Take the LISA Salary Survey now

How did this survey come about? Where did the initial ideas come from?

I was talking to LISA a few months ago about some other matters, such as the LISA quality metrics. We were discussing some issues that LISA members had raised, and that I also come across in my daily job as a GILT industry recruiter.

I was saying that many of the clients we recruit for ask for advice about salary for vacancies, or indeed other, in-house positions. We normally give them an indication for what is the normal range based on our experience. But salary levels have changed over the past few years. There isn't any reliable, comprehensive or current information about salaries for the GILT industry.

Also, salaries for the same position differ from country to country. This is an issue we come across quite a lot when we recruit someone from one country to work in a different country. What is considered a good salary in another country?

This is also something that LISA members had asked for as well. Before we knew it, LISA and I had agreed that my company could contribute significantly with our current, hands-on knowledge of the people side of this industry, and that LISA, with its expertise and resources, would provide the web engine and resources to put the salary survey on-line, compile and distribute the results.

What are your interests in this survey?

We have provided the job titles and job descriptions for the survey. I contacted a number of clients and asked for more information, and if they would be interested in such a survey. The response was very positive. Using my own experience from nearly twenty years of working in localization production and sales jobs, and that of my business partner, Gretta FitzGerald who runs our Dublin office, we picked the most common ones. We had to reconcile a number of job descriptions and try and make them as widely applicable as possible.

We also found that there can be many different job titles for what may be, at the end of the day, more or less the same job, or overlapping ones. One example of this is "Localizer," "Software Translator" and "Localization Specialist." All three can be used for a translator of software, but the latter can also mean a "Software Localization Engineer" or "Localization Tools Specialist." It was a lot of work, but we hope the result is at least "good enough" for the first run of the survey.

We have not provided any salary information, but we have offered to do a quick sanity check on the aggregated results to see if they are broadly within the ranges we expect.

What are the benefits of this survey to the industry?

I can see that the result of this survey will benefit both employees and employers.

For employers, it will provide a good indication, based on solid data from reliable sources, whether their current salary bands are within the normal range for their regional location.

Also, it can help companies that want to expand to new locations to assess what the salary costs are likely to be, and to pitch it right from the beginning of the recruitment process to attract the right caliber of candidates, while not overpaying either.

For employees, it helps to know that they are paid according to the industry standard today. A few years ago, there were some crazy salaries offered to get the right people on board. The market has now cooled down and we need to be realistic about current salaries.

From a purely selfish point of view, it will support me in my recruitment business to be able to substantiate my claim that a salary is within the normal range for a particular job in a particular country when I deal with applicants, or recommend a salary range to a client, based on solid facts.

Who should participate in this survey?

As many GILT companies as possible, small, medium and large, everywhere! The more people who contribute, the more reliable the results will be.

For the first round, the Survey is focusing on the enterprise, be it small, medium or large, and asking HR (human resources) managers, general managers, departmental/country managers, etc. to respond on behalf of their organizations. LISA then plans to do a follow-on survey in which it will ask individuals/freelance-industry professionals to provide their own salary information.

What are the challenges faced by global companies in managing their GILT resources? How can this report help them?

In the past, when the localization business and the economy generally were booming, companies were competing to offer the best salaries to attract the best people. There weren't enough qualified and experienced people coming into the business. Now it's different - the industry has stabilized and matured.

I think it is important to stress that money by itself will not motivate anyone to either apply for a job or to remain in a job if there is little or no job satisfaction. But it helps to know that the salaries offered are competitive in the marketplace, here and now. One thing less to worry about. Then companies can concentrate on other HR matters, such as employee retention and satisfaction, training, career path development and growth.

I know it's a cliché, but this really is a people business, and GILT companies are dependent on attracting and keeping good people to conduct good business, while staying competitive price-wise. This Survey help them to do both.

Take the LISA Salary Survey now