technology, Aerospace and Biotechnology industry reported the highest percentage of change (38.6%) in the monthly salary from RM7,339 in 2011 to RM10,175 in 2012. In the Senior Executive category, the Services and Science & Technology, Aerospace and Bio-technology industries recorded the highest pay rise of 32.8% and 29.8% respectively. The Automobile, Heavy Industry and Machinery industry registered the highest pay rise of 14.9% in the Junior Executive category, which is an increase from RM3,100 in 2011 to RM3,563 in 2012.
Top Five Paying Industries

Industry (Central Malaysia) Oil/Gas/Petroleum Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology Telecommunication Services Industry (Central Malaysia) Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery Computer/IT (Hardware) Oil/Gas/Petroleum Manufacturing Bank Industry (Central Malaysia) Electrical & Electronics Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication Oil/Gas/Petroleum Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology Wholesale/Retail/Trading ALL JOB CATEGORIES 8,316 7,289 7,259 7,099 7,034 Senior Management (Senior Manager) 17,438 17,400 16,521 14,150 13,961 Middle Management (Manager) 14,091 11,183 10,504 10,175 9,409 Chemical Oil/Gas/Petroleum Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication Automotive/Heavy Industry/Machinery Bank Industry (Central Malaysia) Semiconductor/Wafer Fabrication Oil/Gas/Petroleum Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology Computer/IT (Software) Bank Industry (Central Malaysia) Oil/Gas/Petroleum Chemical Telecommunication Science & Technology/Aerospace/BioTechnology Consulting (Business/Technical) Industry (Central Malaysia) Senior Executive (5 or more years working experience) 7,280 7,107 6,675 6,500 5,879 Junior Executive (1-4 working experience) 5,215 3,675 3,653 3,563 3,475 Fresh Graduates 3,280 2,775 2,500 2,450 2,425
19
Table 5 : Top Five Paying Industries by Job Category, 2012 Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
Table 5 shows the top ve paying industries for each ICT job category. Of the 25 industries covered in the investigation, the results showed that the Oil, Gas and Petroleum industry dominated the list in all the categories. It is followed by Science & Technology, Aerospace and Bio-technology industry which constituted as one of the top ve paying industries for all the job categories, except in the Senior Management level for which the salary remained stagnant between 2011 and 2012.
ICT Industry Segments

For the purpose of compiling salary records, Jobstreet.com had categorised the ICT industry segments into ICT hardware, ICT software and ICT-enabled services including call centres.
By Job Category
Figure 4 shows the average salaries of ICT professionals by job category within the ICT industry. The salary increment experienced by all ICT job categories except the Senior Manager category was not very encouraging. The worst hit were ICT Junior Executives who received only a 1.5% pay rise on an average between 2011 and 2012 (see also Table 6). On the contrary, in 2012 Senior Managers in the ICT sector experienced an average pay rise of 11.6%, which is an increase from RM12,588 in 2011 to RM14,044.
15000
14,044 12,588
Average Salary in Ringgit Malaysia
12000
9000
20
7,533 7,322 4,912 4,778 3,129 3,082
6000
3000
0 ICT Junior Executive 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2,440 2,689 2,797 3,082 3,129 ICT Senior Executive 3,681 4,061 4,417 4,778 4,912 ICT Middle Manager 5,837 4,938 5,957 7,322 7,533 ICT Senior Manager 8,975 9,867 10,876 12,588 14,044
Figure 4: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by ICT Industry Segments Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
Within the Senior Manager category, ICT hardware professionals netted the highest pay increase of 20.2%, a jump from RM14,475 in 2011 to RM17,400 in 2012 (Table 6). ICT Senior Managers in the ICT Call Centres/ IT Enabled services and ICT Software categories also registered signicant rise in their salary, 9.0% and 6.0% respectively.
ICT Executive Year ICT Hardware 2,325 2,767 2,720 3,002 3,100 3.3 ICT Software 2,500 2,557 2,750 3,025 3,063 1.3 Call Centre/ICT Enabled Services 2,500 2,748 2,925 3,225 3,225 0.0 ICT Industry 2,440 2,689 2,797 3,082 3,129 1.5 ICT Hardware 3,400 4,130 4,320 4,769 4,835 1.4
ICT Senior Executive ICT Software 3,924 3,869 4,505 5,019 5,160 2.8 Call Centre/ICT Enabled Services 3,749 4,190 4,428 4,556 4,750 4.3 ICT Industry 3,681 4,061 4,417 4,778 4,912 2.8
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 % change 2011-2012
ICT Middle Manager Year ICT Hardware 5,075 5,052 6,625 6,718 6,800 1.3 ICT Software 5,995 5,930 6,646 7,263 7,575 4.3 Call Centre/ICT Enabled Services 6,538 4,018 7,548 8,051 8,300 3.1 ICT Industry 5,837 4,939 6,957 7,322 7,533 2.9 ICT Hardware 7,971 9,405 10,900 14,475 17,400 20.2
ICT Senior Manager ICT Software 8,475 8,998 9,250 10,000 10,600 6.0 Call Centre/ICT Enabled Services 10,700 11,350 12,758 13,779 15,019 9.0 ICT Industry 8,975 9,567 10,876 12,588 14,044 11.6
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 % change 2011-2012
Table 6: Average Monthly Salary by Job Category and ICT Industry Segment Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
By ICT User Industries

Figure 5 shows the distinction in the average monthly salary earned by ICT professionals working in the ICT Producer and ICT User industries. As in the previous year, there is no distinct difference in salaries earned by ICT professionals in these two segments. The 2012 data revealed that ICT professionals in the Producer industry on the overall earned an average monthly salary of RM6,355, which is marginally higher than their counterparts in the User industry where the average was only RM5,903.
16000 14000 12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0
21
Ringgit Malaysia
Senior Management: (Senior Manager) 13,364 13,735
Middle Management: (Manager) 8,519 9,354
Senior Executive: (> 5 Year Working Experience) 5,408 5,437
Junior Executive: (1-4 Years Working Experiance) 3,216 3,236
ICT User Industries ICT Producer Industries
Figure 5: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Job Category, ICT User Industries and ICT Producer Industries Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013
Selected Key ICT Job Functions

