Market Wrap (August 2024)

So, How’s the Market?

There’s no denying the market feels a bit different this year. Activity is certainly down compared to last year. However, there is plenty still happening—it's just about where you look. It's fascinating to see how different industries, even different recruiters, are experiencing the market and where they are focusing their efforts.

A client shared with me yesterday that another recruiter’s perspective was heavily focused on the demand for ‘technical’ candidates. They mentioned that their clients were primarily interested in hiring first-movers from chartered, aiming to hire experience in risk, governance, and compliance. The idea being that businesses are risk-averse (I don’t disagree) and looking to secure staff with these skill sets as a direct result.

That hasn’t been my experience, though perhaps it's a byproduct of some of what I’m seeing.? I haven’t experienced any significant increase in demand for strong technical candidates or first-movers beyond normal.? When I hear companies are suddenly targeting candidates from chartered, where they haven’t historically, my initial thought is they're aiming to reduce costs by hiring from a lower-paid pool.?Now, that is something I’m seeing across the board.? It’s a realignment that was expected and overdue post covid, but salaries are definitely coming down.? This presents hiring challenges, particularly due to the lag between current salary budgets and candidate expectations, which will always follow, begrudgingly, at a slower pace.?

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Where do I see the demand in accounting and finance?

From my perspective, the skills in demand aren’t largely on the traditional technical side, but rather in the FP&A space, particularly across data, change and transformation. You don’t need a greenlit, multimillion-dollar project to make a significant impact. I’m seeing a real demand for individuals who have thrived in dynamic, challenging environments where they’ve had to develop creative and cost-effective solutions to process challenges.? Almost every brief I’ve worked on recently has been from a business that understands the current market dynamics and is looking to hire people with transformation and process improvement skills who can create value within the existing environment. I’ve particularly encountered this trend across senior leadership and middle management.

The business intelligence wave has also hit the SME space, with a renewed appetite for better data management and analysis.? More importantly and more impactfully, I’m seeing more clients in this space embrace the decision to invest in the tools and the people to bring these enhancements to the table.? I’ve experienced a real resurgence in the demand for BI candidates equipped with Tableau, PowerBI, Alteryx, OBI etc at the smaller end of town, something the top end was very hot on coming out of Covid.

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What’s happening with salaries?

As alluded to, salaries are coming down but at different speeds in different segments of the market.? With the executive market somewhat muted comparative to last year, there seems to be a lot of flexibility in candidates targeting north of $250K.? With relative buoyancy in the $100-$200K space, salary expectations have calmed, but remain competitive. What you’re no longer seeing is extortionate demands in pay rises for changing roles, or remaining, but you do need to still pay ‘market’ to secure the best talent (not below).

And what’s happening with the flexible workplace? ?

Well folks, I keep hearing of this push back to the office full-time without seeing it succeed anywhere. I think we all called in a couple of years ago, but with such a monumental shift in workplace flexibility, there would largely be no going back. I can count on one hand the number of roles I’ve worked on this year requiring staff to be in the office five days per week, and I can give you a real-time example of the result. Only on Monday, I picked up a role with the expectation of being in the office five days per week. The permanent role was vacated by the very decision of the business to return full-time and has sat vacant since April, with three successive temps in that time. I appreciate that this will not be everyone’s experience, but I feel it’s closer to the rule than the exception. I would liken looking for someone five days a week in the office to looking for a contractor; you’ve immediately ruled out most of the market before the search commences. Is that search going to deliver the best result?

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With all of this in mind, I’m excited to showcase some of the talent currently available, especially in the leadership space. These individuals bring a wealth of experience in driving change and financial transformation.? Whether you're looking to strengthen your leadership team or prepare for future challenges, we have candidates who can make an immediate impact.? I invite you to explore these profiles, and if any resonate with your current needs—or if you’d like to discuss other potential candidates—please don’t hesitate to connect.

We’re here to help you find the right people to navigate today’s market challenges and seize tomorrow’s opportunities, perfecting your people formula.

#Recruitment #Business #Leadership #Marketing #Management #Accounting #Finance #Staffing #Salary #Wages #WLB #WorkLifeBalance #Flexibility

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