Hr Staff
THE DETERMINANTS OF THE NUMBER OF HR STAFF IN ORGANISATIONS: THEORY AND EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
JOS VAN OMMEREN CHRIS BREWSTER
Cranfield School of Management Cranfield Bedford MK43 0AL UK
E-mail: J.Van_Ommeren@cranfield.ac.uk. Tel: + 44 (0) 1234-751122; Fax: + 44 (0) 1234 751276. April 1999
ABSTRACT The current paper develops a range of hypotheses about the determinants of the human resources staff ratios in organisations and tests them using empirical survey data from European organisations. We find that country of residence, sector and organisational size, are the key determinants of HR staff ratios. We also identify other determinants of HR staff ratios. For example, in capital-intensive organisations, and in organisations that make use of job rotation, higher HR staff ratios are observed. Devolution of HR responsibilities to line management effectively reduces the number of HR staff. Interestingly, higher staff turnover rates are not associated with higher HR staff ratios.
2
1. INTRODUCTION Human resource management specialists feel under pressure to justify themselves and to prove that their departments are not overstaffed. There are two sets of reasons for this. The first is that senior managers outside the function inevitably see the department as an "overhead" cost and wonder whether the organisation has enough people in it to support the human resource management policies or, more frequently, whether it has too many. The second reason for human resource specialists to ensure that they have only enough staff in the function is that other employees outside the function may see human resource specialists as the group that has been responsible for ensuring that organisations are "lean" and downsized. It creates difficulties when the department that is seen to have such responsibilities cannot provide evidence that it too is tightly and cost-effectively managed. It is not sufficient for human resource management specialists to organise the wage
JOS VAN OMMEREN CHRIS BREWSTER
Cranfield School of Management Cranfield Bedford MK43 0AL UK
E-mail: J.Van_Ommeren@cranfield.ac.uk. Tel: + 44 (0) 1234-751122; Fax: + 44 (0) 1234 751276. April 1999
ABSTRACT The current paper develops a range of hypotheses about the determinants of the human resources staff ratios in organisations and tests them using empirical survey data from European organisations. We find that country of residence, sector and organisational size, are the key determinants of HR staff ratios. We also identify other determinants of HR staff ratios. For example, in capital-intensive organisations, and in organisations that make use of job rotation, higher HR staff ratios are observed. Devolution of HR responsibilities to line management effectively reduces the number of HR staff. Interestingly, higher staff turnover rates are not associated with higher HR staff ratios.
2
1. INTRODUCTION Human resource management specialists feel under pressure to justify themselves and to prove that their departments are not overstaffed. There are two sets of reasons for this. The first is that senior managers outside the function inevitably see the department as an "overhead" cost and wonder whether the organisation has enough people in it to support the human resource management policies or, more frequently, whether it has too many. The second reason for human resource specialists to ensure that they have only enough staff in the function is that other employees outside the function may see human resource specialists as the group that has been responsible for ensuring that organisations are "lean" and downsized. It creates difficulties when the department that is seen to have such responsibilities cannot provide evidence that it too is tightly and cost-effectively managed. It is not sufficient for human resource management specialists to organise the wage