Business leaders often wonder whether their support functions, particularly Human
Resources (HR) and Finance, are staffed at optimal levels. Is your HR team large enough to engage and manage talent effectively? Is your finance team sufficiently resourced to maintain control without bloat? Recent findings from Mercer’s 2024 Total Remuneration
Survey (TRS) for Pakistan, encompassing data from over 280 leading corporate organizations, combined with benchmarking insights from SHRM, provide a comprehensive view of current compensation and staffing trends.
According to SHRM’s latest guidance, the average global organization employs about 1.7
HR staff per 100 employees (≈1HR for 59 people), and the “sweet spot” ranges from 1.5
to 4.5 per 100, depending on complexity SHRM. Many practitioners still simplify this to
“roughly one HR professional for every 60–80 employees,” but Mercer’s Pakistan data shows that local practice often departs from even that generous range. In the pages that follow, we explore the overall trends across sectors, compare HR and Finance ratios to both total headcount and management staff, discuss the forces driving variance, and close with strategic recommendations for CEOs.