HR consultancy firm Globe 24-7 said 75% of companies were looking to lift salaries for African expats in 2017, a signal that remuneration had bottomed.

Globe CEO and principal Lachlan Spicer said the report provided valuable insights into the current employment market for expatriates working in Africa.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen significant drops in expatriate salaries especially for new hires and many companies have implemented dramatic cost cutting measures,” he said.

“For the first time in three years, we can report that positive sentiment is returning. Three-quarters of our participant group indicate they will be implementing salary increases in 2017.”

Still, the forecasted increase amount is a modest 2% on average, though 60% of expats received no increase in 2016.

Globe found that short term incentive (STI) payouts had risen dramatically in 2016 with average payouts at 99% of target bonus amounts.

“For companies who have an STI program, payouts have steadily increased over the past couple of years and are proving to be a great tool for these organisations to engage their workforce to achieve key personal, site and corporate objectives focussing on safety, production and financial performance targets,” Spicer said.

“In light of this more positive sentiment, the report also found that 2017 will again be focussed on tight fiscal management for all employee-related costs as uncertain commodity prices and investor cautiousness hangs over the heads of African mining companies.”

Spicer said the market was still wary after several tough years and most employee-related cost items had been closely reviewed during 2016.

“If it’s not salaries, it’s rosters, flights, travel class, insurance providers, accommodation arrangements and even regular site services under the microscope,” he said.

“I’m aware of one company who made changes to its laundry service this year to cut costs.”

Globe 24-7’s annual African Remuneration and Benefits Benchmarking Report gathers expatriate remuneration, benefits and employment conditions data from over 25 ASX, TSX, JSE and AIM-listed African mining companies to assist mining companies.

“A CEO or CFO wants to know what the benchmark salary is when deciding to employ a West African or a Canadian or an Australian to their operation as all other employee ‘on-costs’ fall from that very first decision,” Spicer said.

“This quantitative data helps them develop a robust compensation structure in light of the current market conditions in Africa.”