The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is opening up cybersecurity careers in finance

The EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is set to bring about important regulatory changes in our banking and financial sectors. What is DORA, what will be its impact on operations, and how will it influence cybersecurity roles in the years to come?

What is the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA)?

Why the focus on resilience? Because financial institutions today rely heavily on digital systems to conduct their day-to-day operations. While this digitalisation of services is convenient, improved customer experience should not come at the expense of resilience – by which we mean digital security and safety as well as the continuity and robustness of digital services. Because of the potential impact on individual firms, not to mention the stability of the entire financial system, the need to mitigate such risks is urgent.

Before DORA, financial institutions predominantly addressed operational risk by shoring up capital. DORA will require financial institutions to broaden their approach, mandating adherence to regulations governing protection, detection, containment, recovery, and restoration capabilities in the face of breaches, failures, or other disruptions.

DORA guidelines cover the management, incident reporting, operational resilience assessment, and monitoring of ICT third-party risks. Firms will have to record all ICT incidents and significant cyber threats, improving awareness of incidents within individual firms and among regulatory authorities. Irish financial institutions must adopt the new guidelines before 17th January 2025 or face potential penalties, set by the Central Bank of Ireland, amounting to 2% of the annual worldwide turnover of the organisation.

Change is everywhere, all at once

DORA isn’t the only new or developing regulation facing the sectors. We also have the Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) Regulations (aiming to make the crypto industry in the Eurozone a transparent and secure environment for investors) and the Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) (strengthening the financial system’s ability to navigate climate change risks and support the transition to a climate-neutral economy). In addition, reviews or changes are coming to the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the Consumer Protection Code, and Individual Accountability Framework – some of which we will come back to in future blogs.

There’s no denying that change is a constant in the banking and financial sectors. However, rather than being a burden, the changes that DORA will usher in represent a valuable opportunity for forward-thinking organisations. By definition, that means they are also an opportunity for motivated professionals looking to position themselves in still underserved niches and carve out highly successful careers for themselves.

It's clear that DORA will have a significant impact on the job landscape within the banking and finance sectors. A significant portion of jobs within financial institutions will be affected in some way by DORA. Roles directly related to technology, cybersecurity, risk management, and compliance are likely to see the most pronounced changes, as these areas are directly addressed by DORA regulations.

While some jobs may evolve or expand to meet the new requirements, others might become redundant or undergo restructuring as firms adapt to the changing regulatory landscape. There will likely be job growth in areas such as cybersecurity consulting, compliance advisory services, and technology solution providers catering to the needs of financial firms transitioning to comply with DORA.

Cybersecurity jobs are booming

As we all grapple with the reality of increasing threats and expanding regulations, the demand for cybersecurity professionals is huge. In fact, 67% of organisations worldwide report a staff shortage in this area. According to ISC2, approximately 4 million extra cybersecurity workers are needed to meet the global needs of employers right now.

The cybersecurity talent shortage means significant opportunities for career growth, advancement, and recognition for cybersecurity professionals and a rewarding and fulfilling career path in a rapidly evolving and vital field. We are anticipating that DORA will mean:

• More roles: expect a plethora of job opportunities across various sectors and organisations seeking cybersecurity expertise to bolster their security posture and compliance efforts.
• Great compensation: skilled professionals may command higher salaries and better compensation packages as organisations compete to attract and retain top talent.
• Career advancement: there will be ample opportunities for career advancement, including promotions, leadership roles, and specialised positions in niche areas of cybersecurity.
• Diverse opportunities: a wide range of work environments - including corporate enterprises, government agencies, consulting firms, and cybersecurity startups - means diverse career experiences and challenges.
• Continued development: continuous learning and development opportunities will be needed to stay abreast of the latest trends, threats, tools, and best practices in the field.
• Professional recognition: critical for organisational success and resilience, cybersecurity expertise and leadership will mean enhanced professional reputation and respect.

Landing the perfect DORA-related cybersecurity role

Attracting and retaining top cybersecurity talent is going to be an ongoing priority for banking and financial organisations across Europe. Professionals interested in growing in this area will need a deep understanding of the relevant regulatory requirements as well as the skills to implement appropriate frameworks and methodologies. To really shine as a candidate, there are two key areas you can focus on beyond this.

Enhancing expertise through continuous learning

The first priority should be to demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and professional development. This could include obtaining relevant industry certifications such as Dora Certified Compliance Specialist (DCCS), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), or Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH).

Additionally, consider attending industry conferences, workshops, and seminars to keep up with the latest insights, best practice, and of course benefit from the networking opportunities. You can also participate in training programmes and workshops to acquire new skills and knowledge in more specific or niche areas of cybersecurity.

Developing cross-disciplinary skills and knowledge

The second area to look at is collaboration. Successful DORA compliance will depend on the ability of cybersecurity teams, IT departments, and business units to work well together. Cybersecurity professionals with cross-disciplinary skills, including strong communication abilities, project management experience, and a thorough understanding of business processes and risk management principles, will be very attractive to employers.

Critically evaluate and improve the skills that will help you demonstrate your ability to align cybersecurity strategies with the broader objectives and risk tolerance of the organisation. Familiarise yourself with the key business processes within financial services firms and develop a comprehensive understanding of risk management frameworks, such as COSO or ISO 31000.

Join a 5.5 million-strong global cybersecurity workforce

The cybersecurity workforce and gap have both grown. Europe’s cybersecurity workforce stands at around 1.3 million, a 7% increase on the past year (and a 10% increase in Ireland). Despite an uncertain economy and the most challenging threat landscape to date, overall job satisfaction levels among cybersecurity professionals remains high. Cybersecurity roles in finance offer promising opportunities for professionals with expertise in safeguarding digital assets.

Showcasing a proactive approach to CPD as well as cross-disciplinary skills will enhance your qualifications and expertise and help you to position yourself as a valuable asset to financial services firms seeking to achieve compliance with DORA and strengthen their operational resilience in the face of cyber threats.

Fast-track your career path with our tailored LinkedIn strategy

When it comes to job hunting, LinkedIn is not merely a professional networking platform. With over 1 billion (yes, billion!) users worldwide, LinkedIn is to careers as sunlight is to plants. For individuals poised to take their next step up the ladder, understanding how to harness LinkedIn's potential is a must. Let’s explore the art and science of leveraging LinkedIn to land your next job effortlessly.

Crafting a compelling LinkedIn profile

The art of the first impression

Your LinkedIn profile is the digital equivalent of a first handshake – it needs to be firm, confident, and memorable. To achieve this, every element of your profile must be carefully crafted:

• Your profile picture: Choose a high-resolution image that communicates approachability and professionalism. Your face should take up approximately 60% of the frame, while a subdued background ensures the focus remains on you. Make sure there are no other people or pets in the frame. Another good tip is to dress for the job you want, which you can back up with an industry-related cover photo.
• Your headline: Your headline is shown just below your name on your profile, and it is visible when your updates appear in other people’s feeds as well. Instead of merely listing your current position, think of your headline like a value proposition. Use it to encapsulate your expertise, the results you achieve, and your career aspirations in 120 characters. Be descriptive yet concise, using keywords relevant to your industry to improve visibility.
• Your summary: Just above your employment history is your ‘About’ section. This is a great place to put your Executive Summary. Narrate your professional journey, achievements, and the unique blend of skills you bring to the table. Incorporate vibrant, illustrative language to vividly depict your career goals and transform your summary into a narrative that is both enlightening and captivating, forging a connection with your audience. You can use up to 2,600 characters in this section, and using keywords will again help your profile get found by recruiters/hiring teams.

Demonstrate your expertise through experience and skills

• Experience section: Detail your past roles and employers, focusing on achievements and outcomes rather than merely responsibilities. Use actionable verbs and quantify your accomplishments to provide a clear picture of your impact in each role.
• Skills & endorsements: Curate a list of skills that showcase the competencies pertinent to your career goals. You can list a wide range of skills and connect each one to a particular role, or roles, you have had. Connections can endorse your different skills, enhancing your credibility through third-party validation.
• Recommendations from colleagues and managers: You can also feature personal recommendations on your profile. These serve as a tangible confirmation of your professional capabilities, character, and achievements from those who have witnessed your work ethic and contributions first-hand. When you ask for these, prioritise colleagues, supervisors, or mentors who can provide specific examples of your contributions and impact.

When requesting a recommendation, reach out with a tailored message expressing how the endorsement would be valuable to you, and offer guidance on what aspects of your professional relationship you'd like the person to highlight to ensure the recommendation is relevant and impactful. Afterwards, follow up with a sincere thank you, regardless of their response, and reciprocate by offering to provide a recommendation in return.

Build and nurture your LinkedIn network

The strategy of connection

On LinkedIn, the depth and breadth of your network can significantly sway your career opportunities. However, building a network is not simply about amassing a huge number of connections. It’s better to focus on meaningful relationships.

• Connecting with people: Look for individuals who are not just in your field but also those who inspire you or where there is a mutual benefit in connecting. When you send connection requests, you can personalise your message to establish a genuine rapport. Whatever you do, don’t connect with people and then immediately ask them for something; build the relationship first.
• Engaging with connections: Regularly check in on your timeline to engage with your network's content through likes, comments, and shares. This not only keeps you visible but also demonstrates your interest and investment in your connections' professional lives.

Thought leadership on LinkedIn

Position yourself as an industry thought leader by sharing insights, writing articles, and contributing to discussions. This will amplify your visibility but also showcases your expertise, making you a magnet for opportunities. All content on LinkedIn is searchable, so when you contribute on popular topics, you increase the chances that people will find you through search even where you have no connections in common.

Video and text-only posts get the highest engagement on LinkedIn. But you can also upload photos, create carousels (images or documents like PDT and PPT), announce career milestones, ask questions, and share links to media articles. For those truly dedicated to building their personal brand, LinkedIn’s newsletter feature could be worth a try as well.

As with any content strategy, the key to success in this area is consistency. Decide what is a reasonable level of activity given your existing commitments, and then stick to it to achieve results.

Engage in relevant groups

Depending on your sector, LinkedIn groups can offer a lot of opportunities for networking, learning, and sharing industry insights. Search for groups that align with your professional interests, industry, or career aspirations (alumni networks, industry-specific forums, or groups centred around particular skills or professional development topics).

Having joined, active participation is crucial to truly benefit from what these communities have to offer. Engage in discussions by sharing your insights, asking questions, and providing constructive feedback. Regularly contributing valuable content and perspectives can establish you as a thought leader within the group.

Groups are not just platforms for discussion but also for networking. Engage with other members' posts, reach out with personalised connection requests, and take the conversation beyond the group when relevant. This proactive approach can significantly broaden your professional network and open up new avenues for career opportunities.

Use LinkedIn features for job hunting

Job alerts and the jobs section

LinkedIn's Jobs section is a treasure trove of opportunities. Set up job alerts based on your preferred criteria to ensure you never miss out on relevant openings. Tailor your job search with filters such as location, industry, and level of experience to find matches that resonate with your career aspirations.

LinkedIn Learning

Invest in your professional development with LinkedIn Learning. It has an impressive range of courses designed to enhance your skills – making you more marketable as well as demonstrating your commitment to continuous learning to prospective employers. If you’re not sure which skills to work on, they have various ways to search through the content to narrow down the most relevant courses (by role, by skills, by topic) and there are certifications for some courses.

LinkedIn Premium

If you're in active job search mode, consider upgrading to LinkedIn Premium. Features like InMail messages to recruiters, resumé insights, access to detailed information on job postings, and interview preparation tools can give you a competitive edge. LinkedIn claims that Premium members are 2.6x more likely to get hired on average.

Pricing for Premium, which also gives you access to Learning, is currently €40.65 /month after a 1-month free trial.

