Findings of HR trend study:

• Current and future focus on talent management and leadership
• Harmonization of global HR processes sought
• Pay freezes for top management increase again significantly in 2015

Paderborn/Salzkotten,October 8, 2015 – Around 200 participants, mostly DAX or MDAX, or high-end medium sized companies, took part in the study “Trends in Compensation 2015/2016” carried out by the HR consulting company Lurse. In the evaluation of the findings, the answers were divided according to the four employee categories “Top management”, “Middle management/professionals”, “Technicians/administration/clerical staff”, and “Production”.

For the first time, Lurse also asked the participants to assess the current and future relevance of HR topics to their human resources policies.

Talent Management and Leadership top the HR Agenda

Currently, corporations are focusing mostly and the most intensely on talent management and leadership. A substantial 96% of companies stated that they were active in this regard and more than half of these are highly involved in the topic.

This was followed on ranks 2 to 5 by the harmonization of global HR processes, variable compensation, performance management, and One-HR. The significance of talent management and leadership will increase further in the future and was considered to be of key importance in the future by 62 percent of the participants.

“In times of skills shortage, demographic changes, and altered expectations of employees regarding their workplaces, having the right staff is increasingly becoming a key factor for success. Consequently, talent management is a crucial element of well-structured and sustainable harmonized HR processes”, said harmonization expert Birgit Horak, a member of the Lurse board of management.

Pay Freezes for Top Management Increase

In 2015, the companies implemented more pay freezes than originally intended. The increase of the actual amount compared to the plans was most noticeable for top management. Only 4 percent of corporations had planned pay freezes for 2015, while 11 percent actually implemented them, which is a significant increase.

For 2016, the companies plan to implement similar pay freezes as in 2015.

Total budget for increases in 2015 and planned budget for 2016

For the year 2016, the average planned budget for increases across all employee categories is 2.9 percent.

Upon detailed analysis, it can be seen that the planned budget for increases of companies not bound by collective bargaining agreements is on average slightly above the budget of companies bound by bargaining agreements.

Lurse has been conducting this HR trends study for more than 15 years. Many companies use its results as a key planning instrument for their budgeting process. The results are distinguished by their highly precise predictions.

The second event of the series Lurse Dialog, on October 21, 2015 in Stuttgart will focus on the topic of talent management.