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HR Specialists - Taking the Lead

Written by: Ashley Kate HR
Published on: 4 Nov 2014

HR Specialists – Taking the lead

Kim MacNamara

Kim MacNamara HR Business Development Director

With the emphasis on businesses managing their people more effectively and building more productive organisations, Ashley Kate HR has seen a big surge in companies looking to recruit HR roles that require a more specific skill set to help achieve overall strategic objectives. In addition it is more noticeable that HR job titles are changing to reflect a more specialised, business-focused HR function.

We are seeing a deeper understanding from HR of the huge importance placed on hiring the right talent, making a break from a past acceptance of staff turnover as an inevitable cost of business. HR is continuing to become increasingly prominent and more visible at the ‘top’ table in organisations of all sizes, which again shows a positive perspective shift in tapping in to certain skill sets.

As competition gets stronger for highly skilled, experienced HR professionals especially those equipped with the latest specific, technical skills, we are starting to see a salary war heating up for those who can add real value to a companies greatest assets and impact on high level decisions and strategies.

talentmanagementCEOs and boards are increasingly spending significant amounts of time looking into HR issues and becoming more reliant on HR specialists and appreciating that their valuable skills can permeate throughout  the whole business, in areas such as: compensation, succession planning, talent management and performance reviews.

Increased M/A activity is driving an increased demand for change and transformation agents to manage transitions effectively. There is now much more emphasis on a greater integration between coaching, organisational development and performance management to drive through important organisation change.

Companies are becoming more focused on retaining their best talent to help with company growth and brand positioning and there has been an increase in demand for L&D experience e.g. leadership development, coaching, succession planning and also for Internal Recruitment /Talent specialists who can develop those essential talent pipelines in anticipation of future growth.

technologyBusinesses are utilising technology to analyse everything from role filling and retention levels, to why people choose to leave an organisation. This level of recruitment offers a clear indicator of a confident outlook for the future.

Also in an ever-changing economic environment, organisations continue to review and evaluate the reward programmes they have in place to understand the return on investment for an area of significant spent. Companies are increasingly keen to secure the services of skilled Reward professionals who can evaluate whether specific rewards programs are good fits for their employees, gauging the value the employees place on the benefits, and assessing the compliance impact on the rewards structure. Key skills sought after in this area include strong analytical skills which can impact evidence based decisions. This is key data senior HR need to impact and influence change at the ‘top’ table and strengthening HR’s overall positioning in a company. There are more senior roles in this area, and having a Head of Reward in place signals that firms are putting more emphasis on retaining talent.

We are certainly seeing a growing optimism amongst HR professionals having seen the largest number of jobs being registered with Ashley Kate HR in July this year since the company’s inception in 2001. Also for further evidence of the shift towards recruiting HR specialists take a look at Ashley Kate HR’s most recent salary survey as we see HR specialist roles catching up on generalist HR roles with 43% roles being registered in 2014.

FIRP, HR Recruitment Director –  Kim MacNamara is a HR recruitment specialist who has successfully placed senior HR roles across the UK and is driven by a focus on an excellent customer experience.