The average monthly salary earned by key ICT professionals is shown in Table 7. It can be seen from this table that ICT professionals in the managerial category, whether they are Java, HTML, SQL or MCP certied, netted the highest earnings compared to other ICT job functions. IT Project Managers can net an average monthly salary as high as RM17,500, which is almost two times higher than software engineers, who tend to net as high as RM7,917 per month only. As expected, the Senior Software Engineer, on an average, netted RM6,638 per month, which is 50% higher than the earnings of Software Engineers. On an average AutoCAD engineers were paid RM4,783 monthly and the experienced ones can net as high as RM10,000 per month. Being a highly specialized job, the average monthly salary earned by SAP Consultants in 2012 was RM8,542 and the experienced ones netted as high as RM 16,667. Web designers earned the lowest monthly salary, an average of just RM3,692 monthly, among the listed jobs.
Mean Monthly Salary 9,700 8,542 7,242 7,021 6,638 4,783 4,783 4,567 4,317 4,288 3,692 Median Monthly Salary 7,100 7,647 6,967 6,867 5,973 4,327 3,419 2,997 3,778 3,432 2,773 Minimum Monthly Salary 4,667 3,833 3,667 4,250 3,500 2,042 2,167 2,417 2,417 2,417 1,583 Maximum Monthly Salary 17,500 16,667 13,333 11,667 11,667 10,000 10,000 7,917 7,167 7,000 6,917
Job Functions Information Technology, Project Manager (Java, HTML,SQL, Microsoft Certied Professional) SAP Consultants Information Technology Consultants (Java, HTML and MCP) Senior Database/ System Administrators (Microsoft and Cisco Certied) Senior Executive Engineer (Java, HTML,SQL, Microsoft Certied Professional (MCP) and Cisco) Database/System Administrators (Microsoft and Cisco Certied) AutoCAD: Civil Engineering Software Engineer (Java, HTML,SQL, Microsoft Certied Professional (MCP) and Cisco) Software Developer/Programmer (Java, HTML,SQL)
22
Programmer/Analyst (Java, HTML,SQL) HTML, Web Designer
Table 7: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Job Function 2012 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
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 6, the median salary of those have more than 20 years of working experience earned 5.22 more than those who have less than one year of working experience.
Median Salary (Ringgit Malaysia) / Benchmarking Scale
12000 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 Less than 1 Year 1-4 5-9 10-19 1.00 1.31 2.24 3.39
5.22
20 year or more
Median Salary (RM)
2,244
2,935
5,019
7,616
11,717
Figure 6: Median Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals and Benchmarking Scale by Years of Experience, 2012 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
Employment Size
Employment size matters in determining the average monthly salary of employees. As shown in Figure 7, large corporations or multinationals (MNCs) tend to pay higher than smaller ones. Comparing against the smallest sized 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 1.88 times more.
8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0
1.88 1.42 1.00 1.27 1.03 1.60
1-9
10-49
50-199
200-599
600-1999
More than 2000 6,363
Median Salary (RM)
3,390
3,493
4,321
4,805
5,426
Figure 7: Median Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals and Benchmarking Scale by Employment Size, 2012 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
Geographical Location
As shown in Figure 8, ICT professionals working in Kuala Lumpur and Cyberjaya tend to earn 1.75 times higher than their counter parts working in smaller locations like Ipoh. Even within the Klang Valley, the disparity in the salary is quite distinct, where the average median salary of ICT professionals in Petaling Jaya or Shah Alam tends to be lower than their counterparts in the capital city.
23
6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0
1.75
1.73 1.38 1.20 1.19
1.03
1.00
Kuala Lumpur 5,092
Cyberjaya 5,024
Petaling Jaya 4,022
Johore 3,499
Shah Alam 3,472
Kuching 2,982
Ipoh 2,906
Median Salary (RM)
Figure 8: Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Geographic Locations, 2011 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
Gender
Despite 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 work out to a 35% difference.
Gender Male Female (Male salary / Female Salary)
Median Salary (RM) 5,201 3,855 134.9
Table 8: Gender Disparity in ICT Salary in Malaysia, 2012 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
Hot ICT Jobs

Hot ICT jobs depend on the area of applications, as depicted in Figure 9. Specically, in the technical domain, software developers, programmers and engineers equipped with knowledge of Java C#, C++, .Net, SharePoint and Web Application Development are highly sought after. Being an open platform and the ability to speak to any back end system, large organisations in particular need Java programmers to transfer data from legacy systems. Demand for network engineers and system administrators is on the rise in tandem with the expanding scope of cloud computing and Windows 7 related migration activities. Within the Business Applications domain, the demand for ICT professionals also vary greatly. Though demand for certied professionals in SAP or ERP are at an all time high, professionals specializing in IT audit and IT security are proliferating, especially in fending off malware makers and cyber thieves. In addition, organisations 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 interdisciplinary knowledge and experience pertaining to not only technical know-hows but also with 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 technological evolutions, the demand for soft-skilled professionals especially in project management, consulting, process and quality improvements is ever present.
Certied Network/ System Engineers Certied Database Administrators
24
TECHNICAL
C#
Java
C++
.Net
APPLICATIONS
SAP
ERP
IT Audit
IT Security
Help Desk Analysts
Big Data Analytics
SOFT SKILLS
Project Management
IT Consulting
Business Process Improvement
Quality Improvement
Figure 9: Hot ICT Jobs by Area of Applications Source: JobStreet.com
Regional Benchmarking
25
Table 9 shows a comparative analysis of the remuneration earned by ICT professionals in selected Asian and English speaking countries. Here, 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 uctuation. For the purpose of this benchmarking exercise, Malaysia assumes a scaling factor of one. The median data published by PayScale for the year 2012 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, specically one with purchasing power parity (PPP) that takes into account ination rates and uctuations in the foreign exchange rates and the other without PPP adjustment. Indeed, technically speaking, ambitious job seekers should use PPP adjusted gures when searching for overseas jobs.
Comparison Against Asian Countries

