Market Overview
Q1 of 2022 has started where 2021 left off, as we continued to see large volumes of Temporary roles released across the Financial Services industry.
Although we saw consistent activity, we did notice that whilst our Buy-Side clients were largely releasing roles as Fixed-Term Contracts. Whereas, in contrast, our Investment Banking and Insurance clients generally opted to hire Day-Rate contractors.
Whilst talking to candidates throughout the quarter, we are beginning to hear increased appetite to return to the office even in a hybrid way of working. This is very much in conjunction with what we are seeing with our clients, as many are now looking to get employees back in the office at least 3 days a week. Some of our clients are now gearing towards 5 days a week in the office, however, those that are doing this may see a reduction in the candidate pool.
During Q1, year-end processes are often prioritised over recruitment, however, in terms of the recruitment processes, we witnessed that the clients who were proactive and moved candidates quickly through interviews were less likely to be let down with rejected offers. The main reason for this was that it is still very much a candidate-led market, with candidates in multiple processes at any one time.
As is usually the case, Newly Qualified candidates were in high demand across our client base. Whilst for the past 2 years throughout the pandemic the candidate pool for these was significantly reduced. We finally saw renewed appetite from the overseas candidates on Tier 5 Visa’s stating their intention to come to the UK throughout Q1. These candidates have always been extremely in demand, and this has proved to be the case with many securing a role prior to arriving in the UK.
Job Profiles
In the contract market, we saw significantly strong levels of recruitment from our Sell-Side clients, this was particularly evident for control roles. Following on from Q4 last year, Internal Audit roles continued to be prevalent across front office and corporate functions. These requirements were largely focused towards senior candidates, paying a day rate between £550 to £800 (Umbrella). We also saw the continued trend of our Investment Banking clients looking to hire Product Controllers, these were across a range of asset classes. These were generally released at £450 to £550 per day PAYE for the Mid-Senior level and £350 to £400 per day PAYE at the more Junior level.
Continuing with Investment Banking, we saw a large amount of movement in the Regulatory Reporting space, our clients in this space were looking for a range of experience across Capital, Bank of England and Liquidity Reporting. A trend we did notice, is the increase in Regulatory Reporting positions that were within larger projects and for these our clients sought candidates that could demonstrate a track record of improving and automating processes using their technical skills as well as previous Business Analysis experience in similar functions.
Following on from this, we also saw a large volume of project roles released from our Insurance clients. They were large transformations happening, particularly to do with IFRS17, where they were looking for experienced technical candidates. Clients who were seeking Senior Accountants, were offering these candidates £450 – £600 per day (Umbrella), whereas for Policy Accountants or Transformation Accountants, they were willing to offer up to £800 per day. There was also appetite from our Asset Management clients looking for candidates with strong finance transformation experience.
Across our Asset Management clients, the demand has also remained high. In particular, Financial Accounting roles continued to be released, typically as FTC’s between £55,000 – £65,000, with Newly Qualified candidates sought after for these. However, with their continuing to be a reduced candidates pool, our clients were open to seeing candidates from a more diverse industry background.
Within Asset Management, our clients have looked for prior experience within particular fund structures when releasing Fund Accounting roles, for example Real Estate, OIECS, Unit Trust, Private Equity and Debt funds. These were released as both FTC’s and day rate contracts, £55,000 – £70,000 for Fixed-Term or £350 – £400 per day PAYE. As we moved through Q1, as is often the case, we saw increased hiring within the FP&A and Finance Business Partner space. With clients looking for candidates who have experience dealing with senior stakeholders and technical financial analysis so they can come in and ‘add value’ from the get go.
Predictions
With the bonus season and year end reporting period coming to an end, we do expect to see a similar trend of growth to continue in Q2. This is as a result of the movement from candidates looking for promotions, new challenges or feelings of discontent following receiving their bonuses. Naturally, due to this we expect there will continue to be high demand for contractors.
During the second quarter, firms will be receiving sign off for hiring that is part of their 2022 budgets and with permanent roles taking longer to fill than usual, we expect an influx of roles on the contract side as firms look to day rate contractors to fill the gap.
As discussed in the market overview, we have already had conversations with candidates from overseas looking to come over to London during Q2 and we are highly optimistic that this will continue to be the case.
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