There
is a 10 per cent pay gap between jobs described as ‘human resources’ and their
‘personnel’ counterparts, with HR gaining the most pay, according to new
research.
Consultancy
firm Hay Group studied the job titles, job levels and salaries of almost 10,000
HR employees in more than 400 UK organisations, and found strong correlations
between industry sector, professional title and pay.
For
example, of the 120 organisations studied that call their departments
‘personnel’, 62 per cent were either in the public sector or were until
recently.
These
included 28 local councils, 13 NHS trusts, nine police authorities, six
universities and eight organisations that have been privatised in the past 20
years.
In
contrast, of the 305 organisations that call their departments ‘human
resources’, 80 per cent were in the private sector.
Ben
Frost, consultant at Hay Group, said: “Across many organisations, a ‘personnel’
function is largely an administrative one, designed to be primarily reactive to
the needs of the business.
“However,
many HR functions are specifically designed to be proactive contributors to the
overall strategic goals of a business, and are therefore rewarded as such. In
short, when it comes to looking for the next job, our advice would be to look
for an ‘HR’ role rather than a ‘personnel’ role.”
The
findings are in contrast to those of a recent Hay Group survey which suggested
almost six in 10 HR professionals believe the job title doesn’t affect pay.
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