2012 Your HR Department Survey Released by BLR

The newest release of the Your HR Department survey by BLR found that the majority of HR professionals are employed by small departments who provide services to small to medium-sized employers. In total, 59 percent of respondents provide HR services to employers with workforces of 1 to 250 employees while 16 percent provide guidance to companies employing 251 to 500 employees. Additional survey highlights include:

• 36 percent of HR departments operate with an HR staff to employee ratio of 1 HR professionals:101 to 200 employees. One-third of HR organizations operate with a ratio of 1:50 and 31 percent have a ratio of 1:51 to 100.

• 18 percent of organizations have employees who participate in a union while 2 percent have a workforce composed of 90 to 100 percent of unionized workers. Just 1 percent have a workforce consisting of 5 percent or less unionized workers.

• Half of the respondents reported experiencing no significant departmental changes within the past year while 16 percent of HR departments were reduced in size and 15 percent saw departmental budget cuts.

• 93 percent of respondents reported to be responsible for benefits within their organizations, 90 percent provided compliance guidance, 89 percent performed recruitment and staffing duties, 87 percent were responsible for compensation, but just 10 percent reported having operational responsibilities. A further 15 percent act as facilities management and 43 percent have safety and security duties.