- The most common HR-to-employee ratios are between 1 to 101 and 1 to 200.
- While 1% of respondents earned over $200,000 per year, the most commonly reported salary was between $51,000 and $70,000 per year.
- The most commonly outsourced function was background checks
Thanks to all 1,839 companies that participated in the survey!
Here are the detailed survey results. How does your organization measure up?
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Staff-to-Employee Ratio
When asked about their HR staff-to-employee ratio, 42.4% indicated that their HR departments operate with a ratio between 1 HR professional to 101 employees and 1 HR professional to 200employees. A closer look shows that 18.2% operate with a ratio of 1 to 101–150, 10.1% operate with a ratio of 1 to 151–200, and 14.1% operate with a ratio of 1 HR professional to 201 or more employees. On the flip side, 26.3% operate with a ratio of 1 to 50, and 31.3% operate with 1 HR professional for 51–100 employees.
What Are Your Departmental Responsibilities?
Training companywide supervisors and employees on employment law issues is the responsibility of 65% of survey participants, and training them on job requirements is the responsibility of 36.4%. Facilities management is the responsibility of 13.2%, and safety/security is managed by 34.3%.
| Employee Benefits | 93.4% |
| Employment Law Compliance | 91% |
| Recruiting and Staffing | 90.6% |
| Compensation | 85.8% |
| Retirement Plans | 75.5% |
| Training and Development | 74.9% |
| Recognition/Incentives | 72.1% |
| Talent Management | 59.9% |
| Company Events (Parties, Picnics, Ceremonies, etc.) | 59% |
| Payroll | 54.5% |
| Safety/Security/Loss Prevention | 43% |
| Corporate/Internal Communications | 43.1% |
| Charitable Giving/Volunteer Programs | 36.3% |
| Relocation | 36.1% |
| Social Media/Social Networking Activities | 18.3% (16% in 2012) |
| Facilities Management | 15.8% |
| Operational Responsibilities | 13.1% (10% in 2012) |
| Green Workplace and Energy- Efficiency Initiatives | 7.2% (6% in 2012) |
Percent of Departments Reporting Responsibility for …
Outsourced Functions
Of those that do, the most frequently outsourced function is background/reference checks at 67.1% (up from 60% last year), followed by payroll for 29.2% (down from 38% last year), then unemployment and workers’ compensation claims processing at 24.8% and 24.7%, respectively (28% and 27% last year). Benefits administration is outsourced by 20.5% of respondents (down from 23% in 2012). Additional outsourced functions include training at 6.9% and recruiting/staffing at 6.1%.
What Functions Are Self-Service?
Much like in 2012, the HR function most frequently provided as an online self-service feature to employees is the employee handbook for our 2013 survey participants (73% in 2013 vs. 65% in 2012). At 69.5%, benefits information is the second most frequent employee service featured online this year, though benefits enrollment is sixth place at 49.4%.
Time and attendance is online for 63.6%, and name/address change is self-service for 54.4%. Vacation/PTO requests are online for 49.6% vs. 45% in 2012, and performance evaluations are available for 33.5%, up from 27% in 2012.
What Are HR Managers Paid?
While 1% of respondents earned over $200,000 per year, the most commonly reported salary was between $51,000 and $70,000 per year.
How Does HR Use Social Media
When asked which social media format they use, 70.9% of survey participants identified their company’s intranet as the vehicle they use to communicate information to employees. Coming in a distant second, text messaging is used by 21.3%, and Facebook is an option for 16.4%.
Who Conducts HR Audits?
Corporate HR is the leading conductor of audits at 32.7% of survey participants’ organizations, and an internal audit department conducts the audit at 30.4% of respondents. Outside consultants are brought in at 22.7%, and the legal department conducts the HR audit at 4.5%. Risk management leads the audit team at 3.1%, and the compliance officer provides this service at 8.2%. The finance department conducts the audit at 6.1%, and the operations department is responsible for conducting the audit at 2%.
How Strategic Is HR?
