"Standard Salary Increase" when hiring Thai staff

[forumuser10]

Yes, total nonsens.

[sustento]

7% is not a lot of incentive to have a person quit their job to come and work for you.

Thing is how do you know he is not out of a job to begin with?

Because the OP said in his original post:

"Frankly his current salary is already pretty good and we what we want to offer is only about 7% more."

???

[timendres]

7% is not a lot of incentive to have a person quit their job to come and work for you.

Sure, if we were only offering that. But we feel a big incentive is the skills increase they would get. Thai developers lag behind western standards from what I've seen. We're prepared to pay him based on his current skills, but he would be exposed to a lot of things that would greatly benefit him.

But that's not my concern. If he wants to move for money over opportunity that's up to him. What concerns me is that the agent is lying to me, I'm just trying to establish if they are.

In my company, only one time has a prospective employee offered to accept his existing salary. Every other prospect was expecting a pay increase. The increase desired varied.

So, I don't think the agent is trying to scam you or anything like that. But to attach a specific percentage to it is a bit shortsighted and simplistic on his part.

The simple fact of the matter is that salary is a large consideration for any person seeking a new job, but there are also other considerations. For instance, the prospect willing to accept the same salary hated his current job and really liked our company. The work environment was much better. The work was more challenging. And he would up his game significantly working with us. On the downside, we are a small company and many Thais prefer to join a large firm that provides more security, larger teams, and more opportunity for promotion (contrary to most Westerners, who dislike large companies). Salary is most important, but there are definitely other considerations.

So, if I were you, I would ignore the agent's specific requirements, and simply offer a complete package, including salary, and perceived benefits of working for your company, and let the prospect decide on the merit. But certainly a pay increase is going to increase your chances of getting the hire.

[theoldgit]

Post that is totally off topic removed.

[mike324]

7% is not a lot of incentive to have a person quit their job to come and work for you.

Thing is how do you know he is not out of a job to begin with?

Because the OP said in his original post:

"Frankly his current salary is already pretty good and we what we want to offer is only about 7% more."

???

And where did the OP hear that he is still employed? from the agent? job seeker for sure won't let the OP verify if he is working at X company. A lot of gullible folks. Not sure if the OP is using an agent to recruit, or the agent approach him with a potential candidate. Sounds like its agent approaching the OP with potential candidate because agent seems to be speaking on behalf of the job seeker, and asking for higher salary so they can get higher commission.

[sustento]

7% is not a lot of incentive to have a person quit their job to come and work for you.

Thing is how do you know he is not out of a job to begin with?

Because the OP said in his original post:

"Frankly his current salary is already pretty good and we what we want to offer is only about 7% more."

???

And where did the OP hear that he is still employed? from the agent? job seeker for sure won't let the OP verify if he is working at X company. A lot of gullible folks. Not sure if the OP is using an agent to recruit, or the agent approach him with a potential candidate. Sounds like its agent approaching the OP with potential candidate because agent seems to be speaking on behalf of the job seeker, and asking for higher salary so they can get higher commission.

You seem be making a large number of assumptions none of which are supported by the OP's post.

[HerbalEd]

7% is not a lot of incentive to have a person quit their job to come and work for you.

There are other incentive that can motivate people more than money.

[samuibruno]

hi

total BS

there is NO standard salary increase

take a hike

and as far as trying to sell yourself based on new skills provided , this in most cases is not any incentive to most

[there are exceptions ] and only way to find out is to give[for example ] 1 months test period

cheers

[kevin2852]

I agree with Soutpeel, you are hiring an employee, but from the agency's point of view, you are hiring them and the higher the salary, the better their take home. They do generally not give a damn about the employee

[louse1953]

Of course the agency is lying. They are Thai. For example, I asked my Thai wife what is number 1 sin in Buddhist Thailand by Thai people. She thought about it for about a split second and said LYING! She quickly added that everything bad in Thailand starts with a lie and gossip. She said even when Thai people want to do something good it probably involves a lie of some sort.

I began to consider this while remembering past dealings with Thai business people and others and rightly concluded that her statement was fairly true. In my experience.

Furthermore, I observed that one of the most often used words in Thailand is the word "WHAT?" And that word spelled phonetically looks like this: a-lie.

Coincidence or bitter irony? Draw from your own experience. TiT.[/quote

I bet your wife is different though.

[impulse]

A lot of western thinking posted here about job satisfaction and career development. That's great if you're debating a job change "back home" where you're looking at a 30 year future career at a western salary.

But Maslow had it right.

If a guy is barely scraping up enough to keep the wolves at bay, a salary increase can improve the quality of life for him and his family a lot more than any intangibles like skills development.

On the other hand, if the salary increase means the difference between buying that second car and whether to go to Rome or to New Zealand on vacation, then skills development is probably his current need level on the Maslow hierarchy.

The OP hasn't posted any relevant numbers, so I have no clue where his prospect fits on the food/shelter/clothing....personal enrichment hierarchy. But I suggest that it's probably at a point where he's going to spend a lot of time and mental energy trying to figure out how to get through the month on what he's making. Time and energy that I'm sure the OP would prefer to see going into software development.

We pay significantly more than the "standard" salary. And we get our choice of significantly better than "standard" employees. And the vast majority stay on long after we have suffered through the learning curve where the cost of developing (and assimilating) them exceeds the value of their contribution. Fortunately, the difference between a standard Thai salary and a great Thai salary isn't going to break our piggy bank. Sub standard, dishonest, or poorly motivated employees might.

Best of luck.

[rwdrwdrwd]

As a software engineer, I can tell you that over a period of around 16 years my salary increases from the start of my career went like this:

25%, 25%, 28%, 22%, 40%, 15%, 15%, 0%

Average of 18 months - 2 years in a role, generally much higher than a 7% increase, though certainly getting less so as I got to a senior level. The last one was a scenario where I hated the role enough to quit before seeking something new. Never been made redundant or fired.

From my experience, 2 years in a software engineering role is perfectly normal these days - don't know anyone who I am still in contact with from old roles that has stayed in one place beyond 4, and the ones that have are those that have had significant promotions and pay grade bumps.

So yeah, I'd say 7% is well below normality, my experience is that 15 - 25% is a generally a standard salary increase (as opposed to "the Thai Standard Salary Increase™") aside from scenarios where the candidate is extremely unhappy in their current role. Perhaps the way the agent is presenting this is getting lost in translation a little.

Edited November 29, 2014 by rwdrwdrwd

[monkeycountry]

1. There is no "Standard Salary Increase" of at least 15% to 20% in Thailand.

2. This particular employee may only want to change job if he gets 15-20% increase, who knows.