Benefits For Clients: 

• Assistance in making educated executive hiring decisions;
• Opportunity to benchmark internal candidates against the market based on skills, knowledge and attributes relative to salary expectations; and
• Assistance in succession planning for junior executives based on identifiable trends emerging from the profiles of successful candidates who consistently secure senior appointments.

Benefits For Candidates:

• Guidance in career planning and mapping as a result of the opportunity to view the responsibilities and requirements linked with senior roles which may be of current, medium or long-term interest;
• Opportunity to independently evaluate one's credentials against those of other candidates who are securing the premium roles in the market.
  

The Contact Centre industry has bred a broad range of executive career paths in recent years. Based on recent placements and anecdotal evidence, TannaPartners offers a guide to typical current salaries in the Sydney and Melbourne markets which, combined, house the vast majority of executive positions within the Australian Contact Centre industry.

Generally speaking, it has been our experience that Melbourne salaries are approximately 10% lower than those offered for equivalent positions in Sydney. Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Tasmania represent other major contact centre hubs where salaries are generally lower due to lower costs of living. The following guide assumes that positions are Sydney-based. Please contact us on (02) 9947 9712 or email enquiries@tanna.com.au if you wish to receive further information in relation to executive salaries.

Note: OTE (On Target Earnings) is an estimate of total achievable income consisting of base salary, superannuation, performance based bonuses, car and other sundries. All reference to “base salary” includes allocation for the standard superannuation guarantee levy. These salary estimates were last updated in August 2007.


Senior Executive
Country Managers/CEOs/MDs - can expect to earn up to $300K base salary + bonuses with an OTE of up to $500K. They assume full responsibility for the company's performance across all disciplines.

General Managers – can expect to earn $170K - $200K base salary + bonuses with an OTE of $200K - $250K. Responsibilities would cover anything from a single site 200 seat centre to multi-site, virtual networked contact centres of 500+ seats across people, processes and technology.

Contact Centre Directors - can expect to earn $150K - $200K base salary with an OTE of $200K - $250K. Responsibilities are confined purely to the Contact Centre with full P&L accountability and board responsibilities presenting equity participation and considerable bonus opportunities.

Commercial Managers - can expect to earn $150 - $200K base salary + bonuses with an OTE of $180K - $230K. Broad responsibilities across the supply chain, compliance and multiple stakeholder interests make this a role with tremendous variety.

Consulting, Analysis & Technology
Contact Centre Technology Managers – can expect to earn $130K - $170K base salary + bonuses with an OTE of $150K -$200K. Responsibilities cover all MIS and contact centre applications together with vendor relationship management.

Business Analysts (MIS, ACD, CTI, IVR, PBX, WFM, VoIP, Predictive Diallers.) – a large collection of technologies here with “flavour of the month” applications commanding a significant premium. Generally, depending on experience, Business Analysts can expect to earn $70K - $110K base and bonuses, if paid, are relatively low (less than 10%). They are responsible for bridging the gap between Contact Centre operations and traditional IT departments ensuring seamless implementation or reengineering of Contact Centre specific technologies.

Scheduling, Rostering & Forecasting Analysts – can expect to earn $65K - $80K base. Bonuses are minimal if offered. Responsibilities include accurate and timely scheduling of rosters based on complex mathematical formulae which predict short, medium and long term call loads.

Resource/Capacity Planning Managers – can expect to earn $90K - $130K base + bonus managing anywhere from 1 – 10 Schedulers, Rosterers and Forecasters with an OTE of $110K - $180K OTE. Responsibilities include bottom-line accountability for centre wide, efficient labour resource allocation together with input into suitable technology utilisation and/or implementation.

Management Consultants - CRM (People, Processes & Technology) – can expect to earn $120K - $180K base depending on experience and consulting stream. This market is showing real signs of rebounding which is a good barometer for general employment health. Heading a consulting team provides avenue for significant bonuses and possible OTEs of $250K +.

Project Managers/Directors - can expect to earn up to $130K and $220K base respectively with variable bonuses linked to the deliverables of the project. Directors assume complete responsibility for CRM reengineering or Greenfield implementations whilst Managers focus on select components of project as subject matter experts. Project Director bonuses are highly variable but may be as high as 40% if projects are delivered before time and under budget giving possible OTEs of $250K - $300K.

