Your Opinion (About the Future) Counts!

Recently Willory conducted a survey to try and receive some feedback from our own network of professionals to gauge the HR and payroll industries. We wanted to get professionals’ takes on where the current state of affairs in HR and payroll as well as explore what the future may hold.

First, a little about the makeup of our survey. Two-thirds were HR professionals, 20% were payroll professionals and only 14% were tasked with both HR and payroll. As both departments have matured drastically, it stands to reason that it will become less likely to find professionals who are well equipped to adequately handle both roles.

How healthy are the industries? We asked HR and payroll professionals their take industry health and were pleased to see professionals are optimistic about the future. More than half (54%) surveyed say their industry is growing while less than 30% of professionals feel the industries are shrinking. 

While the HR and payroll professionals we surveyed are optimistic about growth, it is unfortunate that their budgets don’t reflect that optimism as less than a third (30%) say their budgets have increased in 2018. It may be that as optimistic as HR and payroll professionals are, organizational leadership are still not investing more resources.

Yet interestingly the optimism is reflected in pending staff increases. Nearly half (46%) say their staff will increase in 2018.

Finally, it’s interesting to examine HR and payroll 2018 priorities. Employee engagement (63%) and talent development (54%) are followed by technology (44%) as the top three priorities of professionals surveyed. How do these line up with your opinions? Feel free to share in the comments below.