Travel industry staff rate progression higher than salaries
Career opportunities and ongoing skills development play an equal if not more important role than salary for staff in the Asia travel industry, a recent survey has found. The poll of 1,000 clients by recruitment firm TMS between April and June found that 87 per cent of respondents rated salary as important when deciding whether to accept a job or not, while 96 per cent said career progression was important. With salaries ranging from US$10,000 to US$380,000 a year, 37 per cent of the respondents said they had received a pay rise of up to 2 per cent in the past 12 months, while 30 per cent said they had received 3 to 5 per cent increases. Only 10 per cent said they had a pay rise of more than 10 per cent. The highest base salaries were those in business development, procurement, marketing and account director roles.
Tough economic times result in increased fraud cases
Companies worldwide have lost an average of US$8.2million due to fraud over the past three years, according to a recent survey. The survey by risk consulting firm Kroll and the Economist Intelligence Unit of 890 senior executives found that the average loss to fraud increased by 22 per cent over the same period, attributing this to the credit crunch and economic climate. Anne Tiedemann, regional managing director for Kroll's operations in Asia, expects this increase to continue as conditions become tougher for business and the full impact of the credit crunch unfolds. 'When you look into the causes of fraud, companies that cited high staff turnover or weak internal controls suffered much higher levels of fraud - in almost every case increasing their exposure by 11/2 times.' She said companies needed to look carefully at how they could address these issues to reduce their risk to fraud and improve their business operations.
