Human resources professionals, always under pressure

We talk a lot about employees’ expectations of companies, but what are those of HR professionals? Decryption with Sarah Lemoine.

HR is the professionals who juggle recruitment, payroll management, relationships with employees, staff representatives, and who are also the right-hand men of management.

franceinfo: What are the expectations of these professions?

Sarah Lemoine: This year, what concerns HR is retaining existing or recently recruited employees. This is their number one priority, before recruitment and training, according to the Payfit and Tissot editions barometer. 64% say that loyalty is the key subject of 2024, which is 12 points more than last year.

Faced with a labor market that is always tense and not very dynamic, the idea is to keep employees in their jobs, not to have them stolen by the competitor, and having to start all over again from scratch. The main lever they want to activate is remuneration, in a very pragmatic way. Six out of 10 HR people are banking on individual increases, four out of 10 on collective increases and bonuses.

Another big concern for HR is the quality of life at work?

71% of HR professionals think that employees expect them to take a firm stand on psychosocial risks, the work environment and well-being. If they had the choice, this is the subject to which they would like to dedicate the most time, according to the barometer.

But in everyday reality, this is not the case. They think that they will first be caught up in administrative personnel management, then recruitment, remuneration, training and career management. Out of their 10 main missions, they place the quality of life at work in seventh place, in relation to the time allocated to them.

The great misfortune of HR is the administrative burden?

Half of HR staff say they chose this profession for the human dimension, “to help people grow in the company, put them in their place, give them responsibilities”, analyzes Caroline Acs, the general director of Tissot editions.

But in fact, “they are swallowed up by boring, time-consuming and low added value tasks”. Between three and six hours a day, according to the study, for the vast majority, all in an increasingly complex regulatory and legal environment.

This distortion creates frustration, and even exhaustion among seven out of 10 HR people. They generally deplore a lack of time, budget and automation. A third say they suffer from a lack of support and recognition.