SINGAPORE, Feb. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ESI International, the world's leading project management training company, today announced the findings of its second annual Asia Pacific Project Management Salary Survey. The study was conducted with over 1,200 project managers with varying levels of working experience across multiple industry sectors in the region, spanning Australia, Greater China, India, New Zealand, as well as Southeast Asian nations including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
Besides bringing to light the salary trends across countries, the study also offers insights into employment outlook, the factors impacting salary improvement and critical competencies hiring managers look for when recruiting project management professionals.
Key Takeaways:
- Countries with the highest and lowest mean monthly salary recorded: Across all industries, roles, and experience levels, Australia emerged as the country with the highest mean monthly salary registered within the project management profession (USD7,667), followed closely by New Zealand (USD7,511). Singapore (USD6,407) jumped one place from last year's position and has ranked third this year. This was followed by Malaysia (USD3,839), Indonesia (USD3,687), Greater China (3,369), the Philippines (USD3,314) and India (USD2,875).
- Programme management and project portfolio management gaining prominence: Asia Pacific project management (PM) professionals have the most experience in programme management (21 per cent), with project portfolio management and Waterfall project management tied at the second spot (14 per cent) -- regardless of the industries they are in, followed by vendor management (12 per cent) and Agile PM - Scrum (11 per cent).
- Respondents were almost equally divided over a further salary improvement in 2015: Apart from annual increment and bonus payouts, respondents were almost equally divided between no (51%) and yes (49%) on stepping-up of their salary in the same organisation this year. This finding is slightly more optimistic than last year, where 38 per cent expected an increment.
- Better economic outlook and increased PM responsibilities continue to be top factors in improving current salary: Majority of respondents view economic outlook as the key contributor in making a difference in their current salary, while 31 per cent attributed it to increased job responsibilities, which will require acquisition of new skills, professional experience and credentials.
- Top two competencies for career advancement are project leadership and communication and general management skills: Across most industries, project leadership, communication and management skills are the top two competences indicated respectively by respondents as key factors for career advancements.
- IT and manufacturing sectors: Respondents chose project leadership and communication and management skills as the top two competencies in that order.
- Banking and finance industry: Respondents voted stakeholder management as the top core competency, maintaining its position from last year. This was closely followed by project leadership which replaced Agile project management from the previous year.
- Oil and gas industry: Respondents indicated project leadership as the top core competency, followed by communication and general management skills.
- Hiring outlook reasonably upbeat across Asia Pacific for the first half of 2015: Hiring managers that are looking to add new headcount to the PM team are likely to do so within the next 3 or 6 months, indicating a reasonably upbeat hiring outlook across Asia Pacific for 2015.
- Hiring managers rate communication and project leadership skill as the top most critical competencies when recruiting PM professionals: Communication and project leadership skills are the most sought after capabilities in PM. These two abilities, similarly, are the same proficiencies that PM professionals across most industries think will help fast-track their careers.
- Happiness and overall job satisfaction, the most important factor aside from monetary compensation for career development: Besides monetary compensation, most PM professionals consider happiness and overall job satisfaction, achieving work-life balance, and career prospect and advancement as the three most important factors correspondingly to their career development.
- Mismanaged resources leading to failed projects and talent shortage are the top two PM challenges: Across all industries, the top two major PM challenges which emerged are mismanaged resources leading to failed projects and talent shortage.
"As business leaders continue to adapt to the increasing market volatility, project management will play a big step closer to business strategy. Today's business environment demands PM professionals to possess a combination of technical skills, strategic business management expertise, interpersonal skills and leadership competencies," said Raed S. Haddad, Managing Director for Asia Pacific, ESI International. "With PM and project portfolio management gaining prominence this year and the disciplines of change management and project management continuing to merge, organisations should take note of this and understand that these changes will ultimately benefit the practice of project management as a whole."
To download a copy of the full report, please visit: http://www.esi-intl.com.sg/pdf/RR/SGRR_2015_Asia_Pacific_Project_Management_Salary_Survey_Report.pdf
About ESI International
ESI International is a global project-focused training company, helping people around the world improve the way they manage projects, contracts, requirements and vendors through innovative training in project management, business analysis and contract management. In addition to ESI's more than 100 courses delivered in more than a dozen languages at hundreds of locations worldwide, ESI offers several certificate programmes through our educational partner, The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Founded in 1981, ESI's worldwide headquarters are in Arlington, Va., USA. To date, ESI's programmes have benefited more than 1.85 million professionals worldwide. For more information visit www.esi-intl.com.sg.
