For better or worse, the Irish employment market has irrevocably changed over the last five years and with it the relationship between employers and employees.

People issues are now recognised as being central to the success of any organisation and, as a consequence, human resources has assumed a higher profile. Few companies in the last five years held any sort of senior management meeting without addressing concerns around staffing levels, recruitment, management development and retention.

Prior to this, how many companies could say that these issues featured often enough on meeting agenda? HR now needs to be firmly aligned with wider business strategy and the relevant practitioners must be central to their organisation's efforts at optimising the value delivered by its employees. In May, HRM Recruitment Group commissioned a unique survey of Ireland's HR profession.

The National Human Resource Practitioners Survey 2001 sought to identify the main issues and trends in HR in Ireland and to look at the people responsible for meeting the significant HR challenges that all organisations face. A cross-section of 500 HR professionals from Irish industry and public service were invited to participate. Completed questionnaires were received from 253 respondents.

Traditionally in Ireland, the HR or personnel function has not featured with the same prominence as within UK or US-based counterparts; 30 per cent of respondents highlighted their functions biggest weakness as "lack of resources". Unusual when you consider that in many global organisations, the chief executive officer will often come from HR or at least have spent some time within that department.

For several years Guinness chiefs came directly from the HR function. Some 50 per cent of survey respondents highlighted that, where they not pursing their careers in HR, they would choose general management, 15 per cent would choose operations while 10 per cent would currently be working in marketing.

The most important people issues for over two-thirds of Irish organisations for the future remain the ability to hire and retain the right people.

Developing "strategic leadership competencies" and "customer focus" within the organisation are next. Amongst the biggest challenges to achieving HR goals, respondents highlighted "keeping line managers focused on HR issues" (29 per cent) and "resistance to change" (22 per cent).

Survey participants identified "relevance to core business" and "HR's understanding of key business issues" as presenting the greatest opportunities for the profession over the next five years while nearly two-thirds cited the "outsourcing of HR activities" as the greatest threat.

The survey seems to suggest that the combination of pressure to recruit and the scarcity of key personnel over the last few years has resulted in some compromise amongst hiring companies. Respondents were asked: "If you could change the employees in your workforce tomorrow, how many would you change?" A surprisingly high number (78 per cent) indicated that they would change 25 per cent to 50 per cent of their employees. Only 12 per cent suggested they would make no changes.

Retention remains a critical issue for HR practitioners. Some 43 per cent of survey participants felt that failure to retain key staff has a high impact on organisation performance. Only 4 per cent suggested no impact while 3 per cent of respondents estimated the annual cost of staff turnover as being in excess of £1 million pounds, and 32 per cent indicated that their staff turnover costs could be between £100,000 to £500,000. Perhaps surprisingly, given the costs involved, the survey reveals that over a quarter of organisations do not even calculate the cost of staff turnover.

The survey highlights three most effective methods for retaining employees in the longer term as being "management effectiveness through coaching and feedback", "providing continuous learning opportunities" for employees and the "culture fit between organisation and employee". Retention bonuses were seen as the least effective method, identified by only 5 per cent of respondents.

High performance organisations of the future will be determined by the ability of HR practitioners to design credible and effective HR strategies, and by the ability of organisations to recognise HR needs through their full implementation.

A copy of the survey results is obtainable by e-mailing: michael.oleary@hrm.ie

Michael O'Leary is managing director of the HRM Recruitment Group, the recruitment and HR solutions company