HR Search Salary Survey 2024

The team at HR Search have launched their annual hr salary survey and market trends report for 2024. The survey covers HR candidate drivers, salary movements, hr leadership, hr business partnering, hr generalist, specialist HR, employee relations, HRIS, talent acquisition, learning and development and an outlook for the year ahead.

While the first half of 2023 saw a lot of challenges in attracting top talent from the market, for previously high-demand roles, such as HR Business Partners and HR Managers, it has also seen an increase in new candidates entering the HR market in the second half of the year.

Higher salaries are driving new candidates into the market along with changes in their existing work environments, most notably a shift in policy to increasing office days and reducing hybrid working.

A ‘knock-on’ effect of this revision in the work-life balance attained during the pandemic work models is that more experienced HR candidates (HRBPs and Managers) are looking for three and four-day weeks as their preferred working model.

This may see a definite trend in 2024 where the demand for senior, experienced HR managers and HRBPs will outweigh the supply and salary will not be the attracting factor but flexible and hybrid working will be the magnet to these highly skilled HR professionals.

In summary, 2023 saw an overall increase in salaries across HR at the higher end of the scale for all HR roles, while the entry point for all HR roles remained static.

We have observed that a higher salary is paid for ‘high value add HR contributors’ across all roles and organisations are willing to compete for top talent using salary levers.

Top Talent in HR can now demand greater base salaries and can also negotiate packages with between 10-30% bonuses and total reward packages with between 5%-10% pension contributions.

This trend will continue for 2024 where top-performing HR professionals can see up to 7% salary increases, while all HR professionals should see an increase of an average of 3% which aligns with the overall employer sentiment in recent IBEC and CIPD surveys.

Niamh Kennelly, Director, HR Search.