Career Focus - HR

Check out the pay, prospects, players and key talking points of HR careers 2007-8.

The Pay

Useful link(s)
Robert Walters Salary Survey 2007
Hudson HR Salary Survey 2007


• Closing the gap on our friends in finance
  According to this year’s Robert Walters salary survey, an HR manager in London who had 3-10 years’ experience earned between £40k and £60k in 2006, compared with £28k - £45k for a finance manager. Alas, the trend takes a turn for the worse at Director level – FD pay still outstrips pay for HR Directors by up to £50k at the high end in the capital.
• Still subject to the north-south divide
  Hudson Human Resources’ salary survey, meanwhile, found that an HR Officer working in professional services, for example, can command an annual salary of £32k in the south of England (specifically London), compared with £22k in the North; the East and West Midlands also faced less lucrative times, with several large companies closing or moving their operations overseas.

Top on pay
Even the Tesco package is pipped at the post by the £500k deal apparently on offer for the new CIPD DG. Read more in the original story on personnel today

• Telecoms tops the HR earnings list
  HR chiefs in IT/telecoms were the highest average earners (up to £110k) in 2006, followed closely by those in retail, leisure and media (£105k); of course, there are exceptions, most notably the £300k rumoured to be on offer for Tesco’s new HR Director.

The prospects

• Spot the specialist…
  With Robert Walters reporting a 20% increase in senior HR salaries, it seems that, with more legislation coming through and companies increasingly aware of the risks, they want – and are prepared to pay for – a strong HR team with more specialist skills focused on employee relations and employment law.

A bit of perspective, please
One in every four HR practitioners (26%) regrets their choice of career to such an extent that, if given the opportunity to start again, they would choose another profession. And why? The most common reason is the lack of esteem in which the profession is held. But it’s not all bad news - 60% says they are happy with the decision to go into HR.

IRS Employment Review

• Operational background preferred?
  Businesses keep banging the drum – they are looking for HR professionals who have spent time working in other areas of business. HR ‘consultant’ is the watchword, where ‘consulting’ is no longer just about costs removed, but value added. The catch 22 is that the CIPD doesn’t appear to share UK plc’s preference for experience from outside the HR fold (see THE TALKING POINTS below).
• OD on the rise
  One of the largest growth areas of 2006 was organisational design/development, with particular increase in demand from larger corporate clients.

THE TALKING POINTS

• The obligatory outsourcing/offshoring debate
  This is arguably the biggest threat to HR jobs, with some estimates (most notably from research firm, The Hackett Group) suggesting that over 170,000 HR jobs across Europe are at threat from India and other low-cost countries. The company estimates that the continent’s top 500 companies could between them save £32bn a year by offshoring back office functions.

Good places to network
HR directors club
London HR Network
Strategic HR forum


• Does experience count?
  Industry might want their HR managers to have broader business experience, but the same, it seems, cannot be said of the CIPD – senior HR professionals have accused their professional association of discrimination and not keeping up with the times by refusing to recognise business experience gained outside the HR function.
• The unsavoury sexist story…
  Although men account for less than a third (28%) of those working in HR in total, over three-quarters (77%) of all HR directorships are held by men – how does that work? At the other end of the spectrum, 80% of HR employees earning less than £15k per year are women…