The career journey ahead

Using LinkedIn for your career advancement is not a one-time endeavour but an ongoing process. Be prepared to learn how the platform works (including how to leverage the algorithm for maximum engagement) and put effort into networking (just like you would do in person). LinkedIn has become an integral part of the professional journey. Participate authentically, be strategic in your actions, and remain patient and persistent. The connections you make, the knowledge you share, and the visibility you create for yourself on LinkedIn could make all the difference.

Are you looking for a new challenge? Engaging with a recruiter who specialises in your industry can save you a lot of time and make you more targeted in your applications. If you’re looking to change jobs, take a look at our open roles and get in touch with us for a completely confidential discussion.

Strategic reskilling spurs peak competitiveness, breakthrough innovation, and soaring productivity

In 2020, the World Economic Forum warned us that 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. The imperative for businesses, especially within the context of Ireland's evolving economic landscape, is to develop a comprehensive strategy that addresses the need for reskilling, ensuring their workforce are both competent and future-proof.

Bonus content: The WEF’s 2023 jobs report detailed the potential scale of occupational disruption and growth alongside strategies for empowering job transitions from declining to emerging roles. We give a summary of these insights below.

Upskilling or reskilling?

What we’re talking about in this blog is the need to reskill large portions of the workforce, which is not the same thing as upskilling (something we should all do, all the time).

• Upskilling is about complementing someone’s existing skill set – developing a skill that is immediately adjacent to one they already have or deepening a skill they already have.
• Reskilling is developing a whole new skillset – which might not be for the role the employee is in currently but for the role they will have in the future (for example, new software, leadership, other languages, etc.).

Understanding the reskilling imperative

The need for reskilling underscores a broader transformation in the global economy. Technological innovations such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and automation are reshaping entire industries, creating new roles while rendering others obsolete. For Irish businesses, this transformation presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is the magnitude of the task – equipping half of the workforce with new skills within a relatively short timeframe requires serious commitment and resources. The opportunity, however, lies in the vast potential to enhance competitiveness, innovation, and productivity.

Six actionable reskilling strategies for Irish businesses

To navigate this transformative period, a strategic framework centred on foresight, flexibility, and collaboration is essential. Here's how you can approach the reskilling imperative:

1. Identify future skills needs

This issue requires companies to be proactive. Start with a deep dive into the prevailing and emerging trends within your industry and markets (your Learning and Development Department is the ideal team to lead this project). The review encompasses technological advancements, regulatory changes, competitive dynamics, and evolving consumer preferences. Analyse the internal and external factors that will shape your business landscape in the future – at a macro and micro level.

Even though we’re talking about future needs and future training, knowing you are invested in this kind of framework will be very appealing to the candidates you meet with right now. More and more they want to know what their progression will look like at your company. Candidates want a sense of what they’ll do today, but they place just as much importance on what they’ll be doing next year and the year after.

2. Conduct a skills gap analysis

Evaluate the current skill sets of your workforce. This examination should go beyond a simple inventory of skills and qualifications and report on the depth of expertise, adaptability, and potential of the workforce to innovate and drive growth. This will involve asking critical questions about the readiness of your teams to embrace new technologies, adapt to new business models, and meet the changing demands of the market. To dig deeper into this area, read our recent blog about hiring strategies based on transferrable skills and aptitudes.

3. Map your skills needs

With a clear understanding of where the industry is headed and a realistic assessment of your workforce's current competencies, the gap becomes apparent. Remember, this gap is not a shortfall but an opportunity; targeted actions can transform potential vulnerabilities into strengths.

Map your current skill sets against those anticipated to be in demand in the future. There are plenty of digital tools and platforms that offer analytics on skill gaps within your organisation, and these are a good way to provide a data-driven foundation for your reskilling strategy. This forward-thinking approach ensures that your organisation isn’t merely reacting to industry shifts but actively shaping its future.

4. Develop a plan for reskilling

Put together your reskilling plan, making sure to allocate budget and resources and set timelines. Explore partnerships and funding opportunities available through government initiatives and industry consortia aimed at workforce development. It may be worth engaging with industry bodies to participate in sector-wide reskilling programmes. Assign a team or individual to focus on understanding and leveraging these external resources to maximise their benefit for your reskilling efforts.

5. Get buy-in across the organisation

It’s vital to engage employees at every level in the organisation, so you have buy-in from them and can make continuous learning part of your work culture. Rather than making employees feel that this is just another responsibility foisted upon them, the key is to make them feel valued and part of the solution.

Having brought everyone along with you, you can create customised learning pathways for different roles within your organisation – certifications, workshops, courses, mentoring, etc. as relevant. Give employees the time and resources to engage in these learning activities and integrate reskilling into personal development plans and performance reviews.

6. Implement a pilot reskilling programme

In some organisations, it will make sense to implement a pilot with a select group of employees before rolling out a full-scale reskilling programme. This is ideally done with a department or team where the skill gaps are most pronounced, allowing you to apply the proposed approach in full. Ensure there is a mechanism in place for monitoring progress and gathering feedback from participants to refine and improve the process. A pilot programme can also be used as a case study if getting the green light from top decision-makers or stakeholders is proving difficult.

Collaboration: building partnerships for reskilling

Reskilling the workforce is our collective responsibility, and partnerships between businesses, educational institutions, and government bodies are crucial. These partnerships can take various forms, from apprenticeship schemes to joint research initiatives and shared training programmes. By pooling resources and expertise, stakeholders can create more comprehensive and effective reskilling initiatives.

Looking to those who have navigated similar transformations can provide valuable lessons. For instance, leading Irish tech companies have already begun partnering with universities to offer digital skills bootcamps. These intensive courses are designed to quickly upskill individuals in areas such as coding, data analytics, and cybersecurity – aligning workforce skills with industry needs.

Reskilling adds multidimensional value

Embedding reskilling into your organisational culture will bring value in a variety of ways. Businesses can foster a continuous learning environment by recognising and celebrating achievements in reskilling, encouraging knowledge sharing among employees, and making learning resources readily accessible to all staff.

When you establish learning as a core business value, reflected in everything from recruitment to employee recognition programmes, you benefit through:

• Increased engagement from employees
• Better productivity and performance across the organisation
• An adaptable, flexible, and agile workforce
• An attractive employer brand and improved retention rates

Where we see a lack of progress in reskilling, there are typically issues relating to:

• Cost (retraining will require significant budget)
• Resistance to change from employees (because they have not been brought into the process from the start)
• Lack of planning (organisations setting up schemes without any analysis or preparation)
• Too much focus on the immediate needs of the business (we should be looking at what skills will be needed in 12, 24, or 36 months)

Final thoughts on reskilling

Reskilling is a journey that requires commitment, resources, and a strategic approach. By following these practical steps, Irish businesses can lead their organisations toward a future where their workforce is not just prepared but thriving in the face of change. The time to act is now, with the future of the Irish economy depending on our collective ability to adapt, innovate, and thrive in the face of change.

The WEF’s Future of Jobs Report 2023 reveals important insights into the rapidly evolving global labour market. Here's a succinct summary of its pivotal findings:

1. Global labour market divergence: High-income countries are experiencing tight labour markets, in stark contrast to low- and lower-middle-income countries, where unemployment levels remain above pre-pandemic rates. This divergence extends to individual outcomes, with women and the less educated facing lower employment rates.
2. Wage trends and worker concerns: Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, real wages are on the decline. Moreover, changing worker expectations and concerns regarding work quality are gaining prominence worldwide.
3. Technology as a transformation driver: Technology adoption will play a significant role in business transformation over the next five years. Over 85% of surveyed organisations cite new and frontier technologies as key drivers. This is alongside the broader application of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards.
4. Technology adoption trends: Big data, cloud computing, and AI are among the top technologies companies plan to adopt, reflecting the impact of digitalisation on commerce and trade. These technologies are expected to be net job creators over the next five years.
5. Macroeconomic and technological impacts: Investments in green transition, ESG standards, and localised supply chains should create jobs, albeit with displacement in some sectors. Technology advancement is also seen as a double-edged sword, driving job growth in more than half of the companies surveyed while leading to displacement in others.
6. Structural labour market changes: An anticipated structural labour market churn of 23% over the next five years highlights the dynamic nature of job creation and elimination (again, driven by technology, digitalisation, and sustainability).
7. Skills disruption and training needs: With 44% of workers' skills expected to be disrupted, there's a pressing need for upskilling, particularly in analytical thinking, creative thinking, and technology literacy. However, access to adequate training remains a challenge for half of the workforce.
8. Corporate upskilling strategies: Despite recognising the increasing importance of certain skills, upskilling strategies in organisations don’t always align with these trends. AI and big data, along with leadership and social influence, are being prioritised in corporate training efforts.
9. Talent development and diversity: Companies continue to focus on developing existing workforce capabilities and prioritising diversity and inclusion programmes targeting women, young people, and people with disabilities.
10. Governmental intervention and skills training funding: Industry is advocating for government interventions in skills training funding as a critical measure to bridge talent gaps and better align career aspirations with business needs.

The comprehensive analysis from the World Economic Forum illustrates the multifaceted challenges and opportunities within the global labour market. Technology, skills development, and policy intervention continue to play a critical role in shaping future employment landscapes.

Land your dream role: our proven 7-step strategy for navigating the job market

Have you decided that new year means new step on the career ladder? Navigating the job market can be daunting, but with a well-structured approach you can significantly minimise the stress and increase your chances of success. Follow our seven steps for a systematic, comprehensive, and effective job search strategy.

1. Know yourself, know your career goals

There are only so many hours in the day. If you don’t want to spend all of them looking for your next move, you’ll need to refine your search and take a more targeted approach.

To start, take stock of your personal and professional assets. Self-assessment involves a deep dive into your skills, interests, and career objectives. Reflect on your previous roles and consider what you enjoyed most as well as where you excelled. Consider what roles are a good match for your experience and capabilities (remember, lots of skills are transferable). This introspection not only helps you identify suitable roles but also prepares you to write more personalised applications and ace your interviews.

Tools like SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) can be immensely useful as you work on your self-assessment. By the end of your process, you should have identified:

• your career goals - including the type of role, industry, and level you're targeting;
• your key skills, strengths, and the value you bring to potential employers; and
• what you want from a role - expectations, culture, flexibility, career growth opportunities.

2. Understand the job market

Understanding the current job market is vital, whether that’s in a city like Dublin, across the country, or even abroad. Start by identifying the industries that are thriving – and therefore hiring – and those that align with your skill set. Use resources like the business sections of newspapers or the National Skills Bulletin to stay informed about market trends and demand in various sectors. Thorough research not only helps to find potential employers but also to tailor your applications in line with their ethos and needs.

As well as the market more generally, think about your own connections and how they can help your job search. Are there people in your life you can ask for support or mentoring to move forward in your job search? Who in your network has the connections or experience to give you the inside scoop on a job, provide a reference or recommendation, or assist you in other ways? Build your network on LinkedIn and consider attending in-person networking opportunities to really leverage the power of your social capital (we have a whole blog post about developing a LinkedIn strategy for career progression).

3. Develop new skills or abilities

When contrasting your goals with your experience to date, you might identify certain gaps in your skills or abilities that need addressing. There is much you can do to bridge these gaps and enhance your employability. Set clear, achievable goals for your skill development by using SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) goals. For example, instead of a vague goal like “improve my data skills”, set a specific goal like “complete an introductory course in data analytics by the end of the quarter”.

Pinpoint the areas where you could benefit from further development - these could range from technical skills (like learning a new software platform) to soft skills (such as leadership abilities or communication skills). Once you've identified the skills you need to develop, look for relevant learning opportunities such as:

• Online courses (platforms like Coursera, Udemy, or LinkedIn).
• Workshops and seminars (local workshops, seminars, or webinars hosted by professional bodies or organisations).
• Formal education (a part-time degree or diploma/certificate from a recognised institution).
• On-the-job training (training opportunities within your current workplace - shadowing, mentoring, or formal training sessions).

