Q2 2022 Finance recruitment review for UAE

In this article I will aim to provide an honest insight into what happened in Q2 from a finance recruitment perspective and what I believe may happen in Q3.

To give an overview of what I will cover in this review, you will find:?

1. General overview of Q2 from a finance recruitment perspective
2. Junior level finance roles review in UAE
3. Mid-level finance roles review in UAE
4. Senior level finance roles review in UAE
5. Salaries are increasing across the board and here’s a few reasons why!
6. Skillsets in demand
7. What industries are hiring

General overview of Q2 from a finance recruitment perspective

Q2 was overall a strong quarter in terms of finance recruitment. I base this opinion on the amount of activity we could see on LinkedIn and more so from speaking with a lot of candidates who were in multiple processes when we approached them; while this time last year they may have only had one opportunity on the go.

Given the holy month of Ramadan took place in Q2 (the whole month of April) there definitely was a knock on effect for recruitment in UAE. To give a real life example of this from a recruitment point of view this was the breakdown of the % of revenue Alchemy generated in Q2 :

• April 10%
• May 44%
• June 46%

The below picture is a fair reflection of how I was feeling at the end of April.........

A positive indicator I took from Q2 was the amount of activity in Dubai from a hiring standpoint as it seems that with all the recent inbound traffic of tourism, real estate transactions and easing of entry from a visa standpoint, more businesses have invested in the city which is resulting in more hiring.

With this increased positive outlook I can see more and more companies hiring commercial finance positions from newly qualified level up to senior management which is a good reflection on the outlook for the region; as CEOs & Chairmen are looking at the finance function as a value add as opposed to a cost centre.

Junior level roles review in UAE

The junior end of the market was fairly active in Q2 although I would comment that Q1 was more active at this level and here are some of the reasons why:

1. In the new year, fresh budgets come out and hiring managers (FMs, FCs, FDs) will build or replace their team with fresh new talent so by the time Q2 comes around the team should hopefully be stable and the need to recruit at this level is not as high
2. In general it's a candidate short market by Q2, as the majority of fresh young talent that maybe landed in UAE in January have now secured a role, are trying to settle into that role and they are less inclined to be open to new opportunities in the first 3 months of starting a new role. The knock on effect is there is a smaller candidate pool to approach and the hiring manager who acts quickest will secure the best candidate.

In spite of the above I do anticipate there will be a fair bit of movement at this level in Q3 as there will be a new influx of talent into the region from mid-August/September time as a lot of newly qualified candidates will relocate to UAE. At this level hiring can happen without the involvement of the CEO/Chairman i.e. the hiring manager (FM,FC,FD) can put an offer out to a candidate directly while if it was a business critical hire such as an FD or CFO the candidate would need to meet/speak with all senior stakeholders who for the most part get out of UAE for a holiday in July/August; which means for that level roles get put on hold until September onwards when everyone is back on the ground.

The hot jobs for the quarter from our side with salaries ranging from AED15k to AED20k per month:

• Financial Analyst
• Financial Accountant
• Management Accountant
• Senior Accountant

If you are looking for your next role at this level please connect with my colleagues Kim Azzam and Surabhi Thakwani for a confidential discussion.

Mid-level finance roles in UAE

Another very solid quarter if you are looking for your next role between AED25k - AED45k as there's always movement in this space due a few different reasons:

1. Candidates who took a salary cut on the back of losing their job during the pandemic for example:

• Candidate was on AED35k
• Lost job due to company restructure during pandemic
• Got lowballed with an offer of AED25k for next role which they had little choice but to accept
• Now the market has picked up, they know given their years of experience their market rate is well above AED25k
• Multiple companies approach the candidate for roles ranging between AED30k - AED40k
• Candidate has little or no loyalty to the current employer who took advantage of his/her unfortunate situation so resigns to take a better opportunity
• End result?is the company who initially hired the candidate had a very short term focused vision. As ultimately they will get burnt as the market is very good again and these stories will become more and more prevalent. So my advice to any company who hired someone at below their market rate would be to speak to them and address the salary imbalance as if not I can assure you they'll be interviewing elsewhere

2. Given there are a lot of new companies setting up in UAE they don't always need to have a CFO/FD for where they're currently at so they sometimes will opt for a highly competent “up and coming” candidate to act as a Head of Finance if a start-up.