Without any PPP adjustment, the results showed that more advanced Asian economies, in particular Hong Kong and Singapore, recorded average remunerations that were 2.25 to 2.54 times more than the average remuneration earned by Malaysian ICT professionals in 2012 (Table 9). Besides these two countries, China, Thailand and Vietnam offer higher remunerations for ICT professionals, offering 1.87, 1.36 and 1.20 times more than in Malaysia respectively. Comparatively, Indonesia, India and Philippines offer lower remunerations to their ICT professionals. With PPP adjustment, which takes into account for ination and foreign exchange rates as well as standard of living, the result showed that Hong Kong still ranked the highest paying nation in Asia for ICT professionals. However, the scaling factor is only 1.90, which is signicantly lower than the nonPPP adjusted scaling depicted earlier. Similarly, the scaling factors for Singapore and China lowered to 1.84 and 1.63 respectively. Surprisingly, Vietnam recorded a higher scaling value of 1.87, indicating a much more attractive nation in Asia for talent migration. 26
Country
IT Skil/ Speciality
Company Size
Year of Experience
Average Benchmark Scale
IT Skil/ Speciality
Company Size
Year of Experience
Average Benchmark Scale
Benchmarking Scale: Malaysia=1.00 (Atlias Method) Malaysia Singapore Thailand India China Phillipines Vietnam Hong Kong Indonesia United Kingdom Canada New Zealand Australia USA 1.00 2.25 1.35 0.50 1.66 0.15 1.10 254 0.66 2.67 3.25 3.08 4.08 3.43 1.00 2.23 1.49 0.42 2.06 0.39 1.10 2.59 0.73 2.41 2.96 2.74 3.52 3.11 1.00 2.31 1.22 0.56 1.89 0.47 1.41 2.35 0.79 2.45 2.95 2.75 3.59 3.17 1.00 2.26 1.36 0.49 1.87 0.44 1.20 2.53 0.73 2.51 3.05 2.86 3.76 3.24
Benchmarking Scale: Malaysia= 1.00 (Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) Adjusted) 1.00 1.74 1.45 0.71 1.54 0.45 1.61 1.95 0.57 1.38 1.57 1.74 1.80 1.85 1.00 1.72 1.59 0.60 1.91 0.40 1.62 2.06 0.63 1.24 1.48 1.55 1.60 1.68 1.00 2.06 1.05 0.68 1.44 0.46 2.39 1.69 0.47 1.79 2.16 2.25 2.31 2.70 1.00 1.84 1.36 0.66 1.63 0.44 1.87 1.90 0.56 1.47 1.72 1.84 1.90 2.08
Table 9: Benchmarking Salaries Earned by ICT Professionals of Selected Countries and Malaysia, 2012 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
Malaysians are typically known to search for better opportunities beyond the shores of Asia. The distant lands that become attractive destinations for Malaysians are mostly English speaking countries, in particular United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Despite the distance, these countries have long diplomatic and trade ties with Malaysia. Moreover, English is a popular lingua franca among Malaysian businesses especially among the private sector and there has been always 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. Figure 10 shows that the Australian and USA job markets offer 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 considerations of 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 reducing to 1.72 suggested otherwise. Similarly, UKs scaling factor reducing from 2.51 without PPP adjustment to 1.47 PPP adjusted does not suggest it to be a very attractive destination as an ICT job market. Indeed, it can be seen that the cost of living and foreign exchange uctuations have signicant impact on the salaries earned and thus, becomes a crucial consideration factor for potential job seekers before making any decision on job related migrations.
3.
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76 05 3. 2. 86 51 2. 2. 26 2. 53 3. 08 24
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0. 4 0. 4 44 0 0. .73 56 0. 4 0. 9 66 1. 0 1. 0 00 1. 3 1. 6 36
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Indonesia
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Thailand
United Kingdom
China
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Singapore
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20
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Australia
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Atlas Method PPP Adjusted
0.44 0.44
0.73 0.56
0.49 0.66
1.00 1.00
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1.87 1.63
3.05 1.72
2.26 1.84
2.86 1.84
1.20 1.87
2.53 1.90
3.76 1.90
Figure 10: Benchmarking Salaries Earned by ICT Professionals in Malaysia and Selected Countries, 2012 Source: (http://www.PayScale.com/research/ ) and PIKOM
USA
3.24 2.08
2.
27
Employment Outlook And Perception
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This report also attempts to present the overall ICT job market outlook from an industrys 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 Condence Index (JECI)

The JobStreet.com Employment Condence Index (JECI), which is compiled on a monthly basis, is shown in Table 10. JECI ranges from zero (very poor) to 100 (very good). A low index shows a tough job market situation where employment seekers nd it difcult 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 has signicantly dropped from 51.6 in 2011 to 48.8 in 2012, before it shot up slightly in January 2013, indicating increasing condence in the local job market.
Month JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC 2013 49.1 2012 50.5 50.9 50.4 48.8 49.7 49.8 41.3 50.9 48.7 48.8 48.7 48.1 2011 52.2 52.5 51.2 53.2 51.9 53.5 54.1 52.3 48.8 51.0 49.2 49.4 2010 47.0 48.7 48.8 51.4 51.9 48.1 50.2 51.9 61.0 53.7 51.6 49.7 2009 44.9 43.1 43.8 46.9 47.8 48.5 49.7 50.2 48.7 48.3 50.0 50.2 2008 50.7 49.0 51.8 49.7 49.2 48.9 47.9 50.1 49.6 49.6 47.6 47.3 2007 52.6 52.7 52.4 51.2 50.0 50.1 50.4 48.7 49.5 48.6 49.3 49.6 2006 49.6 50.1 49.7 50.4 49.9 50.2 47.8 50.1 50.7 49.6 51.7 51.9 2005 47.6 47.4 43.3 42.8 44.0 41.1 42.0 49.6 48.6 46.8 47.1 49.0 2004 41.7 42.3 41.6 39.0 39.6 46.4 43.5 45.1 51.9 49.6 51.3 49.9 2003 36.2 31.7 34.6 31.0 28.7 34.1 32.5 32.7 34.7 32.9 37.0 36.8 2002 31.2 31.8 35.7 35.2 36.9 35.0 34.7 36.2 34.0 32.7 34.5 31.6 2001 42.0 41.5 39.4 40.1 37.5 37.5 34.9 32.9 30.5 32.4 31.2 31.5
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Table 10: Job Employment Condence Index: January 2001- January 2013 Source: Jobstreet.com
60 51.2 49.3 51.6 49.1
50.1 50 JECI Index 45.2
50.4
47.7 45.8 40 36.1 34.1 33.6 30 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
48.8
2012
2013
Figure 11: Job Employment Condence Index: 2001-Jan 2013 Source: Jobstreet.com and PIKOM
Anticipated Hiring Activities for the next 12 month