Learning is most effective when it's applied. Look for opportunities to practice your new skills through volunteer work, freelance projects, or applying them in your current role. Real-world application will deepen your understanding and demonstrate to potential employers that you're actively improving and staying relevant in your field.

4. Position yourself with your career goals in mind

It’s now time to consider your personal brand. Before you run for the hills, remember that personal branding is simply about understanding and communicating your unique combination of skills, experiences, and values in a professional context. Put aside the negative connotations because we aren’t talking about self-aggrandisement or inauthenticity but about presenting an honest and coherent narrative of who you are as a professional.

Your CV and cover letter are often your first points of contact with potential employers. Ensure they are up to date and reflect this professional narrative. Highlight achievements and outcomes rather than just listing duties. These days, an online presence is equally important. Platforms like LinkedIn enable you to showcase your professional journey, endorsements, and network with peers (we’ll be coming back to this topic soon). A strong personal brand sets you apart in a competitive job market.

5. Start searching for ‘the one’

It’s finally time to start your job hunt. The more channels you use, the greater the chance you will come across job opportunities that are a great fit. We recommend you use:

• job boards (Indeed, Jobs.ie, etc.)
• networking platforms (LinkedIn, etc.)
• industry-specific job boards (TechCentral, PublicJobs.ie, etc.)
• events such as forums and conferences
• company career pages
• news media
• industry publications (The Law Society Gazette, Accountancy Ireland, etc.)
• personal contacts
• a proactive agency
• for recent graduates, careers fairs and university career services

A few of these platforms will allow you to save your search preferences in order to receive regular email alerts with relevant results. The others you will need to visit on a regular basis to see what’s new. You might want to create a checklist of your channels and how often you should review them to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.

If you’re going to register with a recruitment agency, start by identifying agencies that specialise in your industry or the type of job you're seeking. You can usually set up an introductory call with one of their consultants. Remember to have your research from step 1 above to hand so you can give them a clear idea of your goals, skills, and expectations. A good agency will provide feedback on your profile and the market so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly. They may also offer advice to improve your CV and then they’ll set you up on their system so they can match you with opportunities (which they often do before the job even gets advertised).

6. Toss your hat into the ring

Once you start coming across jobs that are a good fit, prepare and send your application. Remember that quality trumps quantity, so tailor your applications for each role, highlighting how your skills and experiences align with the job description. Keep a log of your applications to track your progress and know when to follow-up on opportunities. We will cover applications in more detail in a future blog post.

If you are offered an interview, follow our expert tips for interview preparing. Thorough preparation can significantly boost your confidence in interviews, so it pays to put time into researching the company’s background, their market position, and recent news. Practice common interview questions (see our list of sample questions for every role in finance) but also prepare scenarios to demonstrate your problem-solving and analytical skills. For virtual interviews, ensure a professional setup and stable internet connection. Following up on interviews is also a good idea.

7. Work on your mindset and resilience

Job hunting is a marathon, not a sprint. It could easily take a period of six to 12 months for a professional to go from deciding to move on to starting in their new role. Develop a positive outlook and stay motivated by first setting realistic goals and then celebrating victories – however small. Balance your job search with other life activities so that it doesn’t start to overwhelm you. Having a mentor can help you to maintain perspective as you continuously reassess and refine your strategy.

Rejection is an inevitable part of the job search process. Rather than viewing rejection negatively, use it as an opportunity to seek feedback and grow. When offers do come in, evaluate them carefully. Consider factors such as company mission and values, growth opportunities, and work-life balance. Even an incredible salary will not compensate adequately when those are missing.

Good luck on your job search journey!

As you can see, a well-organised approach to job searching can streamline the process and lead to more fruitful outcomes. By understanding your own professional landscape, tailoring your personal brand, and adopting a strategic approach to applications and interviews, you set yourself up for success. Remember that each step is a learning opportunity bringing you closer to your ideal role!

Are you looking for a new challenge? Engaging with a recruiter who specialises in your industry can save you a lot of time and make you more targeted in your applications. If you’re looking to change jobs, take a look at our open roles and get in touch with us for a completely confidential discussion.

Unlocking flexibility and innovation: the strategic advantage of temporary workers

In the competitive business landscape, flexibility and adaptability give you an edge. While traditional employment models have their place, the dynamic nature of today’s marketplace often calls for a more agile approach. This is where a contingent workforce comes into play. In fact, temporary workers are the secret ingredient that many of your competitors are already leveraging to stay ahead.

Temporary workers are highly skilled and motivated

First things first; who exactly signs up to work on temporary assignments? One point to be very clear about is that temp workers are NOT people who cannot get a ‘real’ job or don’t have an appetite for work. In our experience, these professionals are highly motivated and highly qualified. Apart from the wide range of skills and experience they bring, they tend to be people who think on their feet, are well-organised, and very adaptable. They bring value to any organisation they work in.

Some of our contingency workers have been working on temporary assignments for several years. Looking at our own pool of contingency workers, candidates opt for temporary assignments for a variety of reasons, including - but not exclusively - because:

• They are looking for flexibility (for instance, to fit post-graduate studies into their schedule).
• They have recently relocated and haven’t yet decided on their next steps.
• They are considering a career move and want to gain experience in different industries.

Seven benefits of hiring on-demand workers

Temporary workers are an asset to any business. Here are some top reasons to leverage the value of a contingent workforce.

1. Flexibility in staffing
   Relief and project workers offer unparalleled flexibility. You can scale your workforce up or down based on real-time needs, such as during peak seasons, for special projects, or to cover employee absences. This adaptability ensures that you are always staffed optimally, without the financial burden of a full-time workforce during quieter periods.
2. Specialised skills for specific projects
   Project workers often bring specialised skills that may not exist within your current team. For short-term projects, hiring a full-time employee with these skills can be impractical. Temporary project workers fill this gap perfectly, bringing in the expertise needed for the duration required.
3. Fresh perspectives and innovation
   Temporary staffing is not just about filling gaps. Contingency workers come with diverse experiences and backgrounds, offering fresh perspectives that can drive innovation within your teams. This influx of new ideas and approaches can be particularly valuable in project work, where thinking outside the box is often necessary. It's about enriching your team with diverse skills and perspectives.
4. Reduced training and onboarding time
   Relief and project workers are accustomed to adapting quickly to new environments. This means the time and resources spent on training and onboarding are often significantly less than those required for a new permanent hire.
5. Risk mitigation
   A temporary workforce can help mitigate employment risks. The staff are not your employees, so you have no contractual obligations to meet. And, since the recruitment agency typically handles HR, contracts, payroll, and compliance, your business can focus on its core operations without the added burden of administrative responsibilities.
6. Competitive advantage
   The ability to swiftly adapt to changes can provide a significant competitive advantage. Businesses using temporary staffing effectively can respond to market demands and opportunities more quickly than those relying solely on permanent staff.
7. Enhancing business resilience
   The use of on-demand workers can be a strategic move to bolster your organisation's resilience, especially in fluctuating economic climates. This flexibility allows you to scale your workforce in response to market conditions, ensuring that your business remains agile and adaptable.

Contingent workforces are a strategic tool for business development

Relief and project workers are not just stop-gap solutions; they are strategic assets that can propel your business forward. They allow you to undertake new and diverse projects by filling skill gaps with specialised temporary professionals, potentially leading to business expansion and new revenue streams. Temporary workers offer the agility and expertise necessary to navigate the challenges of a dynamic business environment. In a world where needs can change overnight, having access to on-demand talent is not just convenient, it’s essential for staying competitive.

Talk to us about your contingent workforce needs

If you’re looking to add flexibility, innovation, and a competitive edge to your business operations, consider the benefits of integrating relief and project workers into your staffing strategy. We have filled temporary roles in areas as diverse as customer service, supply chain, finance, operations, and administration (including roles such as office administrators and receptionists). We can provide an individual or an entire team for any duration.

Top recruitment trends shaping Ireland’s job market in 2024

The new year is here, and so is our round-up of the top recruitment changes you can expect in 2024! The Savvi Recruitment team sat down to discuss the Irish recruitment landscape and the conversations we’ve been having with both candidates and employers to explore the main trends rippling through the market.

The recruitment industry is highly sensitive to socio-economic changes, reflecting the evolutions happening more widely in business as well as in society. As such, recruiters don’t have the luxury of complacency – how you did something last week might not be how you do it next week. Goals shift, needs fluctuate, and expectations change. Good recruiters know that adaptability is key to success.

In this blog, we look at the top trends that have been taking root or maturing in 2023 that are going to be really important in 2024. Whether you work in-house or in agency, these eight trends will shape the job market and our way of working.

1. AI on the prize

We don’t need to explain to any of you that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the landscape for everyone - automating the most complex tasks and processes, transforming traditional operating models, and driving innovation across industries. In the area of talent acquisition, this will play out in a number of ways. Primarily, we expect the creation of new roles and the reshaping of existing roles because of factors such as legislation, technological integration, ethical oversight, education and training, and strategic decision-making. This is a vast theme that we expect to come back to time and again in the coming year.

2. Sustainability matters

The broader global trend towards sustainable and responsible business practices has resulted in a growing emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting. As part of its broader strategy to integrate sustainability into its financial policy framework, the European Union has put in place a transparency framework called the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) and a new directive modernising and strengthening rules around reporting called the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD).

Initially affecting companies with more than 250 employees, reporting is focused on areas that are genuinely impactful and informative to investors, customers, and other stakeholders. It looks at areas as diverse as carbon emissions, energy use, waste management, employee relations, diversity and inclusion, executive pay, and shareholder rights. This comprehensive approach ensures businesses are accountable not just for financial performance but also for their broader impact on society and the environment.

The larger companies with reporting obligations have two main options here – they will either look at upskilling in-house or they will outsource this capability from one of the big consultancies. What we don’t see them planning, for now, is to hire new people for this one function. As for SMEs, this is not being seen as a priority yet even though reporting for smaller businesses is coming down the line.

We do recommend that SMEs develop processes to record this data as soon as possible. While reporting isn’t an obligation for now, it likely applies to some or all of their customers or suppliers. Every company, regardless of its size, is part of another company’s value chain. The ability to report on sustainability can help to win or retain business and should be seen as a very achievable competitive edge.

3. Evolving dynamics in risk and compliance

The Individual Accountability Framework (IAF) will affect recruitment in 2024, especially in risk and compliance roles (the introduction of the Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR) in Ireland is a significant step in that development).This change has provoked a mix of apprehension and optimism among risk and compliance professionals. On the one hand, there’s a sense of apprehension among professionals due to increased responsibilities. On the other, there is an uplift in salaries reflecting the higher demands of these roles. The sentiment in the community is largely positive, viewing these changes as opportunities for growth and recognition.

Looking ahead, we anticipate a notable increase in movement at senior levels within risk and compliance departments – a trend that was conspicuously absent this year. This anticipated shift is likely to open up new pathways for career progression and bring fresh perspectives to these crucial functions. As the landscape evolves, the demand for skilled professionals in these areas is set to rise, marking an exciting time for recruitment in this sector.

4. Cybersecurity in digital resilience

In 2024, organisations will increasingly prioritise cybersecurity within operational resilience. Propelled by developments like the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), there's a clear shift in understanding cybersecurity's impact not just on technology but also on financial stability and company reputation. A recent RTE report revealed that 1 in 5 firms suffering a cyber breach faced financial losses, highlighting that cybersecurity isn't just a technical issue; it directly impacts the bottom line.