3. To my earlier my point in the article, CFOs/FDs have now been given more budget to invest in commercial finance roles like FP&A Managers etc. Without a doubt FP&A manager roles have been our most in demand role in Q2 with salaries ranging from AED28k - AED32k dependent on industry and responsibilities.

I think this space will cool off a little in July & August due to people being away but will get motoring again coming into September.

The hot jobs for the quarter from our side with monthly salaries ranging from AED25k to AED45k:

• Finance Manager
• Financial Controller
• Head of Finance
• FP&A Manager

If you are looking for your next role at this level please connect with my colleagues Pooja Bhatt and Weam Kamel for a confidential discussion.

Senior level finance roles in UAE

Senior level end of the market in Q2 was quite stable overall for us with a handful of good roles at FD/CFO level. I think the most frustrating point for candidates at this level is the whole "computer says no" approach when it comes to the hiring criteria for these roles. As companies seem fixated on the point that if the candidate doesn't have direct industry experience then they are not of interest to them. I can say of course there will be some industries where this point of view is fair like Fintech and payments companies but it's definitely not the case across the board.

At this level you are looking for a leader and a great personality that can "steer the ship" but also create a culture where the finance team want to work for him/her; therefore won't be open to new opportunities. Unfortunately sometimes at Alchemy, the team and I feel we are hosting an episode of Oprah Winfrey as the vast majority of candidates who get in touch with us are not happy with how senior management treats or values them within the business.

These invaluable skills for a senior finance professional in this region are not on a cv; they're the soft skills you will only see when you take a chance and interview a candidate that doesn't tick every box from your job mandate.

Please don't forget ANYONE in the world can write or copy a cv it doesn't mean that it's accurate.......

Given these hires are business critical I don't anticipate much action until summer holidays close and schools start which means all the decision makers are most likely back at their desks.

Salaries are increasing and here's a few reason why

Finance professionals across the board in UAE have definitely suffered a bit in the last few years with overall packages being diluted and some hiring companies taking advantage of a job seekers misfortune on the back of company restructures etc.

The good news is the tables seem to be finally turning and power now seems to be more in favor of the candidate!

Here's a few reasons why I anticipate salaries to increase in H2 for finance professionals without stating the obvious cost of living and inflationary increases :

1. The market dynamic has completely changed from 12/18 months ago. Here's an example if I were recruiting a Finance Director position in Dubai this quarter as opposed to this quarter last year.?

• This quarter:
• This year I would submit a shortlist of 4 candidates
• On average 4 of the 4 candidates would be in a role and probably currently earning a salary of AED60k
• The candidates in jobs need to be enticed to move role as all candidates value stability more now than ever
• Hiring company will realistically need to make a good offer of say 70k to attract the right candidate as in general good candidates maybe in multiple processes so a bidding war may happen
• They make offer to candidate and candidate accepts FD role at AED70k
• This quarter last year
• Again I would submit a shortlist of 4 candidates
• On average 3 of the 4 candidates would be immediately available and were probably earning a salary of AED60k before being made redundant on the back of a company restructure
• Hiring company will see the candidate is in a vulnerable situation and make an offer of AED45k to secure the candidate
• Given the market is very slow the said candidate may not have anything else on the go and is left with little option but to accept and treat the business critical role as a "stop gap" role
• As you can see for the exact same FD role there is a AED25k difference in the salary from one year to the next
• Companies were more inclined to hire the immediately available candidates as they can start sooner and naturally the cost to the business wouldn't be as high?