According to the JobStreet.com Job Outlook Report, the hiring climate is looking positive for the 1st quarter of 2013 (Figure 12).
50 40 30 20 10 0 We're expanding, hence hiring more people We're maintaining hiring rate 1Q2013 Hiring less / Replacing or filling in essential position only 1Q2012 We're not hiring the forseaable future 36% 23% 18% 9.0% 4.0% 25%
42%
43%
Figure 12: Hiring Activities Outlook, 2012 Source: Jobstreet.com
Hiring Prospects: For the First Quarter (Q1) of 2013, Malaysian employers have a brighter job outlook for their hiring initiatives. 36% of the respondents are expecting to increase their hiring in the next 12 months. Less than 5% of respondents acknowledged that they would not be hiring in the foreseeable future, a 5-point drop from the 9% in 2012, which indirectly reects a positive job outlook for Q1 of 2013. Among the 36% who indicated they were expanding, the new hiring is to be mainly in the areas of sales, marketing, accounting/nance, and manufacturing. 30 To gauge the overall job hiring sentiments in terms of annual trends, PIKOM used the Job Hiring Index Score (JHIS) procedure as outlined in the Box below. The result is shown in Figure 13. The JHIS revealed that the index came down to 2.62 in 2012 from 2.69 in 2011. However, the overall job hiring sentiment is shown to be picking up for the year 2013, which is likely given the positive economic outlook.
For comparing the job hiring sentiments over the years, PIKOM calculated a Job Hiring Index Score (JHIS) using the following procedure: I= fi Wi / fi In the formula above, f denotes the frequency expressed as percentage of responses netted or implicitly weighted, as such, fi =1; W denotes the values assigned for each response category and i denotes the industry. The values assumed for the various categories of responses were, as follows:4 for Were expanding and hence hiring more people; 3 for Were maintaining our hiring rate this year 2 for Hiring less, replace / ll essential positions only; 1 for Were not hiring in the foreseeable future As such, the expected or implicitly weighted average for JHIS value will be 2.5; the average for the best case scenario where all the respondents indicate much better will be 4; similarly, the expected average for the worst case scenario, where all the responses indicative of much worse, would be 1. Source: PIKOM
2.90 2.85 2.80 JHIS 2.75 2.70 2.65 2.60 2.55 2.50 Q1:2010 JHIS 2.62 Q1:2011 2.69 Q1:2012 2.62 2.62 2.69
2.86
2.62
Q1:2013 2.86
Figure 13: Job Hiring Index Score 2010-2013 Source: PIKOM
Top Specializations Sought

As reected in Table 11, for most industries jobseekers in sales and marketing are still the most sought after, followed by those with expertise in manufacturing, accounting and engineering. In comparison with the last quarter, three new specializations have entered the top 10 list. They are manufacturing, engineering, and mechanical engineering. Respondents from major industries such as hotel & restaurants, nance computer and IT, mining (oil & gas) reported that they would most likely experience a better job growth in the next 12 month.
Top 10 specializations employers seek 1Q 2013 1 2 3 (new) 4 5(new) 6 7(new) 8 9 10 4Q 2012 1 2 8 6 7 9 4 Sales Marketing Manufacturing Accounting Engineering (Others) Engineering (Electrical) Engineering (Mechanical) Human Resources General Administration Customer Service
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Table 11: Top 10 Specializations Employers Seek, 2012 -2013
As mapped out in Table 12, the top specializations employers seek has changed over the past ve years. Sales, marketing and business development jobs are consistently ranked among the top most sought after jobs. Interestingly Computer & IT (Software), which ranked either third or fourth positions from 2009 to 2012, did not get into the top ten specializations employers seek for the year 2013. On the contrary, manufacturing, mechanical engineering and other engineering jobs drew attention of potential employers. Customer service category is also seen sliding down the top ten.
2013 Sales Marketing and business development Manufacturing Accounting Engineering (Others) Engineering (Electrical) Engineering (Mechanical) Human Resources General Administration Customer Service
2012 Marketing and business development Sales / Marketing (merchandising) Customer Service Computer & IT (Software) Engineering Mechanical Human Resources General / Cost Accounting Sales / Marketing (technical) Maintenance Engineering Electrical
2011 Marketing and business development Sales / Marketing (merchandising) Computer & IT (Software) Customer Service Human Resources Top Management Sales / Marketing (technical) General / Cost Accounting Computer & IT (Hardware) Education, Training & Development
2010 Marketing and business development Sales / Marketing (merchandising) Customer Service Computer & IT (Software) Engineering Mechanical Human Resources Sales / Marketing (technical) General / Cost Accounting Top Management Clerical / General Administration
2009 Marketing and business development Sales / Marketing (merchandising) Computer & IT (Software) Engineering Mechanical Sales / Marketing (technical) Customer Service Human Resources General / Cost Accounting
Top Management
Table 12:Top Specializations Sought Trend: 2009-2013
Position Level Sought

According to respondents, 52% are looking for junior level positions which require less than 4 years of experience followed by 24% who are looking at people with specialised skills, such as accountants and engineers (Figure 14). Only 13% of the respondents are looking for fresh graduates. Human resource managers in many industries expressed difculties in hiring fresh graduates as many candidates without working experiences are demanding a high salary. Managerial levels and above might be experiencing a more difcult period as only 11% of the respondents are looking to ll such positions.
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Fresh graduate Junior level (less than 4 years experiance) Supervisor / Specialist Manager / Assistant Manager Director / Vice President Top Management (President, CEO,GM) 0% 10% 0.9%
13% 52% 24% 11%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Figure 14: Job Positions Sought After in 2013
Rethinking HR in a Changing World: A Practitioners Discourse

BY WOON TAI HAI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KPMG MALAYSIA
33
Introduction
In the last 5 years, there has been a preoccupation with cost optimisation, cost reduction, sustainable cost management... all things cost. This has required HR to play its part, largely through making the HR function more efcient, but not necessarily more effective. No one expects this focus on costs to change in the short to medium term. But there is a clear case for HR functions to also generate value in the wider business and that there are some signs that this drive for value creation from HR will become increasingly important.
The big three challenges to HRs new growth agenda

The people agenda in most organisations contains some truly business-critical issues and the need for HR to rise to the big three challenges has never been more acute. The big three challenges to HRs new growth agenda are: 1. balancing the global and the local managing, hiring and identifying talent globally while retaining important local insights 2. managing a exible and virtual workforce but not at the cost of loyalty and career development 3. retaining the best talent maintaining employee engagement in the face of a less committed, more exible workforce. These big three challenges and other key ndings were derived from a global study by the Economist Intelligence Unit between May & June 2012, commissioned by KPMG International. The Global study of 418 executives comprised with more than one-third (37 percent) of respondents who identied themselves as C-level executives; with the remainder being at the management level up to senior vice-president. More than one-half of respondents (58 percent) primarily serve an HR function; the remainder (42 percent) represents a wide range of other functions. The respondents are based in Asia-Pacic (32 percent), Europe (30 percent), North America (28 percent) and Latin America (10 percent). A wide range of industries is represented, including manufacturing and energy & natural resources (both at 12 percent), IT, nancial services, and healthcare & pharmaceuticals (all at 11 percent). More than one-half of the companies surveyed (53 percent) boast more than 10,000 employees 22 percent have over 50,000; the remaining 47 percent have between 1,000 and 10,000 employees. The global study, aptly entitled, Rethinking Human Resources in a Changing World examines the nature of the challenges facing the HR function and its future direction. The reports main ndings include the following: HR is struggling with the challenges of managing a global, exible workforce. The global workforce has become increasingly integrated across borders while simultaneously growing more virtual and exible. These developments have made the retention of key talent and building workforces in new markets the top priorities of HR departments over the last 3 years. Survey respondents expect little change in the next 3 years. Yet only about one in four respondents say that HR at their company excels at core issues such
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as sourcing and retaining key talent globally; supporting a virtual and exible workforce; and supporting the greater globalisation of the business. Finding ways to engage with workers will help address the challenges of this global, exible and remote workforce. Insights from interviewees for this study point toward improved employee engagement as the way to address many of these problems. This will involve creative solutions, such as the development of HR policies and approaches that have global application but can be made relevant to local conditions. It will also require new ways to engage meaningfully with a workforce that is less committed to the organisation.
TIM PYNE KPMG HR Transformation Center of Excellence