Larger firms are ramping up their recruitment of cybersecurity experts. They recognise that cybersecurity is not really an IT role but a risk management role that sits within the IT department. It’s important to remember that protecting digital operations is as much about understanding and mitigating human risk and behaviour as it is about technical safeguards (consider hazards such as social engineering or weak passwords). The demand for these roles, already commanding strong salaries, is set to rise, reflecting the specialised nature of the field.

5. Balancing automation with personalisation

The rapid evolution of AI sets an interesting stage for changes in recruitment practices, too. A key focus within the HR community right now is integrating automation into recruitment processes, especially with Generation Z candidates in mind. This demographic - digital natives who value flexibility and rapid career progression – has unique expectations around recruitment and requires a process that is efficient and responsive. Companies that adapt swiftly to candidate expectations will come out on top.

The evolution in talent acquisition is prompting organisations to scrutinise their in-house capabilities and assess how their external recruitment partners are also adapting to these changes. The goal is to achieve a seamless integration of automation in recruitment, ensuring efficiency that in no way sacrifices the personal touch that is crucial for attracting and retaining talent. This balance will be essential in meeting the expectations of a new generation of job seekers (and evolving expectations amongst other generations) while also capitalising on the technological advancements in AI.

6.DEI for innovation and brand value

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has become central to organisational strategies. Companies today embrace the tangible benefits of genuine diversity, such as enhanced creativity and profitability, and are making it a central goal as they move forward. DEI is now a critical factor for employers, not only for fostering a positive internal culture but also for strengthening their employer brand, especially as younger generations of employees prioritise diversity and inclusivity when choosing an employer.

Concurrently, EU legislation focusing on gender pay equality and transparency is making DEI a top priority for HR departments. This legislative push is complementing the broader corporate emphasis on retention and succession planning (our next prediction, see below). Companies are keenly aware of the competitive job market and the near-full employment market. To attract and retain top talent, they are refining their approach to salaries, bonuses, and benefits, recognising they are only part of the jigsaw.

7. Investing in employee retention

Retention strategies are increasingly being aligned with the 'skills-first' concept, prioritising internal talent development and promotion. This approach not only helps to maintain a skilled workforce but also supports career progression plans, making employees feel valued and part of the organisation's future. In essence, companies are not just hiring employees; they're investing in career journeys, ensuring that the workforce evolves alongside the organisation.

Enhancing retention by looking internally will mean engaging in comprehensive career mapping and succession planning. This involves not just identifying skill sets but also aligning hires with the company's mission, vision, and values. It's about finding people who desire longevity in their careers and can envision a long-term future with the company.

Beyond competitive salaries, this encompasses the entire ethos of the organisation and the opportunities it offers for personal and professional growth. In today's job market, these factors significantly influence the decision to accept or reject a job offer. Prospective employees conduct thorough research, looking for red flags such as high turnover rates which might signal underlying issues.

Remember, the most talented individuals aren’t typically job-hunting because they are committed to their current roles. Attracting this kind of passive talent requires a compelling offer, one that goes beyond the basics and resonates with their career aspirations and personal values. By focusing on these elements, companies can not only attract but also retain top talent, creating a workforce that is highly skilled and deeply connected to the organisation’s ethos and future.

8. Your workplace or mine?

No predictions list would be complete without thoughts on the “back to the office” debate. As we move into 2024, there's a discernible push within organisations to more in-office presence, signalling a transition from purely remote work to a more structured hybrid model often characterised by a 3-day office and 2-day remote workweek. This change is partly driven by a softening in the market and some corporate rightsizing, resulting in a trend where office attendance becomes a requirement rather than just an option.

Hybrid work is set to continue, but with a stricter application. The challenge for management will be making the office an appealing place for employees to work and not simply somewhere they are forced to be. This means rethinking the office environment to foster collaboration, creativity, and a sense of community that can't be replicated in a remote setting. In doing so, employers will balance the need for physical presence with the benefits of a hybrid work model, ensuring that time spent in the office is both productive and enjoyable.

Factors impacting Ireland’s ability to attract the very best talent

Ireland is known for being pro-business and having a skilled workforce. But local and global factors are shrinking the talent pool of one of the world’s most open economies. The EU more generally is still struggling to establish itself as the most sought-after employment hub. Candidates are prioritising personal factors over compensation packages when appraising roles or offers. So, what can Ireland do to enhance its appeal and ensure people want to work here?

Where is the talent flowing in 2023/24?

If I had written this blog a few years ago, I would have kicked off my discussion around the challenge that Irish employers in sectors such as financial services face because they are not just competing locally but also with international markets (particularly with cities like London, New York, and Singapore), global financial hubs that typically offer higher remuneration and larger-scale opportunities, which can be more attractive to top talent.

This is still true but is compounded by another trend. In the past, we would have recruited for some roles overseas as well as within Ireland. However, factors such as the housing situation in Ireland mean that arranging for someone to relocate here is no longer a given for employers. We are seeing a vicious cycle where people are leaving Ireland to live overseas (and therefore exiting the marketplace) but it’s too much of a challenge to bring people from abroad into Ireland to take up their roles. The property market really does impact our ability to recruit.

What connects infrastructure and recruitment in Ireland?

Housing doesn’t just need to be built; it needs to be built in the right places. Listening to the David McWilliams podcast recently, I was reminded that a huge area of east Dublin is dedicated to port infrastructure that doesn’t benefit activity in the rest of the city. Every day, the influx of vehicles and lorries battle their way out of a congested Dublin in order to reach their actual destinations. But surely this strategic area of our capital would serve us better as a mixed-use neighbourhood? As David mentions, the location of Dublin Port is crazy and building a world-class port in Drogheda would make a lot more sense.

Ireland has the second highest ‘property price to income’ ratio in Europe, behind only Iceland. We all know that housing is a problem, but it’s not just in this area that Ireland falls short. Areas of infrastructure including high-speed internet, healthcare, utilities, and transport leave a lot to be desired here. All of this makes Ireland less attractive for an overseas worker. The post-pandemic increase in mobility means plenty of people have moved abroad to benefit from a better quality of life, but they aren’t being replaced by equally skilled workers from overseas.

Anyone who travels for work or commutes knows that we don’t have a lot of options if we want to get out of our cars and use public transport. Our rail system used to be extensive, with 5,600 km of lines criss-crossing the island at its height in the 1920s. After waves of closures during the 1950s and 1960s, we now have less than half that coverage. While there appears to be the political will to bring back some of that infrastructure, it’s going to take many years – probably decades – to come onstream. In the meantime, our public transport system just isn’t that flexible or comprehensive.

Ireland still has an internal mobility problem

Ireland also has an internal mobility problem. Why is this an issue? Employers can put together fantastic compensation packages, but many of the reasons a role is attractive to someone will be out of the company’s control. For example, we regularly see people turning down job offers because organising accommodation is going to be too difficult for them. We have a situation at the moment where recruiting people from outside Dublin is almost as difficult as recruiting them from overseas. Unless candidates have connections in Dublin who can make finding accommodation achievable (such as staying with a relative), it’s unattainable for them. Lots of Dublin-based companies we work with can only hire graduates with ties to Dublin. The rest of the pool is unavailable to them.

Given the size of the population, the fact that so many people are concentrated in the Dublin area is a problem. 1.2 million people out of a 5.1 million population are based in the capital and its suburbs. The next biggest urban area, Cork, represents just 222,000 inhabitants. Financial services and professional services firms have no real choice when it comes to location – to function normally they must base themselves in one of the established hubs – Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Galway.

We need a polycentric vision for Ireland

What are we getting wrong that other countries are getting right? We have plenty of space across the country and concentrating all our attention on a few main cities nonsensical. Take the Netherlands as a comparison. Ireland has 70% more land surface, yet over 17 million people live in the Netherlands compared to our 5.1 million. While relatively urbanised, the population is more evenly distributed, and no single city dominates to the extent that Dublin does in Ireland. Despite the high population density, Dutch people currently enjoy the highest quality of life in Europe, while we trail behind at position 20 (a position we’ve been sliding to since the middle of the last decade).

Ireland has the potential to be bigger and better, but only if we’re prepared to take a critical look at ourselves and stop being afraid of change. We need to reject our old Dublin-centric thinking and embrace new patterns of work and play. Instead of shuffling our spare cash into a “rainy day” fund, it should be put to work for our future success. We need an audacious plan for developing a more polycentric urban infrastructure. Low/no cost and frequent public transport will help with mobility of the workforce, allowing new, vibrant business centres to grow around the country, with large enough local communities to supply the talent industry needs to thrive.

Creating an attractive employment marketplace is a story of two sides. If we want to support business with a mobile and engaged talent pool, we need both attractive places to live AND rewarding jobs. Industry is doing its part, it’s up to our decision makers to do theirs.

What is flexibility in the workplace and why is it important?

Attitudes to work are evolving. To retain and engage employees, organisations today are reimagining the traditional workplace by embracing more flexible working arrangements that cater to the diverse needs and expectations of their workforce. But good flexible working depends on two key ingredients: choice and trust.

The rise, fall, and rise again of flexibility

Flexible working is still a relatively new phenomenon in society. Although it had gained some traction in certain sectors or business models before the pandemic (companies such as Deloitte and PwC were experimenting with flexible, distributed workforces back in the 1990s), it was by no means a mainstream business practice. This means that organisations don’t have many datasets or established frameworks to draw on as they feel their way into establishing flexible working practices post Covid.

The problem with flexibility is that there are no universal pros and cons. While flexibility can improve the bottom-line, the degree to which this is true will be dependent on a wide variety of organisational factors; where not managed properly, flexibility can actually have a negative effect on communication, collaboration, oversight, and culture. In fact, many of the companies that had brought in ‘boundaryless’ or work-from-home programmes were busy closing them down during the 2010s – IBM, Bank of America, and Yahoo were some of the highest-profile examples.

Employees want flexibility, and yet some data suggests it leaves them vulnerable to isolation and depression and can hamper career growth because of reduced learning experiences. While it appears that flexible working increases productivity and job satisfaction, there is a danger that remote working places an unfair burden of responsibility onto the employee, leading to job creep and overwork, which could result in high employee turnover.

So, it would be wrong to say there are only benefits to flexible working. There are positive and negative impacts, there are good and bad experiences, and that’s why it's so hard to do well. I think that achieving true flexibility that benefits everyone will require us to challenge our assumptions and be open to change. If we want different work experiences, we will have to think differently.

What exactly is flexibility in the workplace?

So, what exactly do we mean when we talk about flexibility? It’s a catch-all phrase for a wide variety of working scenarios. Flexibility is not the same thing as hybrid working. While a hybrid model is one example of flexibility, you have not achieved flexibility simply because you have established a hybrid office. Some examples are:

• Remote – working at a location outside the office (sometimes referred to as teleworking or telecommuting).
• Hybrid working model – a combination of home working (referred to by Revenue as e-working) and on-site office working.
• Flexitime or staggered hours – a schedule that’s different from the typical nine-to-five.
• Compressed hours – a work week condensed into fewer days than usual.
• Part-time – one of the more established forms of flexibility that involves working a percentage of a normal full-time role.
• Job-shares – where two employees cover one full-time job between them.
• Unlimited time off – a model that sets no limit on annual leave as long as the role responsibilities are met (sometimes referred to as unlimited holidays).
• Annual hours – setting a total number of hours that must be worked in the year, but not when they need to be worked.

These are just some examples, but there are other ways to bring flexibility to the workplace. Flexibility means different things to different people. For some, geography is the key. For others, it might be time-management. There are also many reasons a person might need flexibility; while parenting or caring are the most obvious ones, others reasons to want flexibility could include study, travel, volunteering, and cultural or social reasons.

You may have a flexibility policy that takes account of practicalities such as dropping children at school, however, there are other scenarios that may not be as apparent or easy for people to discuss. People may be looking to reduce their environmental footprint by commuting less. People with disabilities may want to reduce the stress of planning for and taking public transport. Neuro atypical employees may be looking to minimise sensory distraction or work in rhythm with their energy levels.

