HR bullish on its future

Optimistic survey results ‘very energizing’

The numbers from the first Canadian HR Reporter/Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario Pulse Survey are in and, decidedly, HR professionals are bullish on the profession.

Complete survey results are available in chart form on the right-hand side of this page and on page 25, but a couple of numbers deserve attention. Notably, when asked to predict what the HR profession will look like in a decade, the numbers show:

• 81.3 per cent feel the HR brand will be more widely recognized than it is today;

• 76.9 per cent feel the HR profession will have a higher status than it has today; and

• 70.2 per cent feel HR will have more power as a profession than it has today.

These are not mild numbers. We keep saying the HR profession has come a long way in the last decade or so, and it is clear HR professionals see this trend continuing. Indeed, 66.2 per cent of respondents believe HR will make significant gains in catching up to the accounting professions in terms of professionalism, status and influence. (Interestingly, only 8.7 per cent of survey respondents did not agree with the idea of comparing HR to the accounting profession.)

More than eight out of 10 (84.4 per cent) feel there will be increasing demand for HR professionals over the next 10 years, although this is likely to be more the case at the professional and managerial levels.

Almost one-half (44.3 per cent) of survey respondents believe the compensation of HR professionals will increase relative to comparable groups.

These results are somewhat surprising. HR practitioners, and the profession as a whole, rarely express this kind of optimism. The results of this survey are very energizing.

Claude Balthazard is director, HR excellence, at the Toronto-based Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario. He can be reached at (416) 923-2324 or [email protected].

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