Faced with recruitment difficulties and skills shortages, UK firms are increasingly training existing staff to take on new responsibilities.

For the first time in ten years learning, training and development professionals are earning higher than the average HR salary, according to the latest reward survey from Croner Reward in association with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Charles Cotton, CIPD Reward Adviser believes this is a reflection of the growing challenges organisations face in overcoming skills shortages. Managers in the learning and development field earn an average of £45,000 (+4 per cent), compared to £37,739 last year (-2.4 per cent). They have moved up the ranks from the lowest paid specialists in the HR industry to become second highest paid specialists in the HR industry, alongside recruitment specialists and employee relations.

Cotton's analysis is that skills shortages and the need for continuous change within organisations are forcing employers to increasingly recognise the strategic importance of learning and development. He says that this is being reflected in the increased salaries that many learning, training and development specialists now receive.

“The survey shows that learning, training and development professionals are currently the shock troops in the war for talent and the search for sustainable high performance working."

"CIPD research shows many organisations are now using learning and development to allow internal staff to fill posts, and appointing people who have the potential to grow but who currently don’t have all that’s required in response to these problems. But for this to work effectively learning, training and development professionals need to be sufficiently rewarded," he says.

Pay for personnel specialism

Compensation and Benefits Specialists are the highest paid specialism receiving as much as 16 per cent above the average salary for a senior manager (£50,000 compared with £43,272).

Cotton says: "The pay reflects the challenges that reward specialists face in providing a competitive pay and benefit package to help recruit, retain and motivate talent in a difficult labour market, while keeping wage costs down. It is up to the reward specialist to design a package that not only includes a good remuneration package but other elements such as holiday entitlement, flexible working, pension and health insurance."

Recruitment managers and employee relations managers earn an average of £45,000 (+4 per cent), while personnel professionals working as internal consultants on projects earn £48,750, 13 per cent above the average HR salary. The lowest paid specialism this year is health and safety at -7.6 per cent.

Satisfaction 

Charles Cotton says: “Overall engagement levels among HR professionals are quite high but this drops dramatically for health and safety professionals. Despite being the lowest paid in the profession 43 per cent of health and safety professionals say that their pay is about right, which suggests there are other issues affecting their levels of job satisfaction.”

Vivienne Copeland, Director of Client Services at Croner Reward, adds: “Our survey shows that one of the main reasons HR professionals working in the public sector experience low levels of engagement is due to bad management, but low levels of satisfaction in other sectors is largely due to lack of recognition and job security.”

Excellent or good levels of job satisfaction 

Specialism                            %

Training                                64
Reward                                 63
Recruitment                         56
Employee relations            53
Health and safety               29

Related links

• CIPD
• Croner Reward     

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