Whatever the reasons, flexibility often comes up as a requirement for candidates early in our conversations with them. It may not be a deal-breaker, but many candidates want to know if this is even a discussion that can be had with the potential employer or if working structures are set in stone. When it comes to evaluating similar roles, the ones with more flexibility are more attractive to candidates. Luckily, the sectors we specialise in are generally well-suited to flexibility.

Flexibility isn’t going away

The United Kingdom is currently legislating for the right to flexibility in the workplace. From spring 2025, all employees (not just parents and carers, as in the EU) will be able to make two flexible working requests in each 12-month period, and employers will have to respond within two months, with a valid reason if they reject the request. It’s not unreasonable to think that other jurisdictions will bring in such protections in the near future.

Before Covid, we saw regular examples of people not moving jobs because they had a degree of flexibility and weren’t prepared to let that go. Now that most organisations realise this is a desirable and workable element of hiring policy, it has levelled up the field and actually increased mobility in the market. Companies that get it right – keeping their culture and maintaining collaboration in a hybrid setting – will win in attracting the quality staff they want. Any employer hoping that talk of flexible working will go away if they ignore it for long enough needs to realise that this is the new reality.

How to bring flexibility into the workplace

Flexibility is a balancing act and there is no one way to achieve it. If you are exploring ways to make flexibility work, understand that this is an ongoing conversation within the organisation. Maintain open communication around the issues employees are having and check in with teams regularly – whether you are a manager or in the HR department. It’s possible that what was working well six months ago is not working so well now.

We’re in a period of fast change in terms of employee presence – going from fully remote in 2020 to mostly remote in 2021 to hybrid in 2022 and now, in 2023, a definite trend back towards the office. For those living more than an hour from work, a move back to full-time office working will be tough. Plenty of people moved out of the city to embrace the new era of remote working and benefit from the lower cost of living and higher quality of life. If organisations mandate higher numbers of days in-office, it could prove to be a pinch point for some of them.

We are seeing a couple of different issues in the hybrid environments we encounter. One is inflexible flexibility – for example, a hybrid model without any ability to choose which days are in or out of the office. That may be a hybrid working policy, but it can’t be called a flexible working policy. On the flip side, too much flexibility can turn into a downside for some people in the team – for example, where the physical presence of colleagues varies wildly across the week, people can find themselves coming into an empty office. When there is no predictability, employees can feel adrift. Morale is affected because there are fewer opportunities to engage with or learn from colleagues.

So you may find yourself managing conflicting requirements from employees. In these scenarios, the only way forward is to bring teams together and establish what would be best for the team as a whole, rather a particular individual. Although compromise may be needed, this will ultimately lead to a better outcome for each employee, as both organisational and professional success will depend on the team working and collaborating well.

We have seen people leaving jobs because they don’t have enough flexibility, and others leaving because there is so much flexibility they no longer interact with colleagues and feel cut off. That's why some level of trade-off will be required. The sense of connection and creativity you can generate in a bustling office can’t be denied. I certainly miss it sometimes, but I’ve traded it for a different balance, and I’m happy with that because it was my choice. I think ultimately that’s what flexibility should be founded on. Choice.

Flexibility works well in high trust environments

In our experience, people ask for the flexibility they need to do their job well and no more. When the bounds of what signifies flexibility only account for the most typical scenarios, this is counterproductive. The working model may look different to pre-Covid, but it is in fact just as rigid (we’re back to the phenomenon of inflexible flexibility). Rather than setting limits and expecting people to fall within them, it makes sense to hire capable individuals who can achieve the results you want and then work with them to find out what they need.

You can only have true flexibility in a high trust environment. At Savvi Recruitment, we’ve worked hard to make sure there is no fixed template for flexibility. We hire people we can trust, and we let them develop their own version of flexibility without contrast or comparison with anyone else’s reality. This includes measuring people’s outputs rather than inputs as, to achieve the same results, different people work in different ways. That’s how flexibility becomes organisational success. Trust.

My takeaway from all this is that flexibility is hard, but possible. Focus on your key ingredients of choice and trust. Remember that flexibility isn’t what you, as the employer, say it is. Also, think less about what flexibility looks like and more about how it feels for the individual. Good flexibility isn't just about accommodating an employee's work schedule, but also about empowering them to lead a fulfilling and rich life - at work and beyond.

Multiple recruiting agencies? This is why you should use only one

If you’re hiring for an important role (and what role isn’t important in today’s business environment) it may seem logical to hedge your bets by calling upon several recruitment agencies for help. You may feel you’ll get better coverage if different agencies are out there publicising your job offer. More is more, right? Wrong!

In practice, the reverse is true. There are many drawbacks to appointing more than one recruitment agency, and, quite frankly, no benefits. Take a walk through the various issues, and I’m confident you’ll come to the same conclusion as me.

The cons of using multiple recruitment agencies

1) Having too many recruiters weakens impact and motivation

In contingency recruitment – what you might call a no win, no fee contract – the recruiter is only compensated if a successful hire is made. Traditionally, it was felt that this has the effect of aligning the recruiter’s interests with the employer's, ensuring they put in their best effort into finding the most suitable talent.

There is no exclusivity baked into a contingency service, so plenty of employers appoint numerous agencies in the belief that they will somehow outcompete each other to provide an even better result. The reality is that every additional agency added to the mix reduces any one recruiter’s chance of placing a successful candidate. Four agencies in the mix? That means they’ll still have to do 100% of the work they would do in an exclusive arrangement, but they’ll only have a 25% chance of finding the candidate that gets hired.

There is no other service industry where a provider will potentially put in vast amounts of effort and resources with zero guarantee they will get paid for it. If an agency is up against other firms, they have to play it safe and reduce their inputs; it’s the only commercially responsible decision.

2) You’re creating more work for yourself

So that’s the downside for the agencies. But what about you? You’re busy and outcomes matter, so save yourself the stress of juggling multiple agencies. Instead, you can focus on building a strong relationship with one dedicated partner, eliminating potential confusion and conflicts.

Working with multiple agencies means endless back and forth with different people, which will be time-consuming and require much more project management. In addition, you are likely to end up with piles of lower quality or duplicate profiles that you have to dedicate time to sifting through and rejecting. With an exclusive agency, you’ll have a single point of contact, making the process faster and more efficient. You can give one thorough briefing on your requirements instead of many. Subsequently, you’ll be able to discuss updates, give feedback, and refine your requirements with a dedicated consultant who understands the organisation's preferences and priorities.

You still benefit from the contingent model. Having one agency doesn’t mean going down the route of a retained contract with its upfront fees. But now the recruiter knows it’s worth investing their time and energy in the partnership.

3) Non-exclusive recruitment agencies are less focused

Whether or not you tell them, the recruitment agency will know that a competitor is also recruiting for the role. They will put in the amount of effort commensurate with their chances of success, and then they will move on to the next opportunity. This isn’t maliciousness or laziness on their part, it’s a pragmatic business decision. You won’t benefit from additional inputs such as a comprehensive analysis of both the passive and active market.

When you’ve worked hard internally on your value proposition, you want to ensure it reaches the market in the right way. Talking to multiple agencies comes with the risk that your message gets interpreted in varying ways as agencies move quickly and without as much care and attention as they would like. By the time the job description reaches the candidate, it’s already off-brand and confused.

When you have an exclusive recruiter, you’ll receive a higher value service and the role will be sold into the marketplace properly, ensuring you get the right candidates and the right result at the end of the process. You’ll also be building a relationship that will continue to deliver for future hires, thanks to a deeper understanding of the company’s culture, values, and goals.

4) You increase the likelihood of the dreaded ‘spray and pray’ approach

In an exclusive arrangement, you are allowing space for the consultancy side of the recruitment service to bring real value. The recruiter can find the best possible selection of candidates, meaning they are less likely to waste your time on poor matches or contact unsuitable candidates.

When multiple agencies are in the mix (I’ve seen as many as six for a particular role) it becomes a race against the clock, and everyone wants to be the first one to get in touch with a candidate. Suddenly, recruiters are spamming candidate inboxes - not even waiting to be fully briefed about the role because they have the job title and, well, you never know. As soon as they have candidates that are even a loose fit, they’re clogging up your emails in a bid to be the first in the door with a particular CV.

5) Candidates won't have a good experience

Being approached by multiple agencies will conflict the candidate, which is not good for brand experience. It wastes their time and can also make the role feel undesirable. Anecdotally, candidates feel it reflects better on a potential employer if they have an exclusive agency. When a recruiter clearly has an in-depth understanding of the company and the role, it’s easier to build trust with a candidate.

Because we’re dealing with a fairly small pool of candidates in Ireland, it wouldn’t be unusual for an individual to be contacted three times in one day about the same position. It seems desperate and fatigue sweeps in quickly for the candidate, especially if they are getting conflicting information from the recruiters. They may even drop out of the process altogether, which could affect your time-to-hire.

Having multiple recruiters submitting the same CV makes the candidate look like they don’t have any control, makes the agency look like it isn’t trusted, and makes the employer look like they can’t make their mind up. It’s just not an ideal situation, whichever way you slice it.

6) You're not building trust and respect

If you want to build a strong long-term partnership with people who are willing to go the extra mile for you, an exclusive partnership will help achieve that. If you have done your due diligence and picked the agency that’s the best match, you have to then take a step back and trust them to deliver.

"Trust is the highest form of human motivation." - Stephen R. Covey

You will get exponentially more value from an exclusive partnership. But that doesn’t mean appointing the first firm you come across. Go through a proper vetting process, investing time in researching and shortlisting. Ask for references, have calls with them, and quiz them on their understanding, knowledge, and track record.

I know I’d rather partner with a good agency that has the self-respect to want to get paid. What does it say about a business that it’s happy to work for free? What does it say about a business that it wants to have the time to do a good job and get you a result you’re happy with?

Relationships really matter in recruitment

Relationships are a two-way street. As well as asking what the agency will do for you, think about the value that you’re bringing to the agency. At Savvi Recruitment, instances where an employer has actively enabled us to do our job have been the ones with the best outcomes. These would have involved long calls with all the stakeholders, getting to know the business, the culture, and the requirements. When we get real access, feedback, and clarity, this comes across to the candidates and makes a huge difference to their experience.

Recruitment is a people business. It’s a more enjoyable process when good people are doing the job, and you’re working with individuals you respect. It means so much to the agency when the employer is invested. Your standards are high? A good agency will be only delighted! We all want to feel trusted by the people we work with and know that what we do is valued.

Opt for a closed-loop recruiting model

The multi-agency approach perpetuates the kind of processes and practices that the recruitment industry is so often rightly criticised for. Pitting agencies against each other in a race to the bottom is bad for all of us. A huge amount of work and other resources goes into attracting, evaluating, and selecting candidates. If you want good results, you want this work done right.

Don’t forget that Dublin is a very small market. So is Ireland, for that matter. Even if having multiple agencies didn’t affect the quality of work, you simply don’t need more than one recruiter to reach the entire candidate pool here.

In our experience, employers that have moved to an exclusive arrangement don’t look back. If you’ve been unhappy with the results your contingency recruitment agencies have achieved, or felt you didn’t get good value, try appointing an exclusive agency next time.

How to develop and manage your RPO relationship effectively

Moving to a recruitment process outsourcing solution offers numerous benefits, not least of which are the access to expert recruiters, streamlined hiring processes, enhanced employer branding, and improved candidate experiences. But you still need to choose your partner wisely and create an environment in which the partnership will thrive.

More and more organisations of every size are turning to recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) as a way to recruit successfully while controlling costs. If you are new to the idea of outsourcing your talent acquisition, take a look at our recent blog post that discusses the scope and benefits of an RPO service.

