Thanks for the question. All of the major salary surveys are saying between 4% and 5% in 2023. This will of course vary sector by sector with “hot skills” commanding higher premiums. Additionally pay in the Kingdom is growing phenomenally fast as employers try to secure Saudi Talent in a booming economy by increasing pay. Many employees are securing significant pay increases to leave and take on a new job. If you are seeing attrition of more than 15% in your work force in 2022  it is probably time to recalibrate your pay bands and increase the budget for the forthcoming cycle.

Unfortunately, there is not much to do for 2022 – best you can do is ask managers to rank their employees from most valuable to lowest contributor and retrofit a forced distribution curve based on the outcome. However, for 2023 you can get it right by setting better goals and revisiting the training you provide managers on goal setting and communication. If you put rubbish in you get rubbish out, so invest the time now in quarter one to make the performance outcomes at the end of the year more meaningful