A quarter of HR pros ready to jump ship

Those contemplating a career in human resources must be driven to take this path. Ahead lie challenges, conflict, little praise from above and lots of complaints from below. No wonder a new survey of human resources professionals found that two-thirds of those surveyed were less than enthusiastic about their jobs, and that a quarter are ready to jump ship within the year.

The latest evidence of the tough row HR pros must hoe comes from Harvey Nash, a recruiting consulting firm. Bloomberg/BNA picked up tidbits from the survey and reported the discouraging news.

It's no secret that HR types are caught in an uncomfortable vice. A report last March detailed the lack of love between the C-Suite and HR. The Harvey Nash data underscores how lonely the job can be.

According to BNA, the 30-country survey found that job satisfaction fell 5 percent in 2014 compared to the year-earlier survey results.

More than 1,200 were surveyed, and here's how the satisfaction question shook out:

• Very satisfied: 32 percent
• Quite satisfied: 49 percent
• Not very/Not at all: 20 percent
• It's the latter stat that jumped 5 percent year-to-year.

A Harvey Nash exec told BNA that part of the problem may be that HR isn't as crucial now as it was during the recession. Sure, it's tough finding good people now, what with the vicious battle underway to obtain and keep top talent. But with the economy rebounding, sales and marketing departments are beefed up and beefing, attracting more C-Suite attention.

The survey also found that 57 percent of those interviewed would like to change jobs in the next two years — which would probably get someone's attention up top.

Additionally, 27 percent want to have a new job by this time next year, a 4 percent hike over the prior year's survey. However, the survey noted that just 16 percent actually changed jobs. So maybe conditions did improve for some of those long-suffering HR managers.

Source: Benefits Pro