Data Watch

HR Staff-to-Employee Ratios Gaining Ground

According to new research by Kennedy Information’s parent company, the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., the ratio of Human Resource staff to every 100 employees in the U.S. was up in 2006 versus 1996. The findings help HR departments to benchmark their own staff-to-employee ratios against those for the entire industry, as well as individual industry sectors.

The report, HR Department Benchmarks and Analysis™ 2007, shows that these staff ratios decline as workforce sizes increase, meaning that smaller companies typically have more HR staff for every 100 employees (or fewer) than do larger companies.

For instance, at firms that employ a workforce 100 to 249 people, the median ratio in 2006 was 1.4, whereas 0.6 was that year’s median ratio for firms employing a workforce larger than 5,000. Overall, the median ratio in 2006 was 1.1, up from 0.9 a decade earlier.

Contrasts among industries abound. For instance, at 1.9, the 2006 median ratio at associations, social service organizations, and nonprofit groups was the highest of any industry sector, whereas educational institutions’ median ratio, at 0.7, was the lowest.

The report’s findings reflect data from 550 participants, all Human Resource executives or managers, who took the related survey in June of last year. Respondents represent firms employing a workforce of at least 25.