State of The (Financial Crime) Nation. What Is Being Recruited and Why?

Ya'll are probably hearing "candidate short market" all the time at the moment from us lovely recruiters. But here is the clanger.....

We aren't in a candidate short market girl, we are in a candidate-driven market.

What's the difference?

Candidate short:(from the Jess Hodson made-up dictionary)

This is when we have no candidates. People aren't looking, or the area lacks literal numbers. An example of this is at the start of COVID all the candidates fastened their seatbelts onto their existing jobs to ride the storm, so we had a candidate shortage.

A candidate short area is places like ABC when the team sizes are so small in firms, that as result there we have fewer specialists in this area.

Candidate driven: (vroom vroom)

This is when the candidates hold the power.

This is most likely the result of a busy recruitment market. People are interviewing or getting approached all the time, so they can influence processes (telling hiring managers to get skates on as they have other offers).

They can also drive up salaries as they are getting counter-offered willy-nilly.

This is happening now - so if you're taking more than a week to book interviews as a hiring manager, you're playing a risky game, my friend.

Processes are taking on average 2.5 weeks, as clients utilize VC interviews to speed up to process. Anything over a month and the good candidate are being snapped up.

So what's happening?

Seems very busy, doesn't it? I am posting jobs like it's my actual job, and working like a little recruitment octopus. But why?

Here is the low-down sisters - why are there so many jobs?

1. Money honey. There is a lot more budget this year because when the world implodes financial services get rich (please think Monty Burns vibes here).
2. FinTech and challenger banks are building their FCC functions due to a BUCKET LOAD of money being invested. I mean, we could say this is out of the goodness of their hearts, but it's because they're looking to scale / IPO (and they're just trying to stay outta FCA trouble...)
3. The C-Suite roundabout has happened. There has a lot of changes at C-Suite in the last 12 months. If you have ever worked anywhere you will know a new boss means they all try and wave their wands around and make lots of improvements.... until the new one comes in.
4. WFH dream is ending... for some. A lot of firms have moved to mandatory days, or scheduled days and some people don't like this. They like it even less if they're based out of London and they have been lied to about what post-covid will look like. So they quit and I try to find people who love free fruit at work.
5. Let's not forget actually regulatory and world changes driving the need (sanctions, if you've been living under a rock).

Where demand will be for the next few months:

1. MLROs - I mentioned last week in a post we will see a lot of movement soon.
2. KYC - you guys are having your moment, and I couldn't be happier. Average salaries have gone up approx. 15%. Loads of remediation going on in the FinTech and challenger space are impacting this, as well as the drive for product specialists (I see you correspondent, Crypto and NBFI specialists...)
3. Sanctions - because the world is on fire.
4. Crypto (policy and advisory) - I got asked the other day by a bank, who shall not be named, for someone with SEVEN YEARS of crypto experience. Do with that what you will.
5. Monitoring and testing - all those policies and teams who went in last year? Well, now they need to test 'em.
6. Consultancy candidates - there are so many new guys and not so new guys building their FCC offerings. They are screaming out for top talent (hopefully at me, so I can place them).

I can't really think how to end this other than say thanks for all of the support in our first month in business. It is a joy to be so busy so early on, and we don't take for granted it's because of the support we get.

Jess x