More than 87% of major Australian companies now outsource at least one HR function, and the pace of HR outsourcing is increasing across the Asia Pacific, according to a comprehensive new report from Talent2.

The Talent2 APAC Market Pulse Study, which surveyed nearly 600 HR executives across Australia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, found that recruitment was the most likely HR function to be outsourced (71% of respondents).

Learning and development was next at 41%, followed by HR consulting, 37% and finally, payroll at 12%.

"Outsourcing is now being considered a strategic solution, rather than a cost-cutting tactic in response to the GFC," said Talent2 CEO John Rawlinson.

He said that from his experience, if the same survey had been done five years ago, it would have shown less than 50% of employers were outsourcing HR functions.

Among the benefits of outsourcing HR cited by Australian executives were that it allowed specialists to manage complex non-core functions, while freeing up internal resources to focus on core competencies.

The negatives associated with outsourcing cited by respondents included that external providers lacked detailed knowledge about their business and that outsourcing increased costs but reduced consistency.

Despite this, some 53% of Australian respondents said they planned to either start or increase their outsourcing over the next year.

In conjunction with the release of the survey results, Talent2 also unveiled new global branding and a re-alignment of the business into four core service areas - recruitment, HR advisory, payroll, and learning.

Rawlinson said growth in the non-recruitment functions in recent years had reduced the proportion of the company's revenue generated from recruitment services to about 40%, compared with about 80% a few years ago.