Better jobs market signals improving climate in financial services sector

The market has firmed up recently, certainly since the middle of last year. We are seeing more movement amongst projects and initiatives that were put on the back-burner at the height of the crisis but are now beginning to take shape again. Broadly speaking, that’s creating hiring needs.

One influence has come from the increased regulation for institutions operating here in Luxembourg. A lot of firms have had these pressures for some time, but from what we’re seeing, it’s only now that many of them are hiring.

The financial services companies that look after accounting, the funds and corporate level activities are all hiring at the moment. There’s a big demand for operations level sta! for example, one of our clients told us they’ll be looking for around 40 sta! in the next 12 months and that’s a firm that as we understand didn’t hire at all during 2009 - they were over-resourced but now they’re anticipating further demand.

Are the kind of positions that are available typical back o!ce functions or are there a di"erent variety of jobs?

In general, they’re accounting and financial reporting jobs. There’s a big trend towards hiring sta! with specific international reporting experience. This is occurring in all European countries because investors require their financial reporting to be prepared to international reporting standards.

On a macroeconomic level in Luxembourg there are still many challenges ahead. There’s still a budget deficit and we’re still in an austerity phase, but the financial services sector and companies that service the investment companies in Luxembourg are returning to health.

One of the indicators is that we’re seeing a sellers market. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen a number of candidates no longer looking for work - they’ve signed contracts. So it’s not just Greenfield that is feeling the upturn and that follows a period when really great candidates were on the market for months, maybe up to six months whereas in 2006/07/08, there’s no doubt that they would have been hired very quickly.

All that stopped in late 2008 but it’s beginning again and we have to be really conscious of the fact that good candidates are not on the market for very long at all. The message I would send out is that employers need to consider that everybody else is keen to secure higher volumes of high calibre people so act while the moment is opportune, if you need to hire.

What would your advice to be anyone working in the financial services sector in Luxembourg, is it a good time to consider changing jobs or should they make the most of where they are?

Broadly speaking my mantra is always to look for opportunities internally, because if other firms are growing and they’re business is looking healthy, then it’s probably likely there will be more opportunities internally than in the past when business was static, or in fact declining.

Is it a good time to be looking for a new opportunity now, more than in the past two and half years?

I’d say yes, now is the time to start looking. There are definitely opportunities out there, employers are not just refilling existing jobs, but there’s also job creation. In terms of our outlook for the next year, we’re very optimistic - 2010 finished very strongly and 2011 has opened up very strongly too.

What advice would you have for senior management or people in HR for the coming year?

From an employer’s point of view, I think it’s a simple rule of supply and demand, if there is a collective increase in demand for talent because of an increase in business, it will put pressure on the existing employers of those employees who may be tempted to look elsewhere. Now that the market is picking up those individuals who were dissatisfied with their lot, who were under-resourced and overworked, who didn’t get bonuses, who didn’t get salary increases and were due a promotion but weren’t o!ered a promotion because it would involve a pay increase - those people are definitely going to be looking elsewhere.

I think it’s the right time to ensure firms are taking stock of their talent and ensure their own sta! are not just viewed as an infinite resource. If you’re business is increasing and you’re seeing an upturn in demand, even if it comes in waves, then your competitors are probably experiencing a similar upturn as well and everyone will be fighting - as they were in 2006/07/08 - for the best talent. If you’ve got them don’t lose them.

By Conor Sweeney

Download the full article published in "Finance Nation March/April 2011" here.