Energy, automotive pay higher 

A survey by The Nation conducted this week found that automobile and energy firms were among the champions of bonus payments this year. 
Since oil prices have recovered from last year’s lows, PTT, for instance, will pay a six-month bonus to staff, up from five months last year. Its petrochemical subsidiary PTT Global Chemicals will pay five- or six-month bonuses depending on individual performance of staff – the same rates as last year.
A survey conducted last month by Willis Towers Watson Thailand found that companies were expected to pay similar bonuses and salary adjustments this year to last year, with an average pay rise of 5.5 per cent and an average bonus of 2.4 months.
A survey by consultancy Korn Ferry Hay Group found that companies planned to pay an average bonus of three months and an average salary increase of 5.5 per cent – similar to last year.
Neither Korn Ferry Hay’s or Willis Towers Watson’s survey included automobile companies, which continue to pay high bonuses in terms of the number of months offered because of their relatively lower wages. 

Automobile industry
Thailand’s automobile market is expected to finish the year with a slight decline, but auto companies are still among the best paying. 
Toyota Motor Thailand Co (TMT), the largest auto company in the country, is giving employees the same bonus as last year – seven and a half months, to be paid in two sums (three months and four-and-a half months), plus another Bt18,000 for Songkran. This is despite Toyota’s sales declining by 8.6 per cent in the first 11 months of 2016.
Bheema Hutchesson, public relations director at TMT, said the company had maintained high bonus levels to support the large number of Toyota factory workers.
“Salaries in the auto industry are not high, so we try to provide employees with as much as we can for bonuses,” he said. “It’s our way to support the employees.”
TMT said it always offered bonuses, even during times of economic uncertainty such as the 1997 economic crisis, when it paid employees bonuses of three or four months.
Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co is paying a bonus of 6.9 months plus Bt10,000, while Mitsubishi is offering 4.8 to six months.
Nissan Motor (Thailand) is handing out a bonus of at least five months despite suffering a 16-per-cent decline in sales this year.
Several companies will be paying employee bonuses at the end of the fiscal year in March, such as Mercedes-Benz (Thailand), while Mazda Sales (Thailand) Co, which posted 12-per-cent growth |this year, will pay its bonuses in May.
Property industry
While property firms were expected to pay an average three-month bonus to their staff, some leading developers will pay nine or 10 months to some employees, especially frontline staff such as sale executives, said Thanwa Chulajata, country manager for global productised services at Korn Ferry Hay Group.
“But this [the big bonuses] is just some 10 per cent, so it does not represent the entire property sector,” he said.
Airports of Thailand, a publicly listed state enterprise that manages six international airports including Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang, is paying staff a seven-and-a-half-month bonus as international air traffic continue to break new records.
Some leading organisations, including PTT and Mitsubishi Motors, are reportedly offering different bonuses and salary increases to general staff and executives. Thanwa said this practice had been applied for a long time in most industries.
“Usually, lower-ranked staff will get a higher salary adjustment whereas higher level staff, who have higher salaries, will get a lower salary increase while receiving a higher bonus, which are linked to organisation’s performance,” he explained.

Financial services
The November bonus-expectation survey conducted by Willis Towers Watson found that the financial services industry (including banks) was expected to pay an average bonus of three months, followed by life insurers with 2.9 months.
The Nation’s survey showed that leading commercial banks had not changed their policy of fixed bonus payments amid high operating costs from loan-loss provisions and huge investments in upgrading information technology.
Normally, the banking sector pays fixed bonuses with special incentives based on a bank’s performance, employee performances and the return on assets (ROA).
Siam Commercial Bank set aside a fixed two-month bonus in June and December and a special incentive-based bonus based on the bank’s performance, which will be paid in February. SCB this year has increased its investment in technology to 15 per cent of its annual profit from 6-7 per cent last year.
Bank of Ayudhya, or Krungsri, will pay a fixed one-month bonus in December and a special incentive-based bonus based on its key performance index in March. 
Bangkok Bank has a fixed two-month bonus-payment policy. It paid a one-month bonus in June and another one-month bonus will be paid in December. The bank also kept its special incentive of around one-and-a-half-month salary for all employees, with that to be paid in January, even though the bank’s net profit in the first nine months dropped to Bt23.54 billion from Bt26.5 billion year on year. Kasikornbank will pay a fixed two-month bonus in February, and a special incentive-based bonus linked to its ROA that will be paid in March. 
 
Trend for next year
Regarding the bonus and salary trends for next year, Pichpajee Saichuae, managing director of Willis Towers Watson Thailand, said bonus and salary adjustments were expected to stay in similar ranges again, as firms’ benefits and compensation usually followed economic growth, with 2017 expected to be similar to this year.
Nevertheless, “differentiated pay” policies have increasingly been applied by companies in their bid to reward and retain talent, she said. 
“The best practice is this: If the average pay [rise] is 6 per cent, the top performers should get a 10-to-12-per-cent salary increase, while the average performers receive 3 per cent,” she said.
“Because the economy is not good, firms can’t pay much, while on the other hand, they are still in a war for talent.”
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission has shifted to the variable bonus system. Its secretary-general Takorn Tantasith said the NBTC would this year give bonuses to employees ranging from one to three months, depending on their performance, while last year it paid a fixed two-month bonus to all staff.