HR is viewed as a strategic partner by management teams for 32.5% of survey participants and as a credible business asset for 29.4%. It’s still viewed as an administrative function, though, for 34.1%.
Over three quarters of our survey participants play a role in strategic business planning at their organizations with 37.6% holding a position of influence within the inner circle. HR plays a major role, though outside the inner circle, for 25.4%, and at least 23.6% of HR departments play a minor role. HR has no role in strategic business planning for 12.4% of survey respondents.
Who’s the Boss?
Our 2013 survey reveals that HR reports to a variety of executives:
| CEO or Owner | 39.5% |
| President or Executive Director | 22% |
| CFO/head of Finance | 14.2% |
| Head of Operations | 9.2% |
| In-house legal counsel | 2.1% |
Departmental Changes
No significant changes have been experienced in the last year by 42.7% of participants in our survey, though 16% of the HR departments have been reduced in size, and departmental budgets have been reduced for 15%. Automation initiatives have been undertaken by 28.4%, while 4.3% have implemented shared services models and 6.5% increased outsourcing. Previously outsourced functions were brought back into the HR department by 2.7%, size of the department increased for 15%, and departmental budgets increased for 6.8%.
Challenges
A variety of challenges face our survey respondents.
| Healthcare reform | 22% |
| Recruiting for | 20% |
| Employee motivation and retention | 13% |
| Smaller HR departments and/or increased workload | 10% |
| Compliance issues | 7% |
| Implementing systems and/or managing data | 7% |
| Mergers/acquisitions/growth | 7% |
| Comp & benefits | 6% |
| Budget limitations | 5% |
| Talent and/or performance management | 5% |
| Training/development | 5% |
| Managing change | 2% |
| Getting or keeping a seat at the table | 2% |
| RIF/downsizing | 2% |
About You
HR managers and directors account for 53.4% of the survey participants who self-identified, other HR professionals make up 29.2%, and 17.4% are in other areas with HR responsibilities.
Full-time positions are held by 95.9%, 89.1% are in exempt positions. Long hours are routine for 93.2% of survey respondents who work an average of more than 40 hours a week (up from 73% in 2012).
Many of the HR departments represented in our survey are small, with 32.5% being one-person departments and 2- to 3-person departments accounting for 30.2% of survey participants. Departments with 4–6 comprise another 15%, and 6% have departments with 7–10 on their staff. Larger departments are represented as well. Departments with 11–20 employees are represented by 6% of survey participants, and 8% are departments with more than 20 HR professionals.
An experience level of 6–10 years accounts for 15% of survey participants, and 72.7% have more than 10 years of HR experience. A bachelor’s degree is required for 59.8%, and a master’s degree is required for 14.9%. Some college or an associate’s degree is required for 18.4%. Professional certification is required for 18.5%, with PHR (Professional in Human Resources) at 53.4% and SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) at 40.4% of those requiring certification.
Participants
The majority of our survey respondents provide guidance to small- or medium-size employers, with 53.9% providing HR services to a workforce of 1–250 employees and another 16.8% providing guidance to 251–500 employees at their organizations.
Among our survey respondents, 20.6% have a workforce that is 10% or less exempt, and 20.4% have a workforce that is 11%–20% exempt. At the other end of the scale, 5.5% have a workforce that is 81%–90% exempt, and 4.5% have a workforce that is 91%–100% exempt employees.
Of the survey participants, 21.5% have employees that belong to a union, with 1% having a 91%–100% unionized workforce and 5% having a workforce that is 10% or less unionized.
A little over half (50.5%) of the participants are in service industries; 22.6% are in agriculture, forestry, construction, manufacturing, or mining; 7.4% are in wholesale, retail, transportation, or warehousing; and 19.3% are in real estate, utilities, or “other.”
A total of 1,839 organizations participated in this survey, conducted in August 2013. Of those who identified themselves, 51.9% are privately owned, 11% are public corporations, and 28.1% are government or nonprofits. Another 2.8% are educational institutions, and 3.7% are cooperatives or employee/member owned.
Thanks to all who participated in the survey!
Next survey topics include Employee Leave and Holidays.