Company culture, the importance of a fair salary in a “hot market”

How do we pay in Abstracta? Why is it essential to have a clear career plan as part of a strong company culture? Where does the expression “hot market” comes from? Today we dive into these questions, because the salary is by no means a minor issue, and equity in its distribution is of crucial importance for development.

The beauty and meaning of democracy are sustained by the value of equity. How relevant can the growth of a company be, if at the end of the day it is generated at the expense of undervalued personnel and without equal opportunities for development?

Today, culture is constituted as an invaluable intangible for organizations, which inevitably includes humanistic leadership and equity in salaries.

According to different studies, the majority of candidates are willing to change their job for a better salary, but they also highly value work flexibility and real growth possibilities.

For this reason, at Abstracta we developed two interconnected tools to determine fair and competitive salaries, without gaps of any kind. The first is our road map, in which we capture all the possible roles within the company, with different levels of seniority, related to training and work experience.

In turn, each role has different possible salaries that depend on the development of different items which we call “highlights”. These include English knowledge level, training, cultural feed, intellectual humility, generosity towards knowledge transfering, and continuous learning aspirations.

Our highlights specifically point to the knowledge and values ​​that we want to generate in each member of our team, in a culture of respect and mutual care. They are proactively reviewed by our People Care team every six months, together with all areas leaders, with the aim to evaluate the performance of our people.

The second tool that we developed is called Scale, it is a salary calculator in which we upload the seniority and outstanding level of each person. The platform offers the result of a fair salary, in consideration of every item, as well as the predetermined base and ceiling for that position.

Why did we create this system within our company’s culture?

We are inspired by our people, by the importance of having equal salaries for everyone and the value of transparency.

The road map is essential for our team, to understand the most important points in which they can work to grow, and to know all the possibilities within their career plan.

The transparency of these processes creates healthier work environments. 

it is crucial for each person to feel recognized and valued in their role. The need to have equitable salaries, which does not depend on personal negotiating skills but on pre-established variables. It is of vital importance in the culture of mutual care and humanistic leadership that we promote at Abstracta.

What do we mean when we talk about a “hot market”?

Since the pandemic began, new options have opened up for companies and people interested in working for them. The exponential increase in remote work generated a great movement in the IT industry, with the possibility of working from any part of the globe.

Currently, worldwide there is more demand than supply in the area. There are not enough trained people to cover all the job opportunities that exist. Especially in technical roles related to software development and software testing.

There are more and more people training, but the gap is still very large and there are still many vacancies. All this generates a very important rotation, a market in which candidates have many more possibilities to choose and tools to better negotiate their income.

Likewise, thanks to remote work, companies that previously contracted the services of IT candidates in an outsourced manner began to reach them directly, eliminating intermediaries and thus increasing the level of offers.

Zapping work vs. long term job

Jumping from company to company or from project to project is now commonplace. It is said that the labor market is getting hotter and hotter, and the statistics support this type of comment.

Does job stability not count? Has the ability to forge labor links been lost? While professional zapping generates adrenaline in some people because they feel that the diversity of experiences enriches their lives and aspirations, there are those who prefer stability, security and long-term planning.

Image extracted from The Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The social phenomenon known as “The Great Resignation” of the United States doesn’t stop growing. According to a recent report by The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in November 2021 resignations increased in 22 states. Comparing it to their previous publication, that month the resignations grew by 3%, which means that 4,527 thousand people resigned in just one month, after the resignation of 4,157 the previous month.

The phenomenon is slowly reaching different parts of the globe.  Politico Europe quotes it in this way: “Data collated by the OECD, which groups most of the advanced industrial democracies, shows that in its 38 member countries, about 20 million fewer people are in work than before the coronavirus struck. Of these, 14 million have exited the labor market and are classified as ‘not working’ and ‘not looking for work’”. 

The director of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, Detlef Scheele, told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that his country needs 400.000 migrant workers to make up for the lack of staff.

The empowerment of people at a professional level, the lack of trained people in the area and the global need for an increasing number of IT developments lead to an increasingly large demand, much higher than the supply. Undoubtedly, this is the main generator of a hot labor market.

In the Latin American and Caribbean region the situation is different. According to the International Labor Organization, 26 million people lost their jobs during the pandemic, but not just because they quit. According to an article published on The Washington Post, if in the United States the phenomenon is named “The Great Resignation”, in Latin America they should speak of “the great survival”.

However, although it is not yet reflected in the statistics, everyday we can see countless employed people from Latin America looking for jobs to extend their employment horizons through online platforms, thus joining the global trend that empowers candidates. This is even more pronounced in people who work in the IT industry.

Organizational Culture, the path to success

The truth is that there are no perfect forms to guarantee success. In fact, the definition of success is becoming broader and more diverse.

In the antipodes, just a few years ago workers did not usually present great demands. Currently, this reality has changed radically due to the level of supply-demand and the new paradigm that the choice between companies and personnel must be mutual, bidirectional.

At Abstracta, we love our people to grow and develop, and we enjoy the freedom with which each of our members chooses to lead their professional path.

We like to think in the long term. We work hardly to take care of our people and forge bonds that last over time, to enjoy greater well-being and to achieve greater efficiency. Because as is already known, people work better when they are more satisfied, and they are happier.

Long ago, resignation was mostly considered an action related to weakness. The responsibilities of the companies, how to take care of their people, were not in focus. The perspective was different, and pointed to the fact that the workers had to “resist”.

The mentality has changed and today it is possible to achieve dynamic professional careers both in the form of job zapping and in stable jobs. Today companies invest to “retain” their teams.

The possibilities that the industry allows us and this moment of boom enables us to make bolder leadership decisions. Grateful for the privilege, faithful to our humanistic spirit, we focus on generating healthy work environments where each person feels that they consciously choose to be where they are.

For this, we actively promote a way of working where each person can feel valued for who they are, can understand their relevant role to the collective purpose, and can feel that what they do is aligned with their personal project. And thus rebel as a community against the precariousness prevailing in the bonds, and allow us to invest efforts to achieve long-term bonds, bonds of commitment and mutual care.

For all these reasons, at Abstracta we are working to continue improving our processes. The level of resignations that we are experiencing has to do with it a clear two-way message: we need to find better ways to integrate our personal dimension into working life and not feel that life is going meaningless.

Follow us on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to be part of our community!