Human resource managers
and directors
Human resource managers and directors plan, organise and direct the personnel, training and industrial relations policies of organisations, advise on resource allocation and utilisation problems, measure the effectiveness of an organisation’s systems, methods and procedures and advise on, plan and implement procedures to improve utilisation of labour, equipment and materials.
- Employees (UK)
- 171k
- Median annual pay
- £54,474
- Exposure score ?
- 0.7/10 Minimal 9.0/10 Very high strict reading, with tools is 9.0/10 with-tools reading, strict is 0.7/10
- Wage exposure
- £652m £8.38bn
Higher exposure than 33% of the 379 UK occupations we scored.
What this score means.
Most of this role's work is still hard for AI: physical presence, practised skill, judgement in context and direct care, the things that do not turn into text.
If you are in this role
Nothing here is under pressure today, but the frontier moves. Learn enough to direct AI at the paperwork around the job. People in hands-on roles who can do that become unusually useful inside their organisations.
Almost every routine task in this role is within reach of today's models. Roles like this are being rebuilt, usually not by disappearing but by one person using AI to produce what several did.
If you are in this role
Be the person doing the rebuilding. People who learn to run this kind of work with AI become very valuable, and the ones who wait tend to have the change made for them.
Where the work usually starts.
This role's strict reading is low because its top tasks are judgement, not drafting. The three highest-stakes tasks below are still usually where the work starts. Switch to With tools to see what AI plus the right context can take on.
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Serve as a link between management and employees by handling questions, interpreting and administering contracts and helping resolve work-related problems.
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Plan, direct, supervise, and coordinate work activities of subordinates and staff relating to employment, compensation, labor relations, and employee relations.
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Perform difficult staffing duties, including dealing with understaffing, refereeing disputes, firing employees, and administering disciplinary procedures.
These are the most important tasks AI can already handle when paired with the right tools and context. The first wins usually come from building workflows around them. That is the difference between a model that could do the job and one that actually does it inside your business.
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Serve as a link between management and employees by handling questions, interpreting and administering contracts and helping resolve work-related problems.
-
Plan, direct, supervise, and coordinate work activities of subordinates and staff relating to employment, compensation, labor relations, and employee relations.
-
Perform difficult staffing duties, including dealing with understaffing, refereeing disputes, firing employees, and administering disciplinary procedures.
Every role has three or four places like these. Finding them takes an hour. Turning them into a workflow your team actually uses takes a few days.
Every task in the role.
Every O*NET task for this occupation, split by what AI can do unaided and what still needs a person. Importance is O*NET's 1 to 5 rating of how central each task is.
Tasks via O*NET "Human Resources Managers" (11-3121.00).
What AI can already do
1 of 26 tasks, unaided
Conduct exit interviews to identify reasons for employee termination.
What still needs a person
25 of 26 tasks
Serve as a link between management and employees by handling questions, interpreting and administering contracts and helping resolve work-related problems.
Plan, direct, supervise, and coordinate work activities of subordinates and staff relating to employment, compensation, labor relations, and employee relations.
Perform difficult staffing duties, including dealing with understaffing, refereeing disputes, firing employees, and administering disciplinary procedures.
Represent organization at personnel-related hearings and investigations.
Negotiate bargaining agreements and help interpret labor contracts.
Advise managers on organizational policy matters, such as equal employment opportunity and sexual harassment, and recommend needed changes.
Plan and conduct new employee orientation to foster positive attitude toward organizational objectives.
Analyze and modify compensation and benefits policies to establish competitive programs and ensure compliance with legal requirements.
Identify staff vacancies and recruit, interview, and select applicants.
Investigate and report on industrial accidents for insurance carriers.
Analyze statistical data and reports to identify and determine causes of personnel problems and develop recommendations for improvement of organization's personnel policies and practices.
Administer compensation, benefits, and performance management systems, and safety and recreation programs.
Prepare and follow budgets for personnel operations.