An RPO team is essentially an extension of your HR department, working closely with HR colleagues to understand their hiring needs, develop recruitment strategies, and execute the hiring process. The team - recruiters, administrators, support staff, and researchers, depending on your needs - is permanently embedded within your organisation, however it is an externally managed service that won’t require additional resources or oversight.

Let’s look at what you can expect from an RPO relationship, what will be involved, and how to get the most value from it.

7 steps to a successful RPO partnership

RPO is about enhancing your hiring process, elevating candidate quality, and driving organisational success. But results won’t just materialise overnight. Like any relationship, you’ll need to lay a solid foundation and work on your communication and collaboration for the best possible outcomes.

1) Assess your hiring goals and need for RPO

Consider your recruitment objectives and challenges, which could include looking at the scale (for example, volume, seasonal spikes, or high turnover) and complexity (for example, different locations, diverse skill requirements, or multiple roles) of your needs.

You should also review your HR department and whether it has the necessary expertise, technology, and resources to achieve your hiring goals. Identify the specific areas where you require support and outline the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will ensure the success of your RPO collaboration.

2) Find the right RPO partner

Research the market to identify RPO providers in your market, and then evaluate each to find the most suitable service. Think about the factors that matter most for your organisation, for example, industry experience, flexibility, adaptability, brand safety, technology, or ethical standards. How do the firms in contention rank for each of these? How successful are they recruiting for positions in your industry and the specific roles you typically hire for?

Look at their track records, client testimonials, and retention rates to find the best fit. A discovery call will also help you better understand how the company would deliver an RPO service with your specific characteristics, and give the main stakeholders a chance to meet and get a sense of each other’s communication styles and personalities. All this information will make choosing the right partner much easier.

3) Define your RPO scope and deliverables

Work closely with your chosen company to define the scope of the RPO services. Determine which aspects of the recruitment process you want to outsource and establish clear deliverables and timelines. This ensures there is a shared understanding of responsibilities and objectives. You should also consider the day-to day practicalities of having the RPO team in your organisation, such as office space, meeting rooms, workstations, and access to internal systems and facilities.

Before you decide to go ahead, review the contract terms and service-level agreements (SLAs) carefully to ensure they align with your expectations and requirements.

4) Establish effective communication with the RPO team

A successful RPO relationship requires colleagues who communicate effectively and maintain transparent channels of communication throughout the engagement. Ensure that your HR team always has open lines of communication with the RPO team. In many situations, your RPO team will be physically based in your office, meaning that this is a much easier task. For remote scenarios, you may need to think of additional ways to enhance collaboration.

Clearly communicate your expectations, provide comprehensive briefs, and maintain regular check-ins to ensure transparency and alignment throughout the recruitment process.

5) Leverage the RPO team’s access and expertise

A close working relationship with your RPO team will ensure you have access to the very best insights, guidance, and industry knowledge, helping you to attract and select the best candidates for your organisation. They will help you to refine job descriptions, benchmark salaries, optimise candidate profiles, and streamline your recruitment strategy more generally.

You will also benefit from the RPO team's cutting-edge recruitment technology and tools. This could include applicant tracking systems, candidate databases, and video interviewing platforms to streamline candidate selection and assessment.

6) Monitor RPO performance and provide feedback

Monitor the performance of your RPO service provider against your agreed-upon KPIs. Give clear and regular feedback on the service, candidate quality, and overall satisfaction levels. This feedback loop will enable continuous improvement and allow you to make any necessary adjustments to maximise the effectiveness of the partnership.

It’s also a good idea to gather feedback from hiring managers and other internal stakeholders about their experience with the RPO team. Regular meetings will allow you to review your progress, discuss roadblocks, and collaborate to find solutions to any issues that arise.

7) Build a successful and long-term RPO relationship

A successful RPO partnership means thinking well beyond the next hiring cycle. For a long-term relationship, your RPO team will need to establish a deep understanding of your organisation's culture, mission, values, and business goals. It’s important to facilitate this knowledge transfer initially and then keep the team informed of any changes in a timely manner so that your strategy can be adjusted.

A good RPO provider will be agile enough to adapt and scale (up or down) as your needs evolve. This ongoing collaboration will facilitate a seamless recruitment process for future positions and ensure a consistent supply of top talent – with succession planning and talent pipelining built into the process.

Trust and honesty are key to making RPO work

Moving to a recruitment process outsourcing solution offers numerous benefits, not least of which are the access to expert recruiters, streamlined hiring processes, enhanced employer branding, and improved candidate experiences. It’s a vital business function that adapts extremely well to being outsourced, with the bonus that it is also more flexible and cost-effective than in-house structures.

But you still need to choose your partner wisely and create an environment in which the partnership will thrive. That means open and honest communication, clear goal alignment, and a collaborative approach. Work towards success with well-defined KPIs, regular performance monitoring, and constructive feedback. As with any relationship, you’ll get back what you put in. 

At Savvi Recruitment, we provide a tailored and flexible RPO service to companies of all sizes. While some larger RPO firms can struggle to deliver in niche roles, we have deep expertise across sectors such as financial services, risk and compliance, asset management, and insurance. The right RPO partner will help you secure the talent your business deserves.

Why your recruitment strategy needs more focus on competence and aptitude

They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but maybe it's time to reassess that analogy. Recent research from LinkedIn’s Economic Graph highlights what we already know at Savvi Recruitment; the focus on skills in recruitment is changing, and organisations that don’t adapt will find themselves looking at smaller and smaller candidate pools as they struggle to fill roles. Read on to understand why.

The problem with conventional hiring practices

The traditional methodology for recruitment relied on matching employment history and educational achievement to identify the perfect candidate for a job. The problem is that this risk-averse approach misses opportunities for innovation or creativity, reduces the organisation’s adaptability and resilience, and can hamper efforts to improve diversity and inclusion.

Ireland is currently enjoying the lowest unemployment levels since records began. In an already small market, this has left employers facing ever decreasing candidate pools. In some of the more niche verticals we work in – for example, quantitative risk – there may be only 20 people in the entire sector who are a classic ‘match’ for a role.

Hiring strategies based on transferrable skills and aptitudes

What’s the answer? Leave behind this bias towards experience and qualification. It only shows you only who is a match on paper, not who will be the best match in real life. It also ignores the fact that motivated professionals upskill and train outside of the workplace (in both soft skills and hard skills) to ensure they can continue to bring value to organisations and stay relevant in a changing job market.

A skills-first approach will allow you to identify highly capable candidates who may have overwise slipped past you because they lack the traditional credentials associated with a role. LinkedIn’s Skills-First report shows that 75% of recruitment professionals predict that skills-first hiring will be a priority for their company in the next 18 months. In fact, nearly half of companies on LinkedIn explicitly use skills to search and identify job candidates on the platform.

Taking a skills-first perspective means we identify the core qualities and traits necessary for success in a particular role, and typically these are abilities that overlap with all kinds of jobs and sectors. Consider the tech sector for a moment. They really value people from other industries and don’t hesitate to hire people who in a previous role may have been, for example, the end user of the product being developed. It’s a very successful strategy.

Of course, it can be hard to define skills where you’re comparing apples and oranges. Some tips if you are embarking on this exercise are:

• Remember that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
• Look at whether the person has previously moved into a different type of role and was able to adapt quickly and successfully.
• Think about the capabilities and competencies that matter in the organisation, and not just what the person has to do on a day-to-day basis.
• Consider bringing aptitude testing into the recruitment process.

Breaking down roles in a skills-focused way

If you are interested in adding skills prioritisation to your recruitment process, I recommend you create a competency matrix to understand what the profile of the ideal candidate might look like. This is less about the role itself and more about the fit – i.e., the unique requirements of the role and the organisation (for example, problem-solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, or extraordinary focus).

Leadership is another area that might need to be examined through a new lens. Some people achieve seniority because of their technical ability, but that doesn’t necessarily make them great leaders. It wouldn’t be unusual for someone with slightly less technical ability to, in fact, be the better people manager. Think about how you can identify people who are, or have the potential to be, excellent leaders.

It's possible that your organisation has already hired in a skills-first way without even realising it. I’ve come across plenty of examples of employees able to move to very different roles internally because they were already known, and it was obvious that their skills were transferrable. We need to find better strategies to facilitate that kind of thinking when the person isn’t known to the hiring decision makers.

Openness and lateral thinking during this process will bring benefits that span the employment cycle and improve retention, engagement, and mobility.

Expand your pool and compete less for great employees

Traditionally, Irish companies have been very focused on finding candidates that previously held a similar role. There has been a reluctance to consider anyone who might need a little runway into a particular role. But in a world where change is inevitable, every single job is evolving and so must our way of thinking.

With shrinking talent pools an ever-present threat, putting in place some additional training and onboarding could see you hiring in half the time (we’ll often see roles open for six months or more because the pool is so small). If you’ve chosen for the right skill set, your candidate will be capable of transitioning in a time-efficient manner. Remember, smart people want to be challenged, stretched, and exposed to new experiences.

I would argue that this is exactly how you get the better person. And it means you don’t have to compromise on other vital areas, such as finding the ideal fit for the missions and values of the business. The LinkedIn report suggests that a skills-first approach can expand your candidate pool by 500%!

Here in Ireland, there’s even more need to think outside the box when it comes to recruitment. As recruitment professionals – whether in-house or in agency – we need to think more about what type of person will thrive in the role and bring long-term value to the business. People who have been successful in one career have abilities and capabilities that make them an asset to whoever snaps them up. Let’s be smarter about recognising this, or we’ll lose great people to overseas markets.

Learn flexibility from career switchers

Younger generations are spearheading new approaches to careers and life at work. Many are no longer taking direct career pathways; instead, they are deliberately crossing sectors and departments with each job move. These professionals don’t see themselves cruising down the same career river for the next 30+ years but are actively looking for new horizons and opportunities to grow.

How do you proactively manage people in this group? It comes down to understanding what motivates them and being open to giving them real mobility within the company in order to keep them challenged and engaged. Retention isn’t just about salary. It’s also about progression, development, and learning. Workers who made an internal move at their organisation at the two-year mark have a 75% chance of remaining there, compared to 56% for those who haven’t.

Embracing skills over stereotypes

I have seen countless instances of people successfully doing jobs that could be seen as the polar opposite of the work they did previously. They are absolutely thriving in these roles that play to their strengths. I also hear a lot of feedback from candidates frustrated that their interest in a new sector or vertical is met with stony silence from hirers or recruiters.

It’s madness to think that the career we went off to train for at 17 is going to fulfil us until the day we retire. There’s increasing interest in lifelong learning and development across the generations, and plenty of the “old dogs” I opened this blog with are actively learning transferrable skills right up to retirement. In this landscape, a skills-first approach is the only way to guarantee a resilient, diverse workforce.

Personally, I’d love to see the development of formal programmes within organisations where they bring in people from wildly different careers and give them a taste of a role they might be compatible with from a skills perspective. I think the results would be valuable and rewarding on both sides. Like I always say, there’s no point in doing the same thing you’ve always done and then wondering why nothing is changing.

10 steps to eliminating gender bias in the recruitment process

Gender inequality persists in the finance industry, even as firms across the UK and Ireland grapple with challenges in identifying and recruiting talent. The pandemic only exacerbated gender disparities, disproportionately affecting women's employment. To fully understand gender inequality in financial services and how you can work to achieve gender balance, see our blog A comprehensive guide to achieving gender equality in financial services. 

As workers seek out new workplace modalities and opt for new career paths, what can recruiters do today to address gender balance challenges? Employers can take multiple steps to address gender bias in the recruitment process to resolve these issues and develop new, fairer procedures, as we'll see below.

The effect of gender bias on the gender gap

Numerous studies show the gap in gender equity remains persistent across industries, including the financial sector. A recent paper by the International Monetary Fund, focusing on fintech firms, revealed that women today hold only 10% of leadership positions (founders, co-founders, or executive board members).

