Under the new collective labour agreement, salaries have increased by an average of 3 percent this year. In may it was even increased by an average of 3.8 percent. (source: NOS) Our benchmark interim also showed a noticeable increase in hourly rates. Labor shortages combined with the high inflation at the moment seems to ensure that pay is increasing across the board. A good time to conduct and publish our benchmark for digital salaries. And yes, increases can be seen here as well, but there is more….

As with the benchmark digital rates, we compare the results to those from 2020 just before the pandemic. The benchmark was conducted among professionals in BrandPit’s network. This group is becoming increasingly senior and the vast majority of professionals have 8 years of work experience or more.

salaries

Compared to 2020, we see an increase in the salary category €75k to €90K with an outlier in €80 to €90k. For the rest, gross annual salaries have remained more or less the same.

slightly more broad online marketing and e-commerce roles

Overall, we see few shifts in the disciplines within the digital domain compared to 2020. Remarkably, Customer Experience is gaining a little ground; here we see an increase from 1% to 3%. Among interim professionals, we see an increase in specialties within online marketing and e-commerce assignments. Among permanent employees we see the opposite, here there is a slight increase in broad roles. For e-commerce from 13% to 18% and for online marketing from 27% to 29%.

financial move for most

We see that most respondents have made a financial move with their current employer. This has grown from 49% in 2020 to 57% in 2022. By far the majority have made a move from 1 to 5%, followed by a move between 5 to 10%. The latter group has increased slightly from 2020. Back then, it was 22%. It seems that most employers are well aware of current salary trends in the market. Salary increases are to show their professionals that they are very valuable and would like to keep them on board. As a result, we see less frequent job switching in 2022 than in 2020. That was 37% in 2020 versus 23% this year.

increase in bonus schemes

Most professionals now have a bonus scheme. For the largest group, this is 5 to 10% of the annual salary. What is striking is that personal, team or organizational performance is the biggest factor in determining the amount of bonus to be earned. Compared to 2020, this KPI has also increased significantly from 28% in 2020 to 44% in 2022. This “people” aspect obviously makes us very happy. It seems that after the corona pandemic, employers realize that ‘people’, how they work together and contribute to the organization, are hugely important to the success of the organization. This is being encouraged with an important component in bonus goals.

managerial roles stable

The split between managerial and non-managerial roles continues to be about 50/50. There is an increase in leadership roles from 48% to 56%, with leadership on small teams and a slight decrease in leadership on larger teams. The increase in smaller teams indicates more personal contact and attention to people.

important components in function

In addition to the content aspect, there are of course several components that keep a role interesting. 68% of professionals indicate that ‘coaching colleagues’ is the most important component in their role. This was also the largest component in 2020, but it seems to have only become more important this year, with an increase of up to 39%. The components ‘P&L responsible’ comes in second place at 37% and ‘international responsibility’ in third place at 33%.

our vision

As with interim rates, we see that market forces are driving an overall increase in salaries. Employees have gained a stronger position and this is reflected in pay. The desire and need to retain employees results in it being easier to make financial moves than before. But not only the financial aspect is important. Employers will also have to pay attention to the human and content aspect within positions.

We at BrandPit see an overall increase in demand for people within the tech/digital domain. A large number of companies are still in transition, which explains the increasing demand for both permanent and interim capacity. The increase in demand for the broader digital roles such as online marketing and e-commerce are well explained by this, these people hold key positions and are often the triggers of transition. We do see the small growth within Customer Experience as a harbinger. We predict that the demand for these specialists will continue to grow in the coming period and that these roles will become increasingly important.

In addition, we see that the recruitment of permanent people is taking much longer due to the even smaller labor market. A successful policy regarding retention and growth of current employees is also becoming more and more important.

*Case in point: BrandPit’s digital network is in the heavy medior to senior segment. That means that the figures of this benchmark digital salaries focus on the permanent digital professional from 5 years of work experience within the digital domain.