The Datum Report

Occupation 3571 · Associate professional occupations

Human resources and industrial relations officers

Half of full-time human resources and industrial relations officers in the UK earn more than £35,194 a year, and half earn less.

Human resources and industrial relations officers conduct research, analyse data and advise on recruitment, training, staff appraisal and industrial relations policies and assist specialist managers with negotiations on behalf of a commercial enterprise, trade union or other organisation.

How people enter it

There are no formal academic requirements although most entrants possess a degree or equivalent qualification and/or relevant experience. Many employers expect staff to gain membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development through study for professional qualifications. Vocational qualifications in this area are available at levels 2 to 7.

What the work involves

• undertakes research and analyses data on pay differentials, productivity and efficiency bonuses and other payments
• develops and recommends personnel and industrial relations policies, assists with their implementation and drafts staff handbooks
• assists with negotiations between management and employees or trades unions concerning pay and conditions of employment
• interviews candidates for jobs
• advises on training and recruitment, negotiating procedures, salary agreements and other personnel and industrial relations issues
• deals with grievance and disciplinary procedures, and with staff welfare and counselling provision

Also called

Employment consultant · Human resources advisor · Human resources analyst · Recruitment consultant · Talent attraction consultant

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for human resources and industrial relations officers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 11 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Careers advisers and vocational guidance specialists · Information technology trainers · Other vocational and industrial trainers