Further evidence that employers need to focus on staff retention in 2008 comes from Reed Human Resources. According to its annual salary survey of HR professionals there was a 65% rise in the number of vacancies for permanent HR professionals compared with 2006. Due to a major skills shortage there was a 30% increase in the interim HR market.

The UK salary survey findings: average salary increases from 2006-2007
 

• HR assistant: 9% increase
   £21,396 compared with £19,416.
• HR officer: 9% increase
   £27,157 compared with £24,691
• HR manager: 11%
  £43,275, compared with £38,389 
• HR directors and heads of HR: 15% increase
  Average salary now stands at £73,264
• Interim managers grew by 30% in 2007
  Average daily rate was £196 per day
  Average daily rate in London was £262 per day
• Interim HR directors
  Average daily rate was £333 per day
  Average daily rate in London was £475 per day
  
• HR professionals with specialist experience in compensation and benefits commanded the highest salaries
  £42,674 for a permanent position
  £37,127 for a permanent learning and development HR professional
  £37,082 for a recruitment specialist 

Operations manager Jason Willis, of Reed Human Resources

• HR professionals with specialist skills in talent and performance management will be in big demand. 
• Larger companies are also tending to recruit HR professionals with experience in recruitment, learning and development and compensation and benefits.
• In 2008 there will be a real demand for strategic, commercially minded HR specialists to work within local management teams and at board level across the UK.
• As the skills shortage continues, we will continue to see an increase in the deployment of Interim managers to meet this need.
• Generalist HR advisors will be needed to provide support across all business areas.

He concludes: “With a scarcity of candidates, businesses are also more open to recruiting HR professionals from different industry backgrounds and we will see more of this in 2008. With such a gap between the supply and demand of HR professionals, we also expect salaries to grow, albeit more slowly given the market outlook.”