The report also showed that having women in leadership positions is good for business. Those with a 10% more women in leadership saw a 13% boost in revenue and funding.

Structural barriers contributing to gender inequity persist. For example, in a recent report titled Women in Finance Charter Blueprint 2022, the authors note that the ratio of men to women in STEM higher education degrees is 65:35. Many recruitment communications, particularly job descriptions, are gendered, resulting in unintended bias during recruitment.

In addition, the recruitment cycle for women and men is different. Recruiting women takes, on average, 130 days compared to 90 for men. Men typically exaggerate and overstate their abilities and accomplishments, while women tend to understate the same. It’s important to read between the lines of what is on a resume or in a cover letter to determine which candidates are worth a closer look.

The consequences of gender bias in hiring are significant. Among other long-term impacts:

• It perpetuates gender inequities throughout the organisation
• It leads to and continues gender pay gaps within the organisation
• It reduces the breadth and depth of your talent pool, both for new hires and for internal promotions
• It could lead to legal action related to gender discrimination

How to eliminate gender bias in the recruitment process

There are lots of ways that finance companies can change their approach to recruiting to attract and hire more women. Most of them aren't even difficult to implement and won't require any major changes in internal policies or practices. Here are some simple steps to eliminate bias in your recruiting processes:

1. Set goals: Establish ambitious yet reachable gender diversity goals for the organisation, and ensure that there are metrics in place to track progress and quantify the work. Goal-setting can identify gaps in processes and procedures or other needs for the organisation to succeed.
2. Diversify hiring panels: Hiring panels should comprise members from different backgrounds, identities, experiences, and roles within the company. These panels should receive training on unconscious bias and diversity, equity, and inclusion within the hiring process.
3. De-identify applicants: Redacting or hiding details that could identify gender helps eliminate unconscious bias. Blind names on resumes, CVs, and cover letters is another approach. This methodology shows a candidate’s work history, experience, and contact information but omits gender, age, and ethnicity.
4. Standardise interviews: Interviewers should use standard interview questions for all candidates, rather than a casual approach to interviewing.
5. Expand the time horizon: Longer lead times for hiring should be used to account for the fact that women tend to require a longer hiring cycle.
6. De-gender hiring materials: All materials related to hiring -  including policies, marketing collateral, and job descriptions - should be reviewed to remove masculine words and images. Going even further than simply removing ‘he’ or ‘she’, recruiters should avoid using stereotypical male words like ‘leader’, ‘competitive’ or ‘dominant’ as research shows that this type of language only serves to maintain traditional gender divisions.
7. Set standards for candidate pools: Consider mandating that all interview pools and shortlists include equal numbers of men and women.
8. Recruit differently: Hold women-only recruitment events and work with recruitment agencies that specialise in building diverse candidate pools.
9. Use digital platforms: While digital recruiting platforms are not new, there is a new wave of tools leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to screen applicants and recommend who to interview. Platforms can also deliver customised tests that evaluate candidates’ abilities regarding specific job requirements.
10. Eliminate appearance-based decisions: According to a recent survey by Greene King, 51% of employers make snap judgements on applicants based on appearance. In addition to biases based on visible tattoos, hair colour, or clothing choices, gender judgements at the outset can cloud the recruitment process. As part of bias training, hiring panels should learn about these appearance biases.

Eliminating gender bias in the recruitment process is not just a goal, but a necessity for fostering a more inclusive and progressive future. By implementing a combination of measures, from critically evaluating job descriptions to fostering an unbiased interview atmosphere and leveraging technology, organisations can pave the way towards gender equality.

Embracing diversity strengthens teams and enriches perspectives, leading to innovative solutions and long-term success. As we navigate the path toward equitable recruitment, remember that change begins with a commitment to challenge bias wherever we see it and create a culture that values each candidate on their merit and potential. Let's reshape the recruitment landscape and empower a workforce that reflects the full spectrum of talent in our society.

Expertise to address gender bias in finance recruitment

To effectively tackle gender bias in finance recruitment, partnering with a recruitment expert with specialised knowledge in gender diversity and inclusion is crucial. These experts possess the insights and strategies needed to identify and rectify biases in recruitment processes, ensuring fair evaluation of candidates and facilitating the development of a more diverse and equitable workforce within the finance industry.

At Savvi Recruitment, we help companies eliminate gender bias in recruiting the most suitable and talented finance employee. We can anonymise applications, assist in standardising your recruiting process, and review job applications and descriptions to remove gendered language. A trusted recruitment partner will help your company take action right now and address the gender gap.

A comprehensive guide to achieving gender equality in financial services

Gender inequality in financial services is one of the most limiting parts of the industry today. Often unrecognised within organisations, gender inequality is an issue that all sectors of the financial services industry need to focus on. But what is gender equality, and why does it matter?

What is gender inequality in financial services?

Let’s break down what gender inequality really is and make it easier to notice in our day-to-day lives.

Gender equality means that the rights or opportunities of a person are not impacted by gender. While this often refers to women, trans women and non-binary people also struggle with inequality. This can be seen in all industries and sectors.

In many financial services organisations today, inequality results in many women not receiving the same or equal opportunities as men. There are a number of ways in which inequality in the financial services industry impacts women, including:

The gender pay gap in Irish financial services

One of the most prominent examples of gender inequality is in the gender pay gap. This pay gap is not a perceived belief, but it is backed up by data. New regulations require that private and voluntary organisations with over 250 employees must report information on their pay. Public sector employees also have the same reporting requirements. Employers are required to publish both the mean and the median pay for employees based on their gross hourly pay for women and men. The gap between these figures is reported as a percentage. Bonus information, including mean and median bonus gaps, must also be reported.

The information provided by this reporting helps us understand how significant the difference is in pay between men and women. Data from 2022 reporting shows that the gap is widest in the finance, banking, insurance, and construction sectors. The mean hourly pay gap for the insurance sector was an estimated 21.1%, nearly twice the national average. Although the exact reason for the gap varies by company and sector, a key factor appears to be the relatively high number of men in more senior and more highly paid roles, even though in Ireland women make up 45% of the workforce. 

There are fewer female employees in financial service organisations

As you may have guessed, the pay disparity between women and men isn't the only issue affecting gender equality. There is also a significant under-representation of women within the financial services sector, especially at a senior management level. That is, there are simply fewer women in the industry than there are men.

The Central Bank of Ireland's 2018 Behaviour and Culture report looked at the retail banking sector. Its findings led to the proposed new Individual Accountability Framework, with the Bill signed in late July 2022. The report identified a toxic culture in Irish retail banks and the CBI attributed much of this to a lack of gender diversity at a senior level in Irish retail banks. This lack of gender diversity leads to poor decision making and a greater appetite for risk (and we all know where that can take us).

“The Central Bank considers that diversity and inclusion in all their forms are important components of well-managed, financially resilient, strategically-minded firms, and therefore pertinent to the Central Bank’s mandate of Safeguarding Stability, Protecting Consumers.”

Central Bank of Ireland - Behaviour and Culture of the Irish Retail Banks, July 2018

The new Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR) and enhanced Fitness & Probity requirements should help to increase gender diversity within the financial services sector in Ireland and challenge the alpha male-dominated culture that has prevailed since the last century. We have already seen the impact of this within the industry with the CBI's more rigorous interview process for PCF approval.

There are fewer women on boards in financial service organisations

The board of directors of any organisation should be representative of its stakeholders. Diversity in perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise to ensure well-informed decision-making and effective governance. In many banking and financial companies, there are often few, if any, women on the board. This is an important and concerning factor. Financial services organisations need to consider the barriers for women serving on their boards.

Leadership within financial teams often plays a role in every decision made within the company. If there is inequality on the board, it's hard to see how the organisation will successfully create equality within the workforce. Decisions being made from a male viewpoint alone are not inclusive, comprehensive, or representative.

As the saying goes, you can’t be what you can’t see. Women on boards of directors and in other leadership positions within a company are important role models for mid-level and junior women. Creating opportunities for women across the business shows a desire to create an equal and fair workplace for all employees, in which everyone thrives.

The alpha male culture in financial services organisations

Without a doubt, the finance and banking sectors in Ireland and globally have a predominantly male culture. The perception is still that strong, aggressive, and dominating male figures do the best work in the industry. This culture is one of the strongest deterrents to women thinking of working in the industry, who anticipate problems fitting in and/or working their way up the career ladder in this macho environment.

Men in leadership positions within the financial sector often hold significant influence regardless of their actual achievements. Factors such as personal professional networks and social circles, unconscious bias, and cultural norms and stereotypes can lead to men being promoted over women. Studies have shown that women often need to demonstrate higher levels of performance and achievement to be perceived as equally competent as a male counterpart. This ‘double standard’ contributes to men in leadership roles being perceived as having a stronger impact than their female counterparts. 

Discrimination and harassment in the financial services sector

Other reasons for gender inequality for women in the finance sector are discrimination and harassment. Though society has improved significantly for women in many areas, the financial sector still has a large number of discrimination claims made against it on a consistent basis. Women are simply not being hired because they are not men.

Discrimination can be subtle and hard to see. There are instances where a male candidate might genuinely possess stronger credentials/qualifications and a wealth of experience for a particular role. However, it's important to acknowledge that when a female candidate presents the same qualifications, she might not receive equal consideration compared to a male candidate with fewer qualifications or less experience.

Harassment is another key factor that often limits the presence of women within financial organisations. While many companies have implemented measures to decrease harassment incidents, the effectiveness of these efforts relies on consistent application across all hierarchical levels. It's essential that anti-harassment policies are uniformly enforced to drive meaningful advancement. Within the financial service industry, women are more likely than men to experience harassment.

Why is diversity important in financial services?

Diversity is how we can work towards gender equality in financial services. Beyond being the ‘right thing to do’, there are proven commercial benefits for doing so. Research indicates that women add value to financial services teams in multiple ways. Companies with more diverse leadership are typically better able to create more diverse perspectives and better services to meet all customers and clients.

Looking at profitability, McKinsey & Company research shows that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom, while companies with more than 30% female executives were more likely to outperform companies that don’t. 

Inclusion helps leaders within these industries to ensure that the organisation is fully able to represent their employees as well as their customers. That includes in areas of demographics, cultures, and all backgrounds. Companies that do not offer this perspective are likely to be less desirable for women who need and use their services.

"To make progress in these areas, companies will typically require a step change in the level of courage and boldness they have displayed so far. They must also be ready to tackle sensitive topics around cultural norms, and to shine a spotlight on and apply consequences for individual behavior, including that in management and leadership."

McKinsey & Company, Diversity wins: How inclusion matters

For an in-depth look at this subject, we recommend the Diversity wins: How inclusion matters (2020) report from McKinsey & Company.

Nine ways to achieve gender balance in financial services

So the question is, how can organisations create more gender balance? Many financial industry firms recognise the need for change, and they want to create better inclusion. Most recognise the value of having women in key leadership positions.

Making it happen, though, is typically much more difficult. It is not just about hiring more women. Rather, a comprehensive approach must be taken to support women throughout the industry. To do that, it becomes important for companies to create policies that support female colleagues. This includes areas as far reaching as parental leave, caring for children and other dependents, and work flexibility.

This is no small process and there is no quick fix. Organisations that attempt to address the gender balance are better able to meet the unique needs of their female employees, who are typically still pulled in multiple directions in their personal and professional lives. Here are some ways organisations can make improvements.

1. Achieve gender balance by spotting areas of bias

One of the most important steps organisations can take to ensure they are creating the right atmosphere to promote gender equality is simply working to recognise bias. There are many ways this can be done, but looking for areas of specific bias towards women is crucial. For example, taking a proactive step towards recognising bias against mothers. Do business associates make comments or have beliefs that mothers cannot concentrate on the work at hand and therefore should not hold leadership roles? That could be a key area of concern.

