Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Pay & benefits

Top London HR talent is in the money

by Mark Crail 3 Apr 2007
by Mark Crail 3 Apr 2007

Experienced HR professionals are in such short supply that employers are increasingly recruiting from outside their industry sector, according to a salary survey from recruitment consultancy Robert Walters.


Its report claims that with HR roles assuming greater importance and prominence, employers in London, the Home Counties and the Midlands have increased salaries by up to 10% over the past year.


The survey – now in its eighth year – reveals that HR directors at London companies can earn up to £200,000 a year.


Other senior HR practitioners have also seen sharp increases in salary, with heads of compensation and benefits earning between £70,000 and £100,000 a year, and heads of recruitment taking home £50,000 to £90,000.


HR managers with 10 or more years of experience are on a par with recruitment managers and compensation and benefit managers in earning £50,000 to £70,000.


Robert Walters says that the City’s flourishing financial and professional services firms have led the recruitment charge, with FTSE-100 companies looking for candidates with experience of organisation and development, and investment banks seeking out HR generalists.


But the report warns that retailers, which have traditionally paid lower salaries, are finding it difficult to attract HR talent and remain competitive.


Global Salary Survey 2007


…but times are harder elsewhere


While HR salaries in London have roared ahead, practitioners working in the East and West Midlands have faced more difficult times, according to the Robert Walters survey.


It says that although the Midlands retail sector enjoyed “spectacular” growth over the previous three years, the good times came to a sudden end in 2006, when a number of organisations decided to make employees redundant or put their hiring plans on hold.


The manufacturing industry also suffered. Some companies moved production overseas, and the closure of the Peugeot plant at Ryton brought further bad news.


Despite this, HR salaries continued to rise slowly, with companies showing a willingness to pay top salaries for talented individuals.


In Dublin, meanwhile, a shortage of high-calibre candidates is forcing employers to increase salaries.


HR professionals now expect a pay rise if they move jobs, and are increasingly receiving multiple job offers – putting them in a stronger negotiating position.


…and training managers also face the same pay divide


Training managers can increase their salaries by anything up to a half by heading for the capital, the survey shows.


While training managers in Midlands-based companies typically earn between £30,000 and £40,000 a year, those in London’s commercial and industrial concerns take home £40,000 to £60,000. City-based financial institutions pay the highest rates, with training managers earning £45,000 to £75,000 a year.


Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The disparity is starker still lower down the scale, where training officers in London’s financial institutions may earn twice as much as their counterparts in the Midlands.





 

Mark Crail

Mark Crail worked on XpertHR from 2001 until 2020, most recently as content director. He led the salary survey and HR data benchmarking services, overseeing the collection and publication of pay data through the Job Pricing tool and its wider HR research programme which forms the core of XpertHR Benchmarking.

previous post
Teacher at centre of veil row loses dismissal appeal against former employer Kirklees Council
next post
Hamburg’s Vocational School for Gastronomy and Nutrition launches doner kebab production course

You may also like

Public sector workers gain pay rises of up...

22 May 2025

Deloitte scales back salary rises and promotions

22 May 2025

Next to improve wage-setting transparency after shareholder pressure

16 May 2025

Ofgem workers ballot for strike action

2 May 2025

What will reward look like in 2035?

28 Apr 2025

NI increase has not caused ‘knee-jerk reaction’ in...

23 Apr 2025

Post-pandemic starters seek more pay for on-site working

10 Apr 2025

Maisie Adam to host Employee Benefits Awards 2025

3 Apr 2025

Most businesses will need to adjust wages in...

28 Mar 2025

‘British people too polite to talk about salary?...

28 Mar 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+