I believe... talent management should be the top priority for HR, but business leaders dont feel that HR is delivering for them. I believe that is because talent management is so often anchored in the present rather than focusing on the unique roles, capabilities and skills the organisation needs to suceed in the future.
Technology has already transformed HR and the application of data analytics will foster even more profound change. Sixty-nine percent of companies surveyed say it is more common for the HR function to provide web-based and/or mobile HR platforms (e.g. benets, payroll) than it was 3 years ago; only 3 percent of respondents have cut back on these technology enhancements. These have already enabled HR to do its basic, administrative work faster and more efciently. They have also provided employees with more exible and tailored training opportunities while creating a positive culture for communication.
Technology with the power to transform HR

The advent of data analytics the most commonly cited area by respondents for IT investment in the next 3 years will lead to the next technological quantum leap for HR. Interviewees explain that the application of analytics, if done properly, will enable a more robust understanding of employee-related needs and opportunities. For example, already 57 percent of respondents say that data analytics is helping to identify future talent gaps. Powerful technologies, emerging in times of heightened nancial constraints, present a rare opportunity for HR to enact long-overdue reinvention. Looking ahead, HR needs to: develop greater condence, leadership and credibility, so that HR heads can deservedly insist on a place in strategic conversations at the highest levels develop closer partnerships within the company, especially with line managers who will inevitably use technology-driven HR services to play a greater role in employee management recast its strategy so that it begins from a whole-business perspective and is aligned with the needs of the entire company, not just the HR function. Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents say that in the last 3 years, their companies have increased the use of mobile or web-based platforms. Nearly half (49 percent) are making greater use of the cloud to power these. Web-based and mobile apps have enabled many employees to handle their own HR services, including benets, payroll and performance evaluations. The shift to mobile and web-based platforms has not always been easy, though. Yet the advantages of the HR self-service function are undeniable. Some of the advantages include: 35
ROBERT BURTON KPMG HR Transformation Center of Excellence

I believe... that HR functions have tried for the past 15 years to tranform themselves into strategic players and earn a place at the leadership table. But theyve done so with limited success because they have focused on rolling out generic HR models and universal best pratice, rather than customized solutions that support the value drivers of the business. Now theyve caught in what I call the doom loop.
Doing the basics better and more efciently Moving toward a more self-service model has improved basic HR service efciency while freeing up HR to focus on delivering more strategic services that add value to the core priorities of the business. Better training Moving away from classroom training toward a more interactive, demonstrative approach. This has been a very positive development and had a very powerful impact. It enables employees to learn in more bite-sized chunks and in a much more visual manner. Creating a positive culture and brand for current employees and potential hires New technologies are playing an important role in how we connect people in the organisation and how we create a culture that is a medium for people. Organisations are exploring how to use technology to create a company brand that is attractive to people joining it.
The next step: data-driven HR

Data analytics is the most commonly cited area (selected by 31 percent of respondents) for planned HR technology investment in the next 3 years. Analytics will allow HR to not only be involved in managing talent, but to also collect clearer information on its supply chain of talent and where the most demand for particular skills lies. Rather than acting on instinct alone, the HR function will be able to provide a far more granular roadmap of how the organisations people resources need to be reshaped to deliver on the corporate strategy. Data analytics gives HR departments the long-overdue chance to become more empirical, to provide hard evidence for their opinions, thereby gaining much-needed credibility at the highest levels of the business. Kate Terrell, vice president, Human Resources, Global Products Organisation, at Whirlpool Corporation, a household appliance manufacturer, explains: When you arm a business partner of the future with analytics, and they can share the facts with their teams to help drive better decision-making, it allows you to be much more strategic, much more insightful, and potentially, much more laser-focused on where you should be spending your time.
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The future of HR: Eradicating the stigma

It is practically a business truism that the HR function is not well respected at many organisations. Whether deserved or not, this stigma is clearly evident in the global survey results. Only 15 percent of our survey respondents see HR as able to provide insightful and predictive workforce analytics. Only 17 percent view it as able to demonstrate measurably its value to the business. Strikingly though, 81 percent of respondents see talent management as a key competitive advantage over the coming 3 years. There clearly remains a vast gulf between the perceived importance and the perceived effectiveness of HR today. At the very least, HR has a perception problem. In many cases it may have actually failed to deliver real value. As the shifting challenges of globalisation and virtualization combine with the new technological tools available to enable a reshaping of the HR function, executives should take
a number of steps to improve the functions contribution and its image.
Make the value of HR more prominent and understood

Perceptions about HR in the wider company may arise from the very nature of its role. As the HR function works behind the scenes, many in the organisation may not be aware of the good things that it is doing. This is an inevitable part of being a staff support role where HR is the architect and the line managers are owners of the work, says Professor Ulrich.
PAULETTE WELSING KPMG HR Transformation Center of Excellence

I believe... well thought-out predictive workforce analytics could become as important to the CEO as the blalance sheet and P&L statement. Technology and workforce analytics could really shake up HR as we currently know it.
HR practitioners need to make sure the company knows and understands the value they can deliver, in part by insisting on being included in strategic conversations. It also involves understanding the needs of the whole business better in order to make that contribution. Learning to listen deeply is one of the skills that HR functions need to develop, not only in terms of the context of their role but in terms of continually improving the organisation.
Think, understand and communicate in the language of business

HR needs to eliminate the jargon of its specialization (the same challenge IT continues to face) and begin to link its work more explicitly to business value. The right business language helps to open the door, but it is also important to provide a robust business case for projects. It entails thinking more carefully about the specic business outcomes of the actions that HR recommends. What is the impact on customer service, or the reduction in costs, or the increase in staff loyalty, or other metrics that are more specically relevant to the line managers and departments being supported? Importantly, it is also about taking a fuller perspective of the whole business, including both internal factors as well as external business conditions, and creating HR strategies to t. In turn, this requires a far deeper grasp of the organisations core business model and strategy and the implications this holds for the rest of the business to date, something that far too few HR practitioners have mastered. To put this in context, a business that fundamentally focuses on providing lowcost goods will require a fundamentally different HR strategy than one that is focused on delivering leadingedge innovation.
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Move from administration to higher-value-added activities

