The HR skills shortage is structural, not a talent problem
The human resources profession is facing a skills shortage, but not where most employers assume.
A specialist recruitment firm is warning that the crisis is concentrated at coordinator level, where four in five job applicants cannot demonstrate that they have ever advised on a disciplinary matter or formal employee complaint.
HR Recruit, a North American HR search firm, drew the figure from applications to its live searches over the past 18 months. Regional Director Jo Thompson said the finding defies the conventional narrative around HR capability.
"Clients assume a six-month coordinator contract at equivalent pay to a permanent employee will be the easiest hire of the year to fill, but it is the one we fill least often," Thompson said.
"The candidates who have the experience already have a job, and they will not trade it for six months unless the rate covers what they are giving up."
Thompson traces the shortage to a structural problem rather than a talent deficit.
Junior HR professionals typically stay in a role for about 12 months before moving on for a promotion or a pay rise, leaving employers with a pool of candidates who show frequent job changes and little accumulated depth, often with only 12 to 18 months in the profession in total.
Compounding the problem is how people enter the field. Most organisations have no defined entry route into HR, so junior professionals arrive from administrative backgrounds and learn on the job.
Fixed-term contracts, including parental leave cover, make up a disproportionate share of seats at coordinator level, meaning many practitioners move on before an employee relations case they started has reached its outcome.
No easy fixes
For employers unwilling to pay a premium to secure experienced candidates for temporary junior roles, Thompson says the outcome is predictable.
"The employers who will not pay the premium and will not bring in interim cover are the ones who call us six months later with the seat still empty, and they file it under skills shortage," Thompson said.
Professional certification does not bridge the gap, Thompson further argued.
The Society for Human Resource Management states that its SHRM Certified Professional credential requires no previous HR experience. The HR Certification Institute's entry-level Associate Professional in Human Resources credential carries the same caveat.
"A credential proves somebody has studied the material," Thompson said. "It cannot prove they can advise a manager on a corrective action or an investigation, and that is what clients are hiring for."
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an average of 73,700 annual openings for HR specialists between 2025 and 2035, with employment in the field growing six per cent.