Operations
Contact Centre Managers – a very broad term these days! Loosely, the market pays $90K - $120K base for roles managing up to 100 seat, multi media, inbound/outbound centres. Bonuses of 15-20% measured against KPIs are typical with OTEs of $120K - $140K.

Customer Service Managers – can expect to earn $80K - $100K base + a usually small bonus for responsibilities which cover purely the inbound function. Centres are typically smaller when this “title” is used housing 15 – 50 seats.

Client Account/Solutions Managers – can expect to earn $90 - $150K base with an OTE of $120K - $180K. This role is responsible for managing the entire outsourced/third party service level agreement and relationship between client company and outsourced provider.

Collections Managers – can expect to earn $70K - $120K base depending on the size of the receivables book and the team they manage. Responsibilities include efficiently reducing companies’ outstanding invoices through use of predictive dialler technology and diplomatic but outcome driven phone techniques.

Sales & Marketing
Business Development Managers/Directors – can expect to earn up to $130K base for 5+ years experience, a proven track record of quality sales and established C-level business relationships – OTEs can reach $300K in specialist markets, especially in professional services selling environments as opposed to “box” sales propositions. Directors can expect to earn circa $200K base with OTEs linked to team performance and comparatively capped at $250K - $300K in the multinationals.

Marketing Managers/Directors – a very generic term with wild fluctuations between industry sectors. Financial services and IT&T still pay the highest salaries (given the large consumer cutomer bases to be tapped) with circa $120K base and $180K base for Managers and Directors respectively. Bonuses are potentially much higher at Director level but, again, vary considerably.

Sales Channel Managers – can expect to earn $100K - $130K base + bonus with an OTE of $150K +. Responsibilities include relationship management of and sales to/with aligned vendors/integrators.

Pre-Sales Consultants/Technicians – can expect to earn $120K - $140K base + bonus linked to sales contribution. As right hand technical person to the BDM/Account Managers and in contributing to the entire sales process, hybrid roles have developed entailing both sales and technical deliverables thereby offering opportunity for OTEs of $160K +. These roles are excellent career platforms for fully fledged BDM or Professional Services Consulting positions.

Telesales Managers/Directors – one of the most candidate short areas in the market and remuneration fluctuates wildly. Because of this candidate shortage, base salaries can vary from $80K - $150K but OTE potential is lucrative if the teams exceed sales targets. Some candidates are earning an OTE of $180K - $200K + managing 50 + telemarketers and delivering millions of dollars of low risk, low cost profit to companies.

Client Account Executives – can expect to earn $70K - $90K base salaries + modest bonuses. These roles are hands-on client relationship management roles responsible for managing outsourced teleservices contracts at grass-roots level. The success of various campaign work in terms of sales could push the OTE to $100K+.

Sales & Retention Managers – have dramatically improved their significance and status in recent years and can expect to earn $100K - $130K base with responsibility for ensuring customers do not ‘walk’ to the competitor. Finally receiving long overdue profile for their contribution to profitability, customer retention KPIs are being rewarded financially offering opportunity to earn $150K+ OTE.

Training, Quality & Compliance
Trainers/Training Managers – a thriving but competitive market, the Contact Centre training industry is still considered by most to be underpaid relative to the skills, knowledge and personal attributes required of the candidates who populate this profession. Trainers can expect to earn $70 - $75K base whilst Training Managers can expect to earn $85K - $120K base + bonuses with possible OTEs of $140K+.

Quality & Compliance Managers – can expect to earn $70K - $120K depending on candidate experience and the size of the Contact Centre. Bonuses are minimal but this seems to be changing as legislative changes (such as FSRA) and technology applications (such as call recording and quality monitoring equipment) define this discipline as an industry within an industry.

Learning & Development Managers – can expect to earn $80K - $120K depending on candidate experience and the size of the Contact Centre. The agent level candidate shortage combined with unacceptably high staff attrition make Learning & Development Managers critical to the success of any centre. Significant bonuses are yet to be registered in this discipline however.

If you require any further information please email your request to enquiries@tanna.com.au or call us on (02) 9947 9712.