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HR Feeling Happy at Work
Human resource executives are feeling the love, according to a recent survey. Their job satisfaction may be the result of more HR strategic corporate involvement as well as the greater importance of HR in the face of today's war for talent.
If you're an HR executive, you have reason to smile. After all, a recent survey says you're the most satisfied of executives. The least satisfied of executives were in IT and sales. Only 41 percent of IT executives and 42 percent of sales leaders said they were satisfied with their jobs, according to a survey by Norwalk, Conn.-based ExecuNet, a career-networking firm for executives, of 2,149 executives earning an average salary of $221,000. In contrast, two-thirds (67 percent) of HR executives reported satisfaction with their jobs, followed by CFOs/comptrollers at 63 percent. In general, almost half (48 percent) of the executive respondents were not satisfied or "somewhat unsatisfied" with their current jobs. Among those unhappy workers, 52 percent said they were preparing to leave their companies within the next 12 months. Dave Opton, founder and CEO of ExecuNet, who describes himself as a "recovering HR executive" (prior to founding the company in 1988, he led the HR function at Sterling Drug International), says high rates of satisfaction among HR leaders reflect how far the profession has come during the past 20 years. "The HR executives I talk to say they're very involved in the strategic issues of their company," he says, noting that the discussion board for HR executives on ExecuNet's Web site recently featured a discussion on how policies for allowing employees to work from home could be integrated into their companies' strategies. "The fact is, the war for talent is very real and so is the competition for HR executives who can help fight and win this war," he says. George Atkinson, a senior partner in the Chicago office of executive search firm Korn/Ferry International, says that although the rate of dissatisfaction among executives struck him as "a bit high," he's not surprised by the findings relative to HR leaders. "HR people tend to be 'glass half-full' kind of people," he says. "They're very optimistic by nature. "Employers are embracing what HR can bring them in terms of talent," he says. "They're seeing the repercussions of the war for talent -- so the things HR can do to keep people engaged and onboard are highly valued by employers." IT leaders, by contrast, are feeling a bit unloved these days, according to Opton and Atkinson. "IT leaders are stuck trying to address the needs of their internal customers, who tend to be pretty ignorant about the technical side of things, into products or services that end up not working out because the customers couldn't adequately explain what they wanted in the first place," says Opton. IT dissatisfaction could also be the result of the difficulty in initiating new projects. Companies spent vast amounts on technology projects during the prior decade with relatively little to show for it, in many cases, Opton says. As a result, IT executives often have to fight harder than ever for new projects to be approved. Atkinson says IT staff "tend to be a bit more inward focused, more risk-averse, than HR people." Across all functions, the top five reasons cited for dissatisfaction included limited advancement opportunities (13 percent), lack of challenge/personal growth (both at 13 percent), differences with culture (10 percent), "boss not a good match" (10 percent) and compensation (9 percent).
July 26, 2007 Copyright 2007© LRP Publications |
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© Copyright 2010 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
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