| | According to the latest
Happiness at Work
Index from
international
recruitment consultancy
Badenoch & Clark, human
resources professionals
are facing a mounting
workload as the credit
crunch bites. Out of all
industries represented
in the Index, HR workers
reported the highest
increase in their
workload since the start
of 2008.
Nearly 90% said their
workload had gone up,
with one in four (25%)
saying it had increased
by the equivalent of an
extra day per week.
Some HR professionals | |
|
| | have voted with their
feet. Worryingly, nearly
one in three (29%) has
handed in their notice
as a direct result of
rising workloads. But
almost as many are
taking a more pragmatic
approach by delegating a
lot more tasks in an
attempt to deal with the
situation.
The rising workloads
may be one of the key
drivers behind
plummeting levels of
career confidence
amongst HR
professionals. More than
half (56%) said they
were less confident
about their career than
at the start of the year | |
|
| | – more than in any other
industry.
And yet it seems that
when the chips are down
HR professionals still
manage to come to work
smiling. Despite
mounting workloads and
bleak career outlooks,
94% of HR workers insist
they’re still happy in
their role. This is
compared with just 76%
three months ago and
puts HR professionals
amongst the happiest in
the country.
Allison Gray at
Badenoch & Clark,
comments: “The results
of the Index this time
around are particularly
revealing for HR | |
|
| | workers. It seems the
job is becoming very
labour intensive. When
it comes to career
prospects, confidence is
dropping fast.
“The key message for
employers is to not
misread the
unprecedented high
levels of happiness for
long-term genuine
engagement. HR as a
profession is facing
some very serious
challenges at the
moment, and employers
need to be seen to be
tackling those
challenges head on. If
that doesn’t happen,
employers leave
themselves open to | |
|
| | losing a lot of their
best talent.”
The Happiness at
Work Index was launched
in early 2007 as a
quarterly survey of UK
office workers. It is
used to track happiness
at work over time based
upon a series of
standard questions. In
addition, each quarter
questions are asked
about various aspects of
working life. The sample
for this version of the
index was 1,086 workers
in the UK.
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