HR Market Update - June 2009
United Kingdom
Interim:
Junior / Mid-level: Still pretty quiet at the moment all round, but we have started to see some of the banks recruiting again, particularly the retail banks. One interesting and continuing trend across all mid-level interim roles that we are noticing is that a couple of our clients have released new roles on an interim rather than a permanent basis. It would seem it is still easier to achieve sign-off for an interim headcount over a permanent one in some cases. Clients' requirements seem to have become more stringent, however, and they will not invite candidates to interview unless they match each of the criteria needed for the role. We have also seen an increase in the number of interviews required for each role. One of the positives to take out of this month is that we are not seeing roles being cancelled or put on hold. The interview process is taking longer, but at the end of this there is a hire being made.
Senior Interim: A tough month. There are still lots of candidates on the market and still quite a few permanent candidates wanting to break into the interim market as they are immediately available often just having been made redundant - career interims are also finding the market really tough as well as it is extremely competitive. Clients seem to be talking a lot about things picking up in September.
Permanent:
Junior: May saw a continued improvement in the volume of jobs at the junior to mid-level. The American investment banks have slowly started to pick things up with roles coming in across all HR disciplines although these are by no means the levels we were seeing two years ago. The UK banks (retail and investment) have also shown signs of recovery with a small number of roles coming in across generalist, graduate recruitment and learning & development. Other than one or two firms, the legal sector has continued to suffer with roles still going on hold or being pulled. One or two of the large accountancy and consultancy firms have shown signs of recovery, but by and large, professional services firms are still struggling. Of the roles that have come in, there have been an unusually high number of learning & development/talent roles at both the junior and mid-level.
Mid-level: There continues to be a big focus on learning and development within the investment banking industry and financial services. These roles seem to be focused on talent, change or more technical aspects and clients are being very specific about the experience and background they require from the candidate. We expect the next quarter to continue to be busy with a steady number of roles coming through and the likelihood of more permanent candidates starting to put feelers out.
Senior: It is still very quiet at the senior end and the few roles that we are working on are moving incredibly slowly. For those candidates that are immediately available, there is a real sense of frustration with many of them talking about roles being pulled or moving painstakingly slowly.
Reward:
Junior: Good steady level of roles at this level, jobs have come in within all sectors, including FS, but with no particular trend at this stage. Both interim and permanent instructions, but again, no particular sway towards one or another, apart from perhaps a slight increase in permanent compared to the last 3 months.
Mid-level: Fairly busy at this level, particularly towards the bottom and middle of the band (£45,000 to £55,000). It mirrors the junior end of the market, with a focus on niche areas of Reward, such as tax efficient reward planning. Not a huge pick-up, but steady.
Senior: Quiet on the job front, but no particular drop off recently. No particular trend on sectors. Steady, low volume of roles. Lots of senior level talent available on the market so there is a mis-match vs. the number of available roles.
Thames Valley:
Slightly better than April, however, we saw a number of roles expected to close in April move into May. The market remains OK - continually steady at the junior end but with absolutely no volume, the senior market is considerably slower despite a few movements toward the back end of May. Candidates are still flexible with regards to salary levels as well as interim or permanent roles as an option.
Continental Europe
Central Western Europe
(i.e. Germany, Switzerland, Benelux, France)
We are still finding the market varied in this region with recruitment levels in Switzerland and Germany still high compared with others. The sectors are varied, although the pharmaceutical industry remains strong. All vacancies we are currently recruiting for are permanent positions and we have seen very few interim/contract roles in the last 6 months on the continent. Additionally, the demand for generalist roles is still strong at all levels from Global HR Director through to Regional HR Manager positions, with few specialist roles.
Southern Europe
(i.e. Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal)
Recruitment levels for HR professionals remain very low in this region as unemployment rates reached record highs.
Eastern Europe
(i.e. Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Russia)
The picture is extremely diverse. The overall number of recruitment projects decreased over the last month, with most dynamics on the very senior and very junior end of the market. Countries which were least affected by the current economic crisis (i.e. Poland, Czech Republic) are doing relatively well. In particular Poland, with its smaller dependency on export and large internal consumption, seems to be the least affected country in the region.
The pharmaceutical and FMCG sectors are particularly active in acquiring new talent. The demand in the automotive and financial sector remains at the lowest level.
A number of companies which decided to freeze their recruitment (especially those with foreign ownership) did so because of the volatile situation on western markets, rather than financial results of their branches in CEE.
The overall demand for high potential compensation & benefits specialists with local language backgrounds is high throughout the whole region.