Technology enterprises depend on human resources, as they can only maintain a healthy rate of expansion if they have sufficient human capital.

Turkey needs research to shed light on the current situation and reveal a road map regarding the next generation of professions, such as artificial intelligence (AI) engineers, data scientists and mobile application developers.

A report jointly prepared by Talentmelon, a new generation human resources initiative, and Endeavor Turkey, reveals that software developers are being paid the highest wages by companies.

The "Startup & Scaleup Salary and Vested Benefits" report further shows that data scientists, artificial intelligence engineers, quality control engineers and mobile developer roles get the highest salaries among all software development roles.

Experience makes the difference

There are also serious salary differences between the levels on the software development side. After three years of experience from the entry-level, the transition to the intermediate level sees a nearly two-fold increase in salary. There may be an increase of about two and a half or even three times in the same roles between the entry and senior levels.

Companies worth billions of dollars operating in the e-commerce sector such as Trendyol, Yemeksepeti and Getir all invest a lot in software developers. Similarly, billion-dollar gaming companies' need for software developers is increasing constantly.

The application of a high fee policy for software developers needed by e-commerce and gaming startups leads to very different levels of wages in the market.

Wages increase

As of November this year, the estimated salary for 2022 is seen increasing by at least 29%, combined with intermediate hikes. Again, the report predicts that the vast majority of companies will implement a salary hike above the inflation rate, which reached around 20% in October, next year.

On the other hand, the data in the report suggests more than half of the employees state that they want to work completely remotely. For their part, employers also think that working from the office or home does not affect productivity. In fact, 94% of employers also share the view that productivity while working from home is the same or even higher compared to working from the office.

Companies in dilemma about hybrid work

Next-generation enterprises are struggling to create a company culture and ensure employee loyalty. The demand to work remotely is said to be the most important reason behind the failure to create a company culture.

After all, institutions are having a hard time keeping up with the enforced changes that have been occurring over the last year and a half. According to the report, although many companies state that they take into account the performance of their employees during the salary increase process, very few actually have a performance evaluation process. Some 88% of companies indicate that salary increases vary depending on individual performance, while only 57% evaluate performance according to company or team goals.

The proportion of companies that think the hybrid working model would lead to a partial or complete decrease in employee engagement is 46%. Accordingly, nearly one in two companies believes that remote work would reduce employee loyalty.

The most important reason for this may be that they think that the company’s culture will be negatively affected. Around 82% of the companies participating in the study have a plan to update their salary strategy, while 44% feel compelled to review it to retain talent.

Difficulty building a team

Elaborating on the report that is trying to answer questions that arise when building a venture team, Talentmelon founder Sure Köse Ulutaş says with the pandemic, the issues on the company’s talent agenda continue to change by the day.

"How do I build the right team? How do I ensure that my team contributes to success every day in the most motivated way? How do I maintain team commitment, motivation and energy in a remote or hybrid work world? And while doing all this, how do I compete in the battle for talent acquisition in an environment of high inflation and with the global technology market that is becoming even more competitive? This report has been prepared for the last three years in cooperation with Talentmelon and Endeavor Turkey in order to shed light on all these questions," said Ulutaş.

She noted that around 60 companies joined the constantly expanding survey, while 41 companies participated in the survey on salary, the second part of the research, by providing information of their role and salary.