Find out what our recent pulse survey of people professionals said about current challenges, how the HR function has changed and how it is perceived within their organisations
We asked over 1,000 people professionals across different levels of seniority and industries about their career: their current challenges, how they feel HR activities are perceived within their organisations, and the career and development opportunities within the profession.
The results of our survey complement the findings from our discussion with senior leaders where we explored how the remit and impact of the profession has expanded over the last 10 years and some of the key challenges the profession faces today.
In this article, we provide insights from the survey findings on current perceptions and challenges within the profession.
The top three challenges of supporting line managers in their people management (43%), working collaboratively with colleagues throughout the organisations (37%) and organisational development (OD) and change management skills (26%) were the same as those identified in another CIPD survey in 2023, with an increase in the proportion of respondents highlighting each of these three challenges as priority areas for HR (Figure 1).
This could suggest that people professionals are increasingly recognising the importance of line managers and organisational-wide collaboration to achieve HR goals. The prioritisation of OD and change management may reflect the increasing pace of change, particularly technological advancements and socio-economic shifts.
For those working in the public sector, 45% cited working collaboratively as a priority (compared with 37% overall) and 36% prioritised organisational development and change management skills (compared with 26% overall).
In general, respondents were broadly positive about how HR was recognised and perceived within their organisation, with a majority of 60% or more agreeing that the HR/people function is:
Those in medium to large organisations responded more positively on how they felt HR was perceived. This could be because bigger organisations have more resources to dedicate to HR and are potentially more likely to perceive HR as a strategic enabler to their organisation’s success which may not be the case for small organisations.
There was also a noticeable increase in positive sentiment among those with CIPD membership with 72% (compared with 59% of non-CIPD members) agreeing the HR/people function is acknowledged for having an important impact on the business (Figure 2) and 79% of CIPD members (compared with 62% of non-CIPD members) agreeing the HR/people function is understood to work collaboratively across the business functions to meeting business needs (Figure 3).
More work is needed in establishing clear measures of success as under half of respondents (49%) felt their HR/people function has clear measures and this is even lower in smaller organisations (Figure 4). Developing measures of HR success involves looking beyond simple metrics like cost efficiency to assess the true impact of HR on the business.
Read further guidance on strategic HRM and developing measures of success for HR.
Find out more about the role of strategic HRM specifically within small firms.
A large proportion of CIPD members and those belonging to large organisations felt that the reputation (Figure 5) and remit (Figure 6) of their HR function had increased in the last five years. Those belonging to smaller organisations were less likely to feel this way which could be due to the level of investment and resources smaller organisations can dedicate to their HR teams.
Of those that felt the remit of HR had increased, 72% said this growth had been matched by a growth in resource. For those working in the public sector, this dropped to 61%.
Some 67% of respondents felt supported by their employer when it came to their mental wellbeing and 58% felt supported with the unique pressures that come with being an HR professional.
Those working part-time felt more supported across both mental wellbeing (78%) and unique pressures (70%). This could indicate that those organisations providing options for part-time work are more likely to be supportive organisations in general and therefore be more conscious of providing wellbeing support. These results could also suggest that those who work part-time are likely to have a different attitude to wellbeing and pressure than full-time workers.
Read more survey findings on how people professionals view their careers and career development opportunities.
Theni is the Senior Adviser on the People Profession at the CIPD, focussing on research around the opportunities and challenges facing the profession. She has a background as a People & Change consultant, working across a range of industries on issues including growth strategy assessment, change management and supporting executive teams to meaningfully engage their workforce. Last year she completed a Master's in Organisational Psychology.
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