Banking, insurance and finance

While this is still a candidate-rich sector, resourcing professionals are putting greater demands on recruiters’ margins and services

Following last autumn’s banking crisis, the banking, finance and insurance sector is finally beginning to recruit again, but with a glut of candidates on the market and margins tightened, resourcing professionals are increasingly demanding more from recruiters.

“I have turned business down where clients have come in with rates that are far too low,” says Uzair Bawany, managing director at Contact Recruitment. “This is what some of our competitors are doing. We have clients negotiating senior finance roles down to 10% of the start salary
[normally 18- 25%]. We’re not prepared to do it for that.”

According to Jo Sellick, managing director of legal and financial staffing firm Sellick Partnership, one of his clients had asked for a percentage of the fee back on work they had carried out in 2008, to secure a new contract.

But Cassie Pluck, head of resourcing at Schroder Investment Management, believes agencies have to be more flexible on fees and those that aren’t are clearly not working in partnership with their clients to support them.

“For many years agencies enjoyed high margins and profited from the success of the financial sector, so unfortunately they now have to berealistic and work with their clients to agree sustainable margins.

As a client we will continue to be loyal to the suppliers who have been more flexible, and once hiring volumes begin to increase it is these suppliers who will be rewarded


“As a client we will continue to be loyal to the suppliers who have been more flexible, and once hiring volumes begin to increase it is these suppliers who will be rewarded.”

That is not to say that the war for talent has ceased in this sector. The recession has increased demand for risk professionals, according to Pluck. “There is a high demand for candidates with risk experience, which is not surprising when you consider how risk averse most companies
have become. Fixed income, private banking and emerging market debt remain profitable and we will continue to look for talent across these sectors.”

Restructuring at UBS has increased demand for change professionals, according to Abigail Horseman, a direct recruiter at the Swiss banking
giant: “We have been recruiting a lot of risk people, product controllers and change people.”

She adds that recruitment has also become more challenging due to new legislation. “We have to advertise in a Jobcentre to ensure there isn’t someone more capable who can do the job, which extends the whole process by months.”

And with so many candidates recruiters still have a role to play, Horseman says: “If we find we can’t get the people or the hiring manager is under a time constraint, it is much quicker for an agency to fill because they have a bunch of people working for them, whereas here it is just three of four of us. We’re trying to cut down on that as much as we can though.”

The changing recruitment landscape has also caused recruiters to add a touch of realism when talking to candidates.

Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley’s financial services business, says: “The key area where recruiters are adding value at the moment is educating both candidates and clients about what is realistic in the current market. We educate candidates about being flexible
with regards to the role, salary and location of their next job to maximise their options. With clients, it is more about helping them realise that while it is a candidate-rich market, it is not necessarily going to be easy to find the perfect candidate, particularly for niche roles.

stakeholder comment

Samantha Rich, head of group resourcing practice, AXA UK
“Good agencies are only sending us the best quality candidates that fit our culture, pre-briefed to understand our business strategy, know our business and who will know how to contribute to AXA’s future. We will not knowingly work with any agency that doesn’t provide all of this.”

 

 

 

 

Mark Sookermany, London sales director, Totaljobs
“It is not evident that there are any green shoots within this sector as yet. The jobs posted are stable but demand for these roles continues to outweigh the supply. This has been particularly noticeable in June, with job searches hitting the 150,000 mark.”

 

 

 

Jo Sellick, managing director, Sellick Partnership
“I think the job numbers have gone as far down as they are going to go. You might still see redundancies at Lloyds Banking Group, however,
because of the merger with HBOS, it will transpire that there will be duplicate roles. In other situations, I think it will be a question of consolidation.”

for more web comments go online
recruiter.co.uk

 


GRAHAM SIMONS
[email protected]

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