
HR & business administration
Hiring trends and average salaries
How much should I pay — or earn?
The role of HR and business administration in business has become so integral that competition for skilled talent is high. Explore average starting salaries, key skills and roles in demand, plus popular benefits and rewards being offered to secure skilled business services professionals. Download a copy of the Robert Half 2021 Salary Guide now.

What are the latest hiring trends?
HR teams are essential in defining new ways of working. As businesses establish the 'new normal' there will be a focus on building the capacity of HR teams to support redeveloped policies, procedures and expectations. There continues to be strong demand for skilled HR and admin professionals to help adapt to new ways of working.

What does it take to land top talent?
Learn which skills are hardest to find in the evolving labour market. The guide also gives you a gauge for the types of benefits and rewards companies are offering to job candidates.

What’s impacting hiring and compensation?
Get the up-to-date insights you need to land the right HR professionals, EAs and PAs, office managers, procurement officers and more, including how to navigate new hiring challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Get salary details for specialised fields:
HR and admin hiring trends

Administrative professionals are more essential than ever and have new responsibilities, including supporting remote staff and office re-entry plans. Some office support professionals are also taking on additional duties or having their roles redesigned or rescoped due to staff furloughs and redundancies. Discover how these and other developments are driving demand for administrative talent — and affecting compensation.
Download the Salary Guide so you have the latest information at the ready.
Key salary trends for hot business administration roles
The role of HR and business administration has become so integral that competition for skilled talent is high. Operational excellence, training and development, culture and productivity will be an area of focus for HR and business leaders in the year to come. The market is moving quickly for qualified candidates with core business administration and customer service skills prompting businesses to review their time to hire.
Explore the hiring trends and average salaries across the UK for these key roles:
Skills most in demand
From supporting remote staff to creating a safer workplace, administrative professionals are now on the front lines of business continuity. Companies need self-directed, versatile and tech-savvy support professionals to help them meet changing needs.

Technical skills
- CRM/database management experience
- Proficient in MS Office suite with Advanced Excel
- CIPD-qualified
Soft skills
- Adaptability
- Effective communication
- Remote organisational ability
- Attention to detail
- Problem solving
Why use the Admin and HR Salary Guide

Our recruitment consultants speak with hundreds of business leaders and professionals every day. This gives us unique insight into what candidates are looking for in a job offer, and which skills employers need to pay a competitive HR or business administration salary to secure. The starting salary ranges in the Robert Half HR and Business Administration 2021 Salary Guide are based on the thousands of placements made by our recruitment consultants across the UK.
Managers use our salary guides to ensure they are offering competitive salary packages to attract and retain talent; whether that be to benchmark salaries for new hires or compare the average pay for their existing employees.