A technology-enabled HR function will allow professionals to avoid being immersed in the minutiae of recordkeeping, transactions and life-cycle processes. But it will also likely reduce the number of HR staff that companies require. These slimmed-down departments will then be able to focus on providing more strategic, higher-order services. Some of HRs traditional administrative work will almost inevitably nd another functional home, a shift that 45 percent of respondents expect to occur in the next 3 years. There is no compelling reason for HR to manage the transactional administration of payroll, benets, pensions or mobility (transfer administration), particularly where managed on a contractual outsourcing basis. Of course, HR would remain the architect of these systems. But once the desired model is established, there is no reason why HR needs to pedal the wheels.
Conclusion
Rethinking Human Resources in a Changing World has provided us with a fresh view of the path ahead for leaders of the HR function. We believe that a number of areas such as workforce analytics, talent management and technology will reinforce the need for HR to make the people agenda as important to business leaders as the balance sheet and P&L statement. Many of the challenges identied in the global study are long standing. But they are no less urgent for that. Indeed, there is no escaping the prospect of a shrinking and weakened HR function in the coming years. Quite simply, HR has to break out of the trap it has been stuck in for far too long. Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions, no generic approaches or best practices that will suddenly enable the HR function to become more effective and respected. HR needs to focus on delivering unique talent solutions tailored to each companys circumstances and requirements. To do this, HR must develop a deep understanding of the business in the same way, and using the same language, as other managers. The measures it proposes must be tied to business outcomes: the impact on customer service, the reduction in costs, the support of a specic new growth area, the increase in staff loyalty and so on. While communication has a role to play, particularly when it comes to managing expectations after all, HR needs time to do its work the required antidote is a relentless focus on identifying ways of adding value to the rest of the business, and proactively meeting the needs of HRs customers. For many HR functions, data analytics is an ingredient that has long been missing, for example, it is a way of providing hard evidence about employee-related needs and opportunities and the impact of HR. The insights that can be gleaned from rigorously collecting and analyzing data, and creating insightful forecasts on the back of it, is a key tool in enabling HR to shape the organisations people resources to deliver on its underlying corporate strategy. But this is not just about employing the latest technologies or tools. It is about the HR function using an empirical approach to deliver a unique and differentiated people management strategy that is closely aligned with the companys goals and in the process of doing so, restoring HRs much-needed credibility at the highest levels of the business. This study suggests that HR perceives its biggest current challenge to be seizing the opportunity to transform itself into a strategic player.
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Acknowledgements
The above article was a reproduction from a global study by the Economist Intelligence Unit between May & June 2012, commissioned by KPMG International.
The Right Talent Development Strategy for Top Talents?

BY KEN LEE, DIRECTOR, KPMG MALAYSIA
39
Introduction
Your organisation is unique, and so is the mix of talent you need to deliver your business strategy. Why, then, do so many organisations continue to take a generic best practice approach to one of their most important strategic levers: how best to develop their top talents? Do you develop your top talents the same way as you develop the broader employee population? Or should you take a unique and out-of-the-box approach? After all, how well an organisation develops its talent can make or break its business. Developed well, and the organisation will be singing in harmony. But developing talents poorly and things soon start going off key. Your talent strategy for your organisation depends largely on how well youre able to develop your top talents differently so that you will continue to win in your markets. What follows are several ideas to help guide you through this process and nd a compelling approach on How best to develop your top talents with the right talent development strategy.
Who are your Top talents and why are they different from everybody else?
Since the publication of McKinseys seminal study on War for Talent in 1998, many organisations to take the stand that managing talents is similar to managing their human capital. This view has evolved over time. Talents have been studied, assessed and measured countless times and approaches and denitions for talent spotting are many. What remains clear is that views onpotential is somewhat a generally acceptable word associated to talent. One approach to identify top talent is based on their performance and potential. 40 On assessing performance, a typical approach is to look at performance ratings and the track record of consistently delivering high performance. When it comes to assessing potential, it is It is universally recognized that potential is a difcult thing to objectively assess. Nevertheless historical performance alone is not enough to predict future success. Some of the valuable prompts used to assess potential include key questions related to ambition, ability, and engagement. Two sets of illustrative components used to assess talents are:
Performance
Potential
VALUE
+ TRACK RECORD +
ABILITY
AMBITION
+ ENGAGEMENT
Performance Management Process
Talent Management Process
For each of these criteria above, organisations (traditionally HR practitioners) will need to support the business by asking further questions and by pushing them to provide specic examples. Your top talents are those quality people who are your next generation of leaders, critically important to the future success of your business. They are also known as the Emerging Leaders a term used to explain the strategic importance of leaders who are committed to role modeling, coaching and inspiring others to be
the best they can be. They are your top 5% and differ clearly from the rest of the 95%. Many organisations continue to place strong emphasis on high-potential employees, a critical talent pool. They are provided with different career paths and development strategies.
Benets of having a different developmental strategy for your top talents

One of the direct benets of developing your talents differently is that it will enhance your ability to retain top talents. This has been a proven strategy for organisations that are committed to invest on developing their next generation of leaders. As top talents are the top 5%, A performers, many of organisations maximize the contribution of talent people by providing them with stretch experiences to allow them to make a difference. What we have also found in recent years, is that increasingly, many organisations have begun this process of developing their top talents in their early stage of their careers. This will not only build greater breadth in the required leadership skill sets but inspire the key talents to extend their bandwidth as industry recognized leaders in their market place. For the top talents, studies have indicated that it provides them with the ability to make an impact and maximize contribution to the rm. A differentiated developmental track makes them feel valued as an Emerging leader and this goes a long way in terms of retaining them.
What is the best development model?

