2017 HR Salary Guide

February 17, 2017 3 mins read
hr-salary-guide

HR salary guide for 2017 for junior to senior HR talent across talent acquisition, learning and development, compensation and benefits and shared services in China

Contents: Commentary on HR Roles and Remuneration in China for 2017

 

General Human Resources In Commerce & Industry | Basic Salary Per Month
Role RMB Per Month
HR VP / Head Of HR ¥100k+
HR Director / HR BP Head ¥65k - ¥100k
HR Manager / HR Business Partner - Industrial & Consumer ¥25k - ¥50k
HR Specialist / Assistant HR Manager ¥8k - ¥20k
Talent Acquisition Head / Director ¥60k - ¥100k
Talent Acquisition Manager ¥25k - ¥45k
Talent Acquisition Specialist ¥8k - ¥20k
Talent Development / Organisational Development Director ¥60k - ¥90k
Learning & Development Head / Director ¥50k - ¥80k
Learning & Development Training Manager ¥20k - ¥40k
Learning & Development Officer ¥10k - ¥20k
Compensation and Benefits Director ¥60k - ¥100k
Compensation and Benefits Manager ¥30k - ¥50k
Compensation and Benefits Specialist ¥15k - ¥30k
Share Service Head ¥60k - ¥100k
Share Service Manager ¥30k - ¥50k
Share Service HR Specialist ¥10k - ¥25k

Commentary on HR Roles and Remuneration in China for 2017

Hiring trends

Being a support function, HR is vulnerable to employers scaling back their hiring requirements as the economy slows. Furthermore, as multinational companies make greater use of shared service centres and centres of excellence, HR teams are expected to become leaner and more efficient.

Traditional industries that are particularly affected by the slowdown, such as consumer goods, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, are likely to make fewer HR hires in 2017. As a result, HR professionals will start to move away from these traditional industries towards new sectors, such as e-commerce.

The rise of shared service centres and centres of excellence is also leading to HR professionals abandoning generalist roles such as HR manager in favour of specialist roles such as business partner, head of shared service centre or head of centre of excellence. Nevertheless HR generalists with valuable experience, for example in M&A, are still highly sought after by employers.

Mid- to senior-level HR professionals may get the opportunity to take an international assignment if they have been in their current company for at least three years. Normally this would be a specialist, rather than a generalist, role in their company’s global or regional headquarters.

Historically, women have heavily dominated the HR workforce and many female HR professionals transferred into the function from admin and support roles. More recently, however, men have been more attracted to working in HR because they can see that the remit of the function extends way beyond administrative support. Today HR can have a significant impact on business growth through activities in the area of talent and organisational development.

Talent supply

The HR function is oriented towards the local market and the pool of HR professionals in China is growing all the time. Except at executive level, 99% of HR professionals are native Mandarin Chinese speakers and this is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Companies have more than enough local talent to meet their needs so there is no reason to bring in international expertise.

Salary & compensation trends

In 2017, salaries will steadily increase for HR professionals working within most companies, although we expect pay rises to be slightly lower than last year – at around 3-8%. With roles that are in high demand – for example, business partner or organisational development director –a candidate may get an increase of 10-25% if they are willing to change employer. 

Marlon Mai's picture
Marlon Mai
Managing Director, Greater China
mmai@morganmckinley.com