Connect with us

Global Banking and Finance Review is an online platform offering news, analysis, and opinion on the latest trends, developments, and innovations in the banking and finance industry worldwide. The platform covers a diverse range of topics, including banking, insurance, investment, wealth management, fintech, and regulatory issues. The website publishes news, press releases, opinion and advertorials on various financial organizations, products and services which are commissioned from various Companies, Organizations, PR agencies, Bloggers etc. These commissioned articles are commercial in nature. This is not to be considered as financial advice and should be considered only for information purposes. It does not reflect the views or opinion of our website and is not to be considered an endorsement or a recommendation. We cannot guarantee the accuracy or applicability of any information provided with respect to your individual or personal circumstances. Please seek Professional advice from a qualified professional before making any financial decisions. We link to various third-party websites, affiliate sales networks, and to our advertising partners websites. When you view or click on certain links available on our articles, our partners may compensate us for displaying the content to you or make a purchase or fill a form. This will not incur any additional charges to you. To make things simpler for you to identity or distinguish advertised or sponsored articles or links, you may consider all articles or links hosted on our site as a commercial article placement. We will not be responsible for any loss you may suffer as a result of any omission or inaccuracy on the website. .

Business

UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF SCRUTINY OVER HEADCOUNT LEVELS AND HIRING DECISIONS

UNPRECEDENTED LEVEL OF SCRUTINY OVER HEADCOUNT LEVELS AND HIRING DECISIONS

Published : , on

Global professional services recruiter, Morgan McKinley revealed in its 2017 UK Salary Guide that 2016 was one of mixed fortunes for professionals in the UK.

David Leithead, Chief Operations Officer of Morgan McKinley said: 

logo“Uncertainty was the overriding sentiment in the UK business sector last year. We saw the impact of that in reduced volumes of job vacancies in many industry segments, particularly permanent roles in the larger employers, for whom the political and economic backdrop meant an unprecedented level of scrutiny over headcount levels and hiring decisions. As a consequence the professional temp market inevitably saw better conditions. For the moment this balance is likely to continue.”

“Every year recruiters mark a new zenith in the rise of the specialist, and this report is once again full of examples of big wage increases being needed to attract the specialist skills that hirers seek. Of course the very fact these specialists exist is a reassurance to those concerned about the UK’s future post Brexit – increasingly it is the assuredness of the supply of talent, above all else, that decides where an employer will base itself and the UK will always remain competitive in this area.”

Key Morgan McKinley UK 2017 Salary Guide highlights:

Accounting & Finance

  • There has been strong demand across the board throughout the year for newly-qualified accountants, and specifically auditors making their first move into industry.
  • A number of the larger banks kept low volumes of hiring, due to critical-hire-only policies, but the small to mid tier institutions have maintained a steady flow.
  • Owing to increasing demand on businesses to comply with changing regulations, candidates with a confident technical understanding of IFRS are becoming increasingly popular. Job seekers with IFRS15 IFRS16 experience can potentially gain a premium over their peers.
  • Our interim and qualified contract divisions received a broad selection of roles, with analytical and commercial finance support roles dominating their mandate in 2016.
  • We saw a 24% increase compared to 2015 in FP&A positions as businesses continue to invest this area, seeking clarity on the long term projections and possible threats in asset management

Compliance

  • Regulatory change has driven a lot of the recruitment that we saw over the year, with MAR in July, many firms invested heavily in bolstering their surveillance teams.
  • Throughout the second half of the year we have seen firms hiring MiFID II specialists with an eye on January 2018, when the legislation comes into play.
  • Salary increases are healthy, but not at the lofty levels that we saw in 2015, where professionals could expect anything upward of 20%.
  • The multitude of regulations impacting compliance teams has seen employers requesting specialist knowledge of these regulations from new hires, we expect this area to continue to grow in 2017.
  • With GDPR coming into effect on the 25th May 2018, we have seen a number of firms within financial services hire in this space. They are predominantly looking at two types of people:
    1. Project managers, who have experience of working on implementing privacy policies
    2. Privacy SMEs, these individuals are mainly coming from a legal background with recent experience in privacy. Due to the competitive nature of this area, employers are considering candidates with privacy experience from different industries.

Risk Management

  • The year saw an increase in hiring in the quantitative risk space, mainly around the model validation and methodology areas.
  • We saw good levels of recruitment in the operational risk space, namely around 2nd line of defence projects.
  • We anticipate that 2017 will largely mirror these trends, with quantitative risk again expected to be the main area of hiring, particularly with incoming regulatory changes.
  • Basel compliance deadlines have been pushed back and are again at risk of falling further behind – nonetheless junior individuals with this knowledge are creating competition between institutions and pushing up salary brackets significantly.
  • From a change perspective, we are seeing a greater requirement for senior business analysts across data-centric projects around FDSF and BCBS239.

Tax

  • On the whole, salaries have remained flat and senior level candidates have had to be particularly flexible – those out of work often having to accept a drop on their previous package – due to lower job flow and increased competition.
  • Generally, candidates will expect to receive a 10% increase upon changing roles. In some instances, however, there have been notable salary hikes driven by niche skill sets and candidate shortages at certain levels of experience.
  • Newly qualified candidates remain simultaneously the most elusive and the most in demand. We have seen the Big 4 hire candidates with profiles they may not have even considered for interview as recently as a few years ago.
  • We have seen multiple examples of large corporations hiring candidates for permanent positions on the (two-year) Tier 5 Visa having exhausted their options (or patience) in searching for a UK trained equivalent. The fact that so many companies are showing willingness to pursue this option demonstrates the shortage of UK trained candidates emerging from training contracts.

Marketing

  • 2016 was a fantastic year of growth and opportunity for marketing professionals across financial services, technology and retail industries.
  • Marketing is becoming a higher-priority on C-suite executives’ growth plans, with team sizes increasing up to 50% and budgets becoming healthier.
  • This stands in stark contrast with previous years and moves away from the trend of cost-cutting and redundancies.

IT

  • Demand for specialist recruiters, within areas such as technology, was noticeably higher as companies looked to grow their IT divisions within projects, development and cyber security.
  • The second half of 2016 saw demand for recruitment specialists within London’s technology sector. With many of the key players in this sector announcing extensive growth plans for 2017, the hiring for technical recruitment specialists started early as companies looked to get ahead of their competitors to grow teams in line with strategic ambitions.

Global Banking & Finance Review

 

Why waste money on news and opinions when you can access them for free?

Take advantage of our newsletter subscription and stay informed on the go!


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Recent Post