A preferred developmental strategy for nurturing top talents is to provide them with adequate stretch experiences. These stretching experiences have been identied by many successful Leaders and professionals - have indicated through their feedback that stretch experiences have given them the transformational skills and experience to add the most value to their development and progress in their careers. The stretch should help top talents develop skills that help set them apart from the broader employee population, prepare them to meet client challenges and the career hurdles ahead. Below are some examples of stretch experiences that are aimed at ensuring top talents get a wide variety of experience as they work towards becoming the next generation of leaders. The following example is a combination of experiences which have been structured around what top talents typically perform in their role. While many organisations may adopt a different approach to develop people along with their unique competencies, this example is only intended to be a generic one which will help provide some ideas which you can take away:.
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Business Development & Sales

Your ability to spot and convert business opportunities for your organisation is key to your future success growing accounts, leading successful pitches, bids and converting new relationships into clients for your organisation and leading and contributing to a variety of sales. Some stretch ideas: Negotiation. Provide real opportunity to experience rst hand negotiation with a substantial stake with key target clients. Evidence of winning work. Experience winning new work based on personal relationships developed, marketing initiatives lead and long term relationship development. Establish their own prole/brand in the market to generate a pipeline of future sales On a Key Account for a key client, Play an active role on a strategic Key Client Account, taking responsibility for driving forward account management activity. Involvement in a signicant pitch/bid/proposal. Play a key role because of your specialist technical or sector knowledge. Cross selling. Draw on a wide internal network to facilitate introductions to clients that lead to cross
function sales or invitations to tender, beyond the initial scope of the work. Maintained and invested in developing relationships with clients Evidence of leading a major pitch. Lead a complex, high value and/or highly competitive major pitch with minimal support from Leadership, resulting in a win or positive client feedback and strong sustainable relationships. Develop a new business area, value proposition or marketing approach. Personally responsible for a change in the go to market approach in their area, shaping a new proposition, taking it to market in an innovative way, packaging offering in a different way that has resulted in new leads and wins for your organisation.
Managing & Leading People

As we work with people, our leaders skills in both managing and leading teams are critical. A wide variety of responsibilities are crucial, ensuring you are able to manage, and most importantly to inspire and engage our people to create a high performance culture. Some stretch ideas: Manage complex and/or multiple teams and projects. Manage, across a number of complicated projects or workstreams, teams and the use of internal experts, as well as maintaining direct and senior communication with key stakeholders. Has been responsible for building team morale, evaluating performance and resolving difcult situations with the team or client. Lead a multi-national and/or virtual team. Lead a large or complex team with members from different countries, integrating different cultures, expectations and delivery styles, making use of the latest technology and communication tools to effectively meet the clients needs. Leads cross functional teams. Responsible for client delivery teams from across functions, responsible for identifying and recruiting the necessary internal expertise, managing conicting priorities and delivery approaches to deliver a seamless and top quality service to the client. Mentoring. Assume a mentoring role for people in a different part of the business Delivers training or acts as a Development Centre observer. Co-delivers training on non technical areas to junior colleagues or observes Development or Assessment Centres for Managers or Senior Managers Strategy and communication. Supports the Firms and/or their functions strategy, by facilitating Engagement or Cascade sessions or senior level business planning meetings. Team growth and recruitment. Contributes to longer term resource planning discussions and acts as the nal, deciding interviewer in graduate or experienced hire recruitment.
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Leading Client Delivery

Being able to demonstrate excellence in a variety of client delivery scenarios is essential for your reputation and your organisation. Some stretch ideas: Signicant responsibility for protability & nancial performance. Has a client portfolio of a size expected by country and function. Is responsible for, or contributes to, team nancial performance of sizable client portfolios Advise a client through a crisis. Play a primary role in guiding a client through a crisis or major change, eg acquisition, PR crisis or major restructure programme. Leads large or complex accounts. Responsible for leading delivery teams on large and/or complex accounts, being accountable for the deliverable, whilst also being responsible for client management (stakeholder management, communication, etc) and team management (workow management, team and individual performance, etc). Resource planning. Act as, or advise, the resource planner for a department, balancing conicting priorities and stakeholders within tight limitations.
Innovation. Apply innovative approaches & skills to work, which has added value and been well received by the client, eg through delivery methods, account or project management, project outcome, communication etc.
Cross-Function Experience & Mobility

Gaining experience in other functions, countries and organisations helps you to spot opportunities to add value to your clients, to operate with a one organisation mindset and to develop broad networks. Immersing yourself in another area of our business, or with a client, gains a depth of knowledge, experience and networks that cant be gained through research and conversations. Some stretch ideas: Time in another function. Spend 6 months or more in another function at Manager level or above, delivering work not directly aligned to original skill set. Time on international assignment. Spend 12 months or more on secondment to another country (preferably at a senior grade and to a strategic or culturally different location). Strategic project. Take on signicant responsibility on a project of strategic importance for the organisation, eg off shoring or restructuring. Relocation. Relocate to other ofces or functions permanently, or long term, at a senior level, building a new network and client base. Out of the box secondment. Complete an approved out of the box experience, which meets the following criteria: Secondment to: a client, Project support to one of the core Enabling Projects, Executive Assistant to a member of the Board or Executive, or Government departments, a Regulatory Body or Industry Body, a non-government organisation etc. The Corporate Executive Board through its Learning & Development Roundtable approach, designed a portfolio of skills and work experiences top talents need for future leadership roles. At the core of this approach is high impact development activities. These development activities are aimed at creating the greatest impact on performance. Some of these activities include: Stretch & challenge : Career advancing job assignments, challenging work situations that push one beyond his/her comfort zone Connecting to other key Leaders: work with different, difcult and demanding leaders. Learn from them Obtain feedback: Ask direct reports to provide feedback on your greatest strengths and areas for improvement, serve as a sounding board for difcult challenges Practice a new skill: Learn a new skill , practice it & obtain feedback
43
Closing the Demand-Supply Gap in ICT Talents

BY ASSISTANT PROF. DR. HO CHUK FONG & ASSISTANT PROF. DR. VEE VOON YEE, UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING (UNIMY)
44
Malaysia is facing a shortage of talents in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industries, Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong said in 2011. The shortage in human capital has been the perennial bug bear of the ICT industry, with some efforts to address the issue falling short of expectations and others, even worse, falling by the wayside. This shortfall in the supply of ICT talents has obvious and serious implications on Malaysias hopes of becoming an innovation-led economy and digital nation. After all, the ICT industry is seen as a critical agent of change for national transformation, contributing almost 10% to GDP as reported by Datuk Badlisham Ghazali, the CEO of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) at the MOSTI-PIKOM Leadership Summit 2012. Additionally, ICT contributes in raising productivity and output in other industries as well as the government machinery and public domain. As we head into a future of increasing digital assimilation and global integration, solving this conundrum remains arguably our most urgent imperative if the nation is to keep pace with the developed world and other fast-emerging economies.
A long-standing problem in quantity and quality

