Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation (NYSE:AON),  has today released key findings from its 2010/2011 Games Software Developers’ Salary Survey, carried out in association with TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry.

The survey, now in its second year, is the only comprehensive salary survey carried out annually for the UK games software development industry, with input from developers (both independent and publisher owned) covering over 14% of the software developer UK workforce.

Steve Munday, senior reward consultant at Aon Hewitt said:
"This survey has again provided a comprehensive picture of current pay levels in the games software industry, from graduates up to senior managers.  This is a sector that is at the centre of the 'new-look' UK economy that so many commentators refer to when talking of the UK's need to be less reliant on borrowing, imports and the financial and public sectors - and more focused on high technology and exports.

“Like so many others, this sector has had a tough time over the last 18 months, but as the squeeze on costs shifts towards the public sector, there seems to have been some improvement. For those who remained in the same job, median pay increases have risen to 3.0% from just under 2.5% in 2009 , while one in eight employees had a pay freeze in 2010, compared to one in three in 2009."

Steve Munday continued:
“The Aon Hewitt-TIGA survey also provides interesting insights into workforce demographics which remain predominantly male (93%) and with an average age of 33. Despite the low proportion of female employees, survey results suggest that the median base salary of male and female employees at equivalent survey levels, are only very marginally different (less than 0.5%), while target bonuses as a percentage of salary show no difference between genders. 

"The fact that there are fewer female employees can be attributed, at least in part, to fewer women studying relevant subjects at university. Looking at the proportion of female employees across other sectors with specialist skills, engineering has around 6.0%, the energy sector around 4.0%, while in the financial sector men occupy 66% of managerial and senior jobs and nearly 75% of professional jobs."

Dr Richard Wilson, chief executive officer of TIGA said:
“TIGA’s mission is to fight for the interest of games developers and other games businesses and our vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business. By working with specialists such as Aon Hewitt we can provide TIGA members and the wider games industry with high quality data and information and so help them make informed decisions on pay, benefits and other workplace issues.

"In addition the Aon Hewitt/TIGA survey reveals important information about the nature of the UK games industry’s workforce. In particular, while the survey shows that just 7.0% of the workforce is female, it also shows an almost non-existent pay gap between the genders which is a good standard for such a future-focused sector. TIGA intends to disseminate best practice information and advice to its members about recruitment and selection as part of a process of ensuring that our industry recruits from the widest possible talent pool.”

For the survey, salary information is provided for the key functions of art, audio, design, production, quality assurance and technical development/programming. There are 11 survey levels from ‘entry level’ to 'graduates' and all the way up to ‘function heads’. These levels are underpinned by Aon Hewitt’s proprietary job evaluation methodology JobLinkTM*. The survey also provides detailed information on bonuses, cash allowances, annual pay increases and employee turnover, as well as organisational structure and employee demographics including gender, age and length of service. This year the survey covers employee pensions and benefits for the first time.

Key findings from the survey include:

• Base salary increases of 3% over the last 12 months are above those in 2009 and about 0.5% above UK general industry in the same period (according to Aon Hewitt's Salary Increase Survey).
• Median graduate base salaries are up 2.0% on 2009.
• Across all participating organisations, 13.0% of the survey population had a pay freeze in 2010. compared to 33.0% in 2009.
• Voluntary employee turnover in 2010 was 7.0%, while attrition was around 4.0%.
• Employees defined as 'contractors' made up, on average, 15% of the workforce, up from 10% in 2009.
• 7.1% of the survey workforce is female, up from 6.6% in 2009.
• Over 50% of the survey population has less than five years of service.*The survey levels developed from Aon Hewitt's job evaluation system provide organisations with an invaluable benchmarking tool when assessing their employees' roles.

*The survey levels developed from Aon Hewitt's job evaluation system provide organisations with an invaluable benchmarking tool when assessing their employees' roles.

 /ENDS

Notes to editors
To purchase a copy of the Aon Hewitt Games Software Developers’ Salary Survey and/or participate in the next survey please contact steve.munday@aonhewitt.com.

About TIGA
TIGA is the trade association representing the UK’s games industry. The majority of our members are either independent games developers or in-house publisher owned developers. We also have games publishers, outsourcing companies, technology businesses and universities amongst our membership. TIGA was awarded ‘Trade Association of the Year’ and the ‘Member Recruitment Award’ at the Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards 2010. TIGA has also been named as a finalist in the 2010 Chartered Management Institute (CMI) National Management and Leadership Awards in the category of ‘The Outstanding Organisation of the Year Award (SME)’. TIGA is an Investors in People organisation.

TIGA's vision is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business.  We focus on three sets of activities: political representation, generating media coverage and developing services that enhance the competitiveness of our members.  This means that TIGA members are effectively represented in the corridors of power, their voice is heard in the media and they receive benefits that make a material difference to their businesses, including a reduction in costs and improved commercial opportunities.

For further information, please contact Dr Richard Wilson, TIGA CEO on 07875939643: or email richard.wilson@tiga.org; or contact David Hodges on 02070911653

About Aon Hewitt
Aon Hewitt is the global leader in human capital consulting and outsourcing solutions.  The company partners with organisations to solve their most complex benefits, talent and related financial challenges, and improve business performance.  Aon Hewitt designs, implements, communicates and administers a wide range of human capital, retirement, investment management, health care, compensation and talent management strategies.  With more than 29,000 professionals in 90 countries, Aon Hewitt makes the world a better place to work for clients and their employees.  For more information on Aon Hewitt, please visit www.aonhewitt.com.

About Aon
Aon Corporation (NYSE:AON) is the leading global provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human capital solutions and outsourcing. Through its more than 59,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to deliver distinctive client value via innovative and effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. Aon's industry-leading global resources and technical expertise are delivered locally in over 120 countries. Named the world's best broker by Euromoney magazine's 2008, 2009 and 2010 Insurance Survey, Aon also ranked highest on Business Insurance's listing of the world's insurance brokers based on commercial retail, wholesale, reinsurance and personal lines brokerage revenues in 2008 and 2009. A.M. Best deemed Aon the number one insurance broker based on revenues in 2007, 2008 and 2009, and Aon was voted best insurance intermediary 2007-2010, best reinsurance intermediary 2006-2010, best captives manager 2009-2010, and best employee benefits consulting firm 2007-2009 by the readers of Business Insurance.
Visit http://www.aon.com for more information on Aon and http://www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon's global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.