Regulators will be focusing on supervision in 2009 and will be looking for the financial sector to develop a stronger risk focus. This will result in the need for more compliance and risk staff, risk monitoring and risk training.
A number of approaches will need to be taken in order to stave off regulatory threat, financial crime etc.
Firms are becoming less transactional focused and more relationship focused.
Recruitment Trends for 09
The days of a candidate-led market are gone for now and compliance recruitment is now driven by employers. There has been an increase in candidates in the market and a decrease of available roles, which for candidates has meant that there is tougher competition. However, for employers this has provided them with a larger pool of candidates to pick from.
Due to many of the candidates being immediately available, as a result of redundancies, a lot of candidates have been hired on a temporary basis as an extended interview process.
A trend has already started whereby employers are looking for generalists, ideally with international experience, rather than experts in certain product areas or function specialists. With a massive focus on cost cutting this means that employers are able to get more for their money as well as having employees who are more well rounded.
Employers are now more concerned with how quickly their new hires can add value, their body of experience, their qualifications, their international exposure, their ability to advise on transactional issues and how they have responded to situations in the market in the past.
Firms are looking for employees who will battle the change, who are resilient, adaptable, are able to think on their feet and who can hit the ground running. Employers want to recruit staff that can bring and build confidence within the firm, staff who can contribute positivity to the general outlook of the business and who can pull the business and compliance closer together.
Senior candidates with a mix of Risk and Compliance experience will be in demand next year with firms putting more pressure on the two areas to work together.
It is highly unlikely that there will be any graduate recruitment into compliance next year as employers simply don’t have the time to train individuals up from scratch and need all staff to be able to hit the ground running.
Our contacts tell us that it will be at least 18 months until investment banks hire at the same level as they did in 2007 and 2006. They have been overtaken by brokerages, Investment houses and Liquidity providers, all of whom have not been hit as hard by the dreaded sub-prime and other credit exposure and have been able to adapt to market conditions quicker. These firms, as well as Equity and Commodity houses, are likely to lead the way with regards to recruitment activity.
Last year saw a demand for Compliance Monitoring staff, AML professionals, Control Room and Advisory positions at mid to senior level - this is likely to continue into 2009.