2. One of the biggest shifts I have noticed in Q2 for candidates predominately at junior to mid-level is there are more and more “bidding wars” when it comes to offer stage. The last time I seen this was when I recruiting in London five years ago! On a few occasions we have seen newly qualified candidates looking for a first role in industry as a Senior Accountant. For example they maybe looking for AED18k.

• They get 2 or 3 offers for similar roles in the one week
• All of the hiring companies come back with slightly higher offers to try get it over the line from AED18k to say AED20k/21k
• The candidate now has all the power and they will choose the role which best suits them and their career path
• The offer for that role will have gone up from what they originally budgeted by the hiring company
• Furthermore the companies who missed out on the candidate will then increase their budget for the same role from AED18k to AED20k+

3. Then finally the most painful outcome for recruiters is when candidates get "bought back" from their boss. As when a candidate goes through a recruitment process and receives an offer they then need to resign from their current role by speaking with their boss. In particular, when the offer they have is not that strong their boss will naturally throw money at the problem in an effort to retain the candidate.

When this happens the candidates salary will therefore increase without them necessarily moving to a more senior role within the same business and therefore down the line their salary expectations will most likely increase, for example:

• Candidate was on AED25k and gets offer of AED30k
• Candidates gets bought back for AED30k by current employer with the promise of X,Y & Z will happen in the near future
• Now in the space of a week, the candidates expectations to move again have increased by a min of AED5k from AED30k to AED35k. So if a company really wants to secure this candidate down the line their experience won't have changed a whole pile but their salary expectation will.

Skillsets in demand

I have noticed there are three main skillsets in demand in the market at the moment.

1. Commercial finance/FP&A

• Throughout this article and my previous article I have made clear that commercially savvy candidates are becoming more and more in demand in UAE
• I don't see this changing anytime soon as given the economy performed relatively well CFOs are being given more budget to invest in the forward looking side of the finance department?

2. IPO readiness experience

• If I was a mid to senior level finance professional this would be without a doubt one of the key skillsets or experience I would be trying to get experience in. As this will leapfrog you ahead of your peer group in the coming years as more and more IPOs will happen in the UAE
• Recently we were fortunate enough to make a CFO level placement with a Technology business which needed a candidate who had been through an IPO before and also had UAE experience. This altered our candidate pool from probably 20 candidates to 4 relevant candidates. So if you want to make yourself stand out from the chasing pack then I would strongly advise to try and get some exposure in this area.

3. Set up a finance function from scratch

• UAE is becoming a global start up hotspot with so many businesses setting up in 2022. Naturally in any start-up they will need a finance professional to build the finance function from the ground up.
• In general, it's quite difficult for a finance professional who has spent their whole career working in proper structured environments (Big 4 then onto a global MNC) to have this skillset. So it means a smaller candidate pool to go at when recruiting such positions
• I would advise any junior to mid-level finance professionals who have been hired by a start-up recently to try and get as much hands on exposure with setting up the function as this will make you stand out for a Head of Finance role for a start-up businesses a couple of years down the line

What industries are hiring

To conclude, I have taken the stats from our system of every job we worked (not every job we placed) to give some real data of what industries were hiring the most in Q2. I will also show how this compares to hiring trends from Q1.

Across all of the roles we cover in commerce and industry these were the top 5 hiring industries:

From Q2

1. Consultancy (Top 6 & Boutique Firms) 35%
2. Professional Services 22%
3. Aviation 16%
4. Oil & Gas 12%
5. Fin-tech 8%

From Q1

1. Consultancy (Top 6 & Boutique Firms) 32%
2. E commerce 20%
3. Law firms 12%
4. Construction 12%
5. Fin-tech 10%

Hopefully the above stats give a feel for what is going on in UAE and I look forward to sharing more insight in the coming months.

If there are any other topics you would like me to cover going forward then feel free to comment or reach out directly.

Of course should you want to have a confidential chat about your next role or next hire please do not hesitate to reach out to me on [email protected]