HR winning the salary race

HR PROFESSIONALS have streaked ahead of their sales, marketing, finance, IT, manufacturing and logistics colleagues to receive the biggest salary increase in the last year.

A study of nearly 52,000 employees from 394 Australian organisations revealed that salaries for all employees increased by 5.7 per cent on average over the period June 2004 to June 2005.

For HR professionals the average salary increase was 7.2 per cent and for senior executive staff, the increase stood at 7.1 per cent.

“HR salaries across the board have been commanding good increases over the past 24 months. This may be a reflection of the continuing importance of HR as companies combat a range of problematic issues, such as work/life balance, industrial reform, total rewards and recruitment and retention of key roles,” said Andrew White, Sydney practice lead for remuneration firm Csi, which conducted the study.

It also analysed differences in salary increases across various industry sectors and found the banking and finance sectors were the most generous.

Average salary increases in this sector were 6.9 per cent. The transport and shipping sector awarded the lowest increases of 4.3 per cent on average.

“These results are also linked to the pressure on CEO’s to maintain profitability,” said CSi’s COO, Jairus Ashworth.

“Greater levels of profitability amongst organisations in the banking and finance sectors means that a larger pool of funds can be allocated to increasing incumbent employees’ salaries without detrimentally influencing financial results.”

From a geographic point of view HR professionals in New South Wales and Victoria were paid slightly higher.

“Most companies are opting for a national pay approach, particularly with the transient nature of our workforces and the administration involved in paying regionally,” White said.

“However, this needs to be weighed up carefully against the market availability of roles, particularly HR ones, the candidates for which are quite specialised and may not be readily available in the market.”

Those awarded the lowest salary increases were employees performing logistics roles and those employed within the IT function of businesses.

“My experience in recent times is that CEOs are under immense pressure to maintain profitability. As a result, salary budgets are being strictly adhered to and spending on salaries for incumbent employees is being closely monitored and controlled.”

The report indicated that employees at the graduate or entry level and employees within the various levels of management were the more likely recipients of higher salary increases when contrasted with the increases reported for employees at the intermediate to specialists (non-management) levels of organisations.

Graduate salaries increased by an average 6.5 per cent. The salary increases for various levels of management ranged from 5.9 to 7.3 per cent, while increases for intermediate to specialist staff ranged from 5.3 to 6.0 per cent.

“Despite talk of pressure on salaries and skills shortages, our figures are not surprising,” said Ashworth.

“The impact of these results is that the days of ‘across the board’ salary increases are becoming extinct.”