Human Resources Staffing Ratios- what’s the norm?

About three months ago I started in a new role, which was quite different to everything that I’ve been used to. I started out as a HR & Training Coordinator in FMCG, I then worked in the Culture & Capability team in a telco, I worked as a learning & development coach for a manufacturer and then as a Senior HR Advisor in the public sector.

Since my early experiences in HR I never wanted to be a true HR generalist because the every day activities to do with compliance weren’t something I was ever passionate about. I’ve learned a lot since then, and even though those types of activities still aren’t my favourite thing in the world- it’s good to be able to slant a HR generalist role so much towards things that you are passionate about like learning and development, culture, performance management and succession planning. Depends on how your brain thinks- some people find this challenging to interpret legislation etc and others find it confusing and scary. I like to be creative and see projects come to fruition. It’s a bit fluffy but I have my analytical side as well.

Anyway, I digress.

The other day I caught up with a friend that I worked with while I was at University. We both ended up studying the same course at uni (B Bus HRM &IR) and we were talking about the new roles we were in. She was saying that she would now be looking after the operational management for around 3000 people. I was thinking, oh my goodness- that is crazy. How could you possibly be effective for that many people- but it really does depend on the HR model in the business and what the ‘generalist’ role involves.

For instance, in my last role as a Senior HR Advisor I looked after around 130 people in Sydney. Although I was involved in all the day to day activities of the division, there was so much support through the corporate teams, it allowed me to really be hands on in coaching managers and the performance management of employees. For instance I was able to seek assistance from Learning & Development, Recruitment and the Workplace Relations Team handled all the bargaining with the unions regarding our Enterprise Agreement. This gave me more time to add value to the business in the way a HR Business Partner probably should.

In my new role which is pretty green in terms of HR (which has it’s good and bad sides mind you!), I’m now doing everything, but only looking after around 100 people. I’m sure that once I get a few of the staples in place things will settle down somewhat, however it did get me thinking about what the norm ratios of HR to employees is, and how the varying models that operate in businesses impact upon this ratio.

In researching this (and by researching I mean asking the Google machine), there are quite a few answers floating around, with general comments often saying 1:100.

In April 2007, Human Resources Magazine (I add this because it’s pre-GFC) said that “there was a significant difference in the ratio of HR practitioners to the remainder of the workforce in some companies. This usually depends on the structure of HR within the companies. We found that the average ratio of HR practitioners to employees was 1:128. The highest ratio was 1:500, while the lowest was 1:25. There was also some difference in ratios of HR practitioners to employees if a company’s HR operations were centralised (1:153), decentralised (1:183) or a hybrid model (1:93).”

According to a research paper produced by the Corporate Leadership Council in November 2009, there is quite a bit of variance depending on what industry you belong to and how much revenue the company makes. See the graph below:

I’d be keen to start some discussion on this- what HR Model do you work in and what is your ratio like?