Students participate in a job fair in Ha Noi. — Photo thethaovanhoa.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub)  — Viet Nam's labour market showed signs of recovery as over 82 per cent of surveyed participants upbeat about the business outlook this year, projecting increased business revenue.

The figure was unveiled on Thursday as part of the 2014 Flash Survey conducted by Towers Watson Viet Nam, a leading professional services company, highlighting compensation, rewards and benefits trends for the industry.

As per the survey results, 67 per cent of the 163 respondents forecast an increase in hiring especially in sales and manufacturing functions.

The survey also reflects a positive sign in compensation budget planning with a median budget increase at 9.6 per cent. On the other hand, 90 per cent of the respondents plan to control costs in human resources activities, including learning and development, compensation, recruitment, and benefits.

More than a half of the respondents have a formal written human resource strategy and 79 per cent of respondents currently focus on optimising, streaming, and improving human resource processes. Among these only 51 per cent respondents linked their talent development programme to their rewards programme.

Huynh Thu Huong, the managing director of Towers Watson Viet Nam noted that these findings showed that while the human resources function in organisations had made positive strides in Viet Nam, a lot still needed to be done for human resources to become a strategic business partner.

"Human resource strategy should support business strategy and human resources should drive talent and reward programmes that provide a competitive edge to companies. Human resources should also effectively analyse data to optimise their processes and transform the human resource function in their organisations," Huong stated.

Meanwhile, Towers Watson Viet Nam has also started the new cycle of 2014 Total Rewards Survey for all industries. This Towers Watson's survey looks at salary hikes in various industry sectors, including chemical, energy, financial services, technology, media, pharmaceuticals, and a range of job levels within organisations. — VNS