INTRODUCTION
There is clearly a war for talent in the UK buy-side Technology, Change and Transformation market. There is still a sustained demand for human capital that has continued from the last quarter of 2021. Clients work from home policies are now the norm, as the industry has adjusted to onboarding both permanent and temporary resources fully remote, meaning recruitment is full steam ahead.
Within Change we are seeing many clients doing redesigns of their target operating model, using ex-consultants to design and then the traditional Project/Programme Managers to deliver this to the business. With people working remotely from around the globe, it is imperative asset and wealth managers are aligning their operating capacities and strategic objectives in order to stay relevant in a competitive market.
Several clients are doing transformation across their Distribution business, with expansion into new territories and markets becoming essential in order to grow their AUM. Several of our US clients are embarking on this expansion, meaning the need for Change professionals with experience across distribution change and transformation has become popular. Those who have aided in the launching of new funds and products across Europe or further territories are in high demand.
There remains the constant need for regulatory professionals but the traditional regs have somewhat reduced and ESG has taken over as the dominant force – Taxonomy and SFDR becoming the new buzzwords across the market. There is an increase in candidates wanting to do ESG projects, people wanting to separate themselves in a competitive market due to the longevity it will have in asset management.
Across Technology we have seen strong demand for individuals who have experience in Azure or AWS as technology teams in the buy side move towards cloud based development. The fact that many asset manager’s have been slower to embrace cloud change, has meant an influx in technologists with no financial services experience being bought in, to supplement the demand for cloud skills.
We’ve seen a big shift in clients moving towards bespoke, in-house technology builds and moving away from reliance on third-party vendor tools. Scaling up technology teams with polyglot Software Engineers is off high importance to most firms, as they can create different applications the business can utilise – a cost-effective option. The market for Developers is competitive for clients as there is less talent flowing in from outside of the UK pushing up salaries and day rates.
The technology market is still very candidate driven and we have seen base salaries have increase by over 10% since the start of 2021. Due to this clients are starting to cut down the number of interview stages to ensure they can beat the competition in securing the best talent on the market. The technology at the forefront of most change, it’s imperative that companies streamline their recruitment processes in a competitive market.