It is fair to say that the gap in home-grown ICT professionals opened up the very same day we launched the Multimedia Super Corridor. MSC Malaysia marked our entry into the software and services segments of the ICT industry, in the process, complementing and supporting the existing manufacturing sub-sector for computer hardware. In response, Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) began introducing new courses in computer and ICT studies, followed in due time by the establishment of full-blown ICT faculties. The idea was to provide an assembly line of graduates who could ll vacancies that were opening up in multinational corporations as well as locally-incorporated small and medium-sized ICT vendors. However, many of the graduates have not been meeting the requirements of the industries. This has mainly been due to the lack of relevant and practical computing knowledge among graduates. This setback was further compounded by the somewhat unbalanced emphasis within the tertiary education curricula on information technology rather than the more durable discipline of computer science and software engineering. Many information technology graduates were unable to secure their preferred jobs, eventually leading to frustration and a sense of disillusionment that damaged the appeal of ICT programmes among new undergraduates. Over time, the divide between the supply and demand of ICT talents became not only a quantitative, but also a qualitative one. Recently, the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) revealed that the ICT industry would need an estimated 22,000 professionals by 2020 while also noting that the existing IHLs in the country could only supply some 10,000 in the preceding years. 45
It was clear that the status quo would not be in a position to meet this requirement. It is for this reason that the Government had no hesitation to award a full-edged university licence to Prestariang Berhad.
A new boutique university for computer studies

Known as a solutions provider in ICT training, Prestariang launched the University Malaysia of Computer Science & Engineering (UniMy) early this year. It is viewed as the nations rst boutique university focusing on the fundamentals of computer studies rather than the more transient knowledge and skills of other information technology related disciplines. This is reected in the disciplines it offers, which is built around the following three strategic computer domains: Computer Engineering Computer Science Software Engineering The university is on track to receive its rst batch of students in July and has targeted a maximum enrolment of 600 for 2013 for both its foundation and undergraduate programmes. Another feature that sets UniMy apart from other IHLs is its unique 1+3+1 programme, which comprises a year for Foundation studies, three years for the undergraduate studies and one year for Masters studies. A three-year PhD programme is also available. 46 In order to improve the marketability and employability of UniMy graduates, UniMy has incorporated several elements into its undergraduate programmes. First, the syllabus conforms to standards of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). Second, the programmes will be audited yearly by Melbourne School of Engineering at The University of Melbourne, the top university in Australia, to ensure its integrity, sustainability and relevance. UniMy also offers 13 professional certication courses to students where they are allowed to choose any four according to their preferences. Upon completion, these certicates will be issued by international professional bodies including Microsoft, ORACLE, EC-Council, CompTIA and Adobe. Besides, to ensure that its graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills sets matching those the industry needs, all students have to undergo a six-month industrial attachment with UniMys global partners including Microsoft, IBM, Huawei, Dell, Autodesk and EC-Council plus local agencies Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), Cyberview Sdn Bhd, Kumpulan Modal Perdana and NanoMalaysia. Already, the response from industry players has been encouraging. It is likely that they perceive UniMy as the potential solution to an old and growing problem. Many have agreed to adopt and absorb students through training placements, raising the prospect of guaranteed employment for these graduates. As we head towards 2020, the gap between the demand and supply of ICT talents remains considerable. But at least we now have a light at the end of the tunnel.
The positive job outlook from the survey for Q1 is mainly attributed to the strong economic growth with forecasts of the economy expanding by a margin of 4.5-5.5% as announced in the Budget 2013.The turnover rate is also expected to be higher in the beginning of the year as many choose to switch jobs after receiving bonuses. Nevertheless, according to the feedback given in the survey, most employers are also selective in their hiring to ensure they get high-performance employees to meet the competitive global work environment.
47
Persatuan Industri Komputer Multimedia Malaysia (The National ICT Association of Malaysia) 1106 & 1107, Block B, Phileo Damansara II No.15, Jalan 16/11, 46350 Petaling Jaya Selangor Darul Ehsan T +: (603) 7955 2922 F +: (603) 7955 2933 E+: info@pikom.org.my W+: www.pikom.org.my PIKOM, the National ICT Association of Malaysia, is a not-for-profit organisation. It is the largest association representing information and communications technology (ICT) players in Malaysia. Since its inception in 1986, PIKOM has come of its age as the voice of ICT industry. It has become an ICT referral centre for government and industry players, as well as international organisations. In this regard, PIKOM takes on the responsibility to publish ICT-relevant information in a periodic manner.
Design, production and printing by: MJLAIKC INFOWORKS | Tel: 6012 5050862 | E: mjlaikc@gmail.com

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ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA

ICT Job Market Outlook in Malaysia June 2013

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

Message by PIKOM Chairman

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

Message by PIKOM President/CEO

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

Malaysian Economic and ICT Industry Outlook

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

9.8 10.0 9.2

Figure 1: Malaysias GDP Growth (%): 1990-2013

ICT Industry Outlook

80 (RM Billion) Value in Ringgit Malaysia 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

61.7 55.1 43.1 37 22 24.4 27.6 31 48.2

18.1 12.3 13.7 14.8 15.5

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

ICT Job Market Salary Trends

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

Job Category Overall

7500 7000 6500 6000 5500 5000 4500 4000

7,387 6,784 6,240 5,626 5,276 4,699 4,184

By Job Category and Years of Working Experience

Fresh Graduates: (Entry Level)

Middle Management: (Manager)

Senior Management: (Senior Manager) 10,795 12,166 13,374 9.9

2010 2011 2012 Percentage Change (%)

2,238 2,343 4.7

7,005 7,837 8,946 14.1

5,626 6,240 6,784 8.7

Industry (Central Malaysia)

Fresh graduates by Industry

Middle Management (Manager)

Senior Executive (5 or more working experience)

Percentiles (Ringgit Malaysia)

Call Centre/IT-Enabled Services

Electrical & Electronics

Science & Technology/Aerospace/ BioTechnology -

Geometric Mean (GM): (Ringgit Malaysia)

Minimum (Ringgit Malaysia)

Maximum (Ringgit Malaysia)

Table 3 : Average Monthly Salary of ICT Professionals by Industry, 2012

Source: Jobstret.com and PIKOM, 2013

Senior Management (Senior Manager)

Middle Management (Manager)

ALL JOB CATEGORIES

Experienced ICT Professionals by Industry

Comparison Between 2011 and 2012 by industry

Top Five Paying Industries

ICT Industry Segments

Average Salary in Ringgit Malaysia

7,533 7,322 4,912 4,778 3,129 3,082

ICT JOB MARKET OUTLOOK IN MALAYSIA | JUNE 2013

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 % change 2011-2012

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 % change 2011-2012

By ICT User Industries

Senior Management: (Senior Manager) 13,364 13,735

Middle Management: (Manager) 8,519 9,354

Senior Executive: (> 5 Year Working Experience) 5,408 5,437

Junior Executive: (1-4 Years Working Experiance) 3,216 3,236

ICT User Industries ICT Producer Industries