Maintain records and compile statistical reports concerning personnel-related data such as hires, transfers, performance appraisals, and absenteeism rates.
Provide current and prospective employees with information about policies, job duties, working conditions, wages, opportunities for promotion, and employee benefits.
Plan, organize, direct, control, or coordinate the personnel, training, or labor relations activities of an organization.
Oversee the evaluation, classification, and rating of occupations and job positions.
Analyze training needs to design employee development, language training, and health and safety programs.
Allocate human resources, ensuring appropriate matches between personnel.
Prepare personnel forecast to project employment needs.
Study legislation, arbitration decisions, and collective bargaining contracts to assess industry trends.
Develop or administer special projects in areas such as pay equity, savings bond programs, day care, and employee awards.
Develop, administer, and evaluate applicant tests.
Contract with vendors to provide employee services, such as food service, transportation, or relocation service.
Provide terminated employees with outplacement or relocation assistance.
Tasks via O*NET "Human Resources Managers" (11-3121.00).
What AI can already do
24 of 26 tasks, with tools
Serve as a link between management and employees by handling questions, interpreting and administering contracts and helping resolve work-related problems.
Plan, direct, supervise, and coordinate work activities of subordinates and staff relating to employment, compensation, labor relations, and employee relations.
Perform difficult staffing duties, including dealing with understaffing, refereeing disputes, firing employees, and administering disciplinary procedures.
Negotiate bargaining agreements and help interpret labor contracts.
Advise managers on organizational policy matters, such as equal employment opportunity and sexual harassment, and recommend needed changes.
Analyze and modify compensation and benefits policies to establish competitive programs and ensure compliance with legal requirements.
Identify staff vacancies and recruit, interview, and select applicants.
Investigate and report on industrial accidents for insurance carriers.
Analyze statistical data and reports to identify and determine causes of personnel problems and develop recommendations for improvement of organization's personnel policies and practices.
Administer compensation, benefits, and performance management systems, and safety and recreation programs.
Prepare and follow budgets for personnel operations.
Maintain records and compile statistical reports concerning personnel-related data such as hires, transfers, performance appraisals, and absenteeism rates.
Provide current and prospective employees with information about policies, job duties, working conditions, wages, opportunities for promotion, and employee benefits.
Conduct exit interviews to identify reasons for employee termination.
Plan, organize, direct, control, or coordinate the personnel, training, or labor relations activities of an organization.
Oversee the evaluation, classification, and rating of occupations and job positions.
Analyze training needs to design employee development, language training, and health and safety programs.
Allocate human resources, ensuring appropriate matches between personnel.
Prepare personnel forecast to project employment needs.
Study legislation, arbitration decisions, and collective bargaining contracts to assess industry trends.
Develop or administer special projects in areas such as pay equity, savings bond programs, day care, and employee awards.
Develop, administer, and evaluate applicant tests.
Contract with vendors to provide employee services, such as food service, transportation, or relocation service.
Provide terminated employees with outplacement or relocation assistance.
What still needs a person
2 of 26 tasks
Represent organization at personnel-related hearings and investigations.
Plan and conduct new employee orientation to foster positive attitude toward organizational objectives.
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Related occupations.
Other roles in Managers, directors and senior officials, and roles close by exposure.
What it means for your sector.
This role's score comes from Eloundou et al's 2023 task labels, weighted by O*NET importance within each O*NET-SOC code, then bridged to UK SOC 2020 through ISCO-08 (the ONS coding index) and US SOC 2010 (the BLS crosswalk). Employment and median pay come from ONS ASHE Table 14.7a, 2025 provisional, which covers employees only.
Back to the mapMethodologySources (PDF)Built 29 April 2026
Pictures
- "Census pantograph and 1930s keypunches" by U.S. Census Bureau employees, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Shepard Barclay, St. Louis lawyer, in his office" by Missouri Historical Society via DPLA, no known copyright restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Accountant's Office LCCN2016824374" by National Photo Company Collection, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
- "Employment service in Oulu in the spring 1931" by Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons