Women taking an even tighter grip on expanding UK HR profession

Last month the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published its annual snapshot of the UK’s occupational profile, as obtained from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) in the second quarter (April-June) this year. I’ve been comparing the numbers employed in each occupational category back to 2011 (reliable comparison with earlier data is not possible because of changes to way in which occupations are classified), including those performing HR management and development roles.

According to the LFS as of Q2 2014 there were in the UK 124,000 people employed as HR managers and directors, 150,000 as HR officers, 154,000 as vocational and industrial trainers or instructors and 46,000 as HR administrators. The total HR workforce of 474,000 is 18,000 higher than in Q2 2013 (a year on year increase of 3.9%) and 30,000 (6.9%) higher than in Q2 2011. The HR workforce has therefore been expanding at a faster rate than total employment in the UK, which registered a net increase of around 5% between Q2 2011 and Q2 2014.  

However, people in HR management or admin roles have overall fared better than those in HR development roles. Net employment growth in the profession since 2011 has been confined to HR managers and directors (up 11,000, 9.3%), HR officers (up 21,000, +16.1%) and HR administrators (up 14,000, 42.2%).  By contrast HR development has taken a hit – down 5,000, -2.8% - though most of the decline occurred between 2011 and 2013, employment in training related roles having rebounded in the past year, growing by 8,000 (5.7%) between 2013 and 2014. The past few years have also been quite topsy-turvy for HR managers and directors. Their numbers increased relatively quickly between 2011 and 2012, stabilised in 2013 and then fell back sharply (by 14,000 or -9.7%) between 2013 and 2014. As a result the share of HR managers and directors in the total HR and development workforce, which rose above 30% in 2012, has returned to the figure of just over 26% recorded in 2011.    

HR remains a strongly feminised sector, and in general appears to be becoming increasingly feminised. More than 6 in 10 people working in HRD are women. The proportion of women is highest amongst HR administrators (80%) followed by HR officers (68%) and HR managers and directors (62%). The gender balance is more even in training and development where just over half (52%) of people employed are women.

While there are signs of a shift in the gender balance amongst HR administrators (where the proportion of women has fallen from 87% to 80% in the past three years) this is not evident in other parts of the HR workforce. The gender balance amongst HR officers has remained stable since 2011, moved slightly in favour of women in training and development roles, and moved substantially in favour of women in HR manager and director roles where the proportion of women has increased from 57% to 62%. As a result the share of women in the HR and development profession as a whole has increased from 60% to close to 63%. If as is often said more is being done to attract men into HR there is little sign of this having yet had any significant impact.