Women of childbearing age may also be perceived as less reliable. If they have a child, and that would mean months of being unable to serve in the same capacity. This is, unfortunately, a thought process that many people in the industry have when making hiring or promotion decisions in the field. Recognise these beliefs and eliminate them to create a better culture of diversity.

Women of childbearing age and mothers can perform at the same level and contribute in the same way as men do. That they might have children should not be a deciding factor in any employment decision.

2. Achieve gender balance by being aware of unconscious bias

Not everyone that has biased beliefs recognises that they do. Unconscious bias typically originates from social stereotypes that an individual has internalised, and they are not conscious of the impact these beliefs have on their decision making. We all have unconscious biases, so the challenge for organisations is to create safeguards that eradicate the impact of these biases in decision-making.

Within the organisation, recognise that this is occurring so that change can happen. If a promotion is made, determine why that is. Is it based on true facts or is there an element of unconscious bias at play? By spotting all areas of unconscious bias like this, we can take steps in our organisation to eliminate it.

3. Achieve gender balance by eliminate biased recruitment policies

Biased recruitment policies contribute to a lack of gender equality in financial services. Opinions and beliefs about candidates based just on a first impression, for example, do not ensure a company hires the right candidate for the job. It is very common for hiring managers to form a significant opinion of a person based on that first impression.

Working to eliminate biased recruitment processes enables organisations to hire the best talent. Organisations should ensure they have:

• A diverse selection panel
• Removed gendered language from job descriptions
• Removed names and clues to gender or ethnicity on CVs at review stage
• Introduced standardised interview processes that provide consistent and transparent assessments

4. Achieve gender balance through gender pay gap reporting

As of May of 2022, reporting the gender pay gap is a legal requirement for many organisations in the public and private sectors in Ireland, including the financial services industry. Reporting is a good way to find insights into what is really happening within the company.

Organisations may assume reporting is just another task to complete to meet regulatory requirements. However, you can choose to see this as an opportunity to uncover patterns in the organisation's pay practices and question why disparities exist. Rather than an uncomfortable self-examination process, tackling endemic cultural issues or practices that lead to pay disparities and a lack of gender diversity will ensure more sustainable long-term growth for companies.

5. Achieve gender balance by identifying issues that affect women disproportionately

When developing hiring processes, employee policies, and other areas of employee management, pay closer attention to areas that are specifically concerning to women. These are typically issues that impact women more than they do men.

For example, childcare is an ongoing factor for many families. In Ireland, women still shoulder the majority of childcare responsibilities. When creating policies, ensure that childcare considerations are a factor. This could mean, for example, providing more childcare solutions at the workplace or providing financial support or more flexibility in working policies to ensure that women or men can fit their job around their caring responsibilities and are less likely to leave the workplace because it’s getting too much.

6. Achieve gender balance by attracting women to the industry

One way to encourage more women to work in the financial services sector is to hire women into key roles and make them a big part of the company's branding and image. This means having active marketing and supportive programmes to encourage more women to enter the field.

Some organisations go so far as to offer special incentives to women. Implementing mentorship and sponsorship programmes can provide guidance, support, and networking opportunities for women. These programmes can help women navigate their careers and access valuable insights from experienced professionals. Investing in training and skill development initiatives can help women enhance their capabilities and seize growth opportunities within the financial sector. This could include providing internships specifically for women. 

Collaborating with industry associations and advocacy groups to drive systemic changes that address gender disparities and promote diversity can also help to create a more inclusive landscape.

7. Achieve gender balance by promoting women to senior positions

For many organisations, it also becomes critical to focus heavily on positioning women in leadership positions within the company, including the C-suite and board of directors. Doing this encourages more women to recognise that they, too, can hold leadership positions.

Getting more women into senior positions does not mean just hiring because they are a woman, though. It means taking the initiative to create educational and skill-building programmes that help women move up the ladder within the organisation. This could include taking steps to ensure women are treated fairly at entry-level positions and then recognising their efforts to move up into the higher ranks of the organisation.

Ensuring transparent hiring and promotion processes that are free from bias can boost women's confidence in their opportunities for advancement.

8. Achieve gender balance by setting targets

Create equality related targets or goals for the company by defining clear and measurable targets for increasing the representation of women in various roles and levels within the organisation. The gender pay gap insights required for reporting could be a starting point. Focus on recognising that only a fair balance is ideal, then create strategies, programmes, and tools that encourage it.

Implement inclusive hiring practices that focus on attracting, recruiting, and retaining qualified women candidates. Consider strategies such as diverse interview panels and using gender-neutral language in job descriptions. Establish a system to regularly monitor and report on your progress and develop strategies for course correction if they are not being achieved. 

9. Achieve gender balance with equality training

Training is a key component in supporting equality, diversity, and inclusion. It helps to raise awareness, providing an understanding of the context and issues across a range of topics. Additionally, it can provide the means to deal with sensitive and difficult subjects such as unconscious bias. Education is key when overcoming prejudices and creating change, and gender equality in the workplace is no different.

Equality training contributes to fostering an inclusive workplace culture where all employees, regardless of gender, feel valued, respected, and empowered. Training for leaders and managers will help them understand the significance of their important role in promoting gender balance.

Policy training ensures that employees understand the organisation's policies relating to gender equality, anti-harassment, and anti-discrimination. This promotes compliance and sets expectations for behaviour. Teaching employees to be allies and advocates if also important for challenging stereotypes.

Create a Diversity and Inclusion Policy

Organisations that recognise the existence of gender bias and understand its impact on gender inequality can create a Diversity and Inclusion policy. This policy should cover every facet of the company, from the branding and marketing of positions to the hiring, training, and promotion of those in the company. 

A policy demonstrates the organisation's commitment to cultivating an equitable and diverse workplace. It encompasses clear definitions of terms, responsibilities for fostering inclusivity, non-discrimination assurances, strategies for diverse recruitment and promotion, and provisions for training, reporting, and addressing incidents of bias or discrimination. It serves as a guiding framework to create an environment where all employees feel valued and empowered, regardless of background. 

There is no doubt that the financial services industry still lacks gender equality, and it will take a refined and high level of focus to make the significant changes required.

Savvi Recruitment can help you address gender inequality

We offer comprehensive advisory in the form of a strategy workshop to help you get started on the road to gender equality. We help you resolve your key recruitment challenges and reduce gender bias in your recruitment process. ​We offer insights and guidance on:

• Available talent pools and market salaries
• Market trends on flexible working arrangements
• Employer branding
• Your recruitment process
• Employee retention strategies.

Contact us today to book a free strategy workshop with one of our experts!

Should you use Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for talent acquisition?

Every organisation wants to attract the best possible talent. In a competitive employment landscape, owning the talent acquisition cycle can seem appealing if you’re looking for a high degree of control over process, brand reputation, and candidate experience. However, there is an even better way: recruitment process outsourcing, or RPO.

What is a Recruitment Process Outsourcing service?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a fully managed service allowing you to outsource every aspect of recruitment without any loss of value or control - elevating candidate quality and driving organisational success.

An RPO team handles all recruitment tasks, including sourcing, screening, interviewing, and onboarding candidates, working closely with the rest of the human resources department. It’s a completely ‘white label’ service, with team members acting like any other company employee, providing a seamless experience for other areas of the business as well as for candidates.

It’s important to note that RPO is not the same as a placement service offered by recruitment agencies. The embedded RPO team contains a range of skills, including administration, support, and research – making it closer in profile to an HR team. This is what enables it to assure the end-to-end needs of talent acquisition tasks.

RPO is also a much more strategic service than placement. The team of experts will get to know the needs of the business, and provide timely advice in areas such as recruitment trends, employer branding, the hiring market, salary benchmarking, etc. RPO firms also maintain extensive networks of qualified candidates across industries, geographies, and job functions, giving you access to a broad range of candidates.

Why you need Recruitment Process Outsourcing

If you have an HR department, you may be wondering why talent acquisition isn’t best handled by HR. In larger multinationals, the HR department will be big enough to handle this function well. However, in smaller companies and enterprises, it’s unlikely that sufficiently experienced colleagues will have the capacity to take this on.

When a busy HR department is asked to take on talent acquisition, this will often lead to time crunching on other vital tasks, or assigning junior colleagues to this mission-critical responsibility. In addition, generalist HR staff don't typically have deep expertise in recruitment strategies, processes, or best practice. They also won’t have access to the kind of candidate network that an RPO firm does.

In most cases, it is far more effective to outsource recruitment and let HR focus on core functions such as employee development and engagement, policy development, compliance, change management, and DEBI. The RPO service will deliver a team with the right skill sets and expertise required to meet your specific culture, needs, and goals.

The components of best-in-class RPO:

• A seamless recruitment process and quality hires
• Alignment of recruitment strategies with company culture and values
• An internal talent pipeline for future growth and succession planning
• Deep understanding of the company's specific needs and skill requirements
• Less reliance on external recruitment agencies
• A consistent candidate experience and employer branding
• Ability to adapt and scale according to internal and external factors
• Retention of intellectual property and knowledge within the organisation

Is RPO more cost-effective for talent acquisition?

In a word, yes!

Recruitment Process Outsourcing is more effective and more efficient. RPO firms bring deep industry expertise and knowledge of advanced recruitment technologies, allowing them to streamline and automate almost every stage of the hiring process. This means faster turnaround times, reduced administrative burdens, and improved productivity for your HR team. A saving in itself.

In addition, RPO is a more cost-effective solution than creating a talent acquisition team in-house. You won’t need to divert any resources into managing this team, and it won’t incur any of the usual, hidden costs of typical employees. It’s a fully-managed, transparent solution that will feel just like an in-house team.

Traditional recruiting methods often involve hefty expenditures on job postings, advertising, background checks, and other hiring-related activities. RPO is vastly more cost-effective than using in-house HR resources backed up by agency recruitment.

RPO fees are also much more predictable than recruitment fees, with their variable costs. RPO services will be delivered on a regular, fixed-cost basis, giving the finance team the security of a monthly budget and predicable expenditure. Instead of investing in the various tools and resources required, you can benefit from the RPO provider's infrastructure and expertise.

A significant advantage of RPO is its scalability. If you need to ramp up hiring during peak periods or downsize during slower periods, your providers can quickly adjust their resources to meet your fluctuating needs. This flexibility ensures that your recruitment efforts align with your business demands without any requirement to hire and train additional in-house staff.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing offers a strategic advantage

As you can see, Recruitment Process Outsourcing offers many advantages for companies looking to optimise their talent acquisition efforts. By partnering with an RPO provider, you can tap into specialised expertise, streamline recruitment processes, and align your strategy with your unique culture and values.

RPO will help you build robust talent pipelines, enhance your employer brand, and adapt swiftly to changing market conditions. You can unlock greater control, cost savings, and agility while retaining valuable intellectual property. RPO is a strategic choice that empowers businesses to focus on their core competencies while gaining a competitive edge in today's dynamic talent landscape.

At Savvi Recruitment, we provide a tailored and flexible RPO service to companies of all sizes. While some larger RPO firms can struggle to deliver in niche roles, we have deep expertise across sectors such as financial services, risk and compliance, asset management, and insurance. Finding and collaborating with a trusted recruitment partner will help you secure the talent your business deserves.

Time for a change? Signs that you might be ready for a new job

If your weekdays are starting to feel like Groundhog Day, it might be a sign that change is in the air. In this blog, we explore the telltale signs that you're primed for a new professional adventure.

Changing jobs is a big decision and one that should be given lots of thought and consideration. We always advise candidates to determine and understand the reasons they want to leave their current job before jumping into action. Identifying why you are having these feelings is important - is the issue where you work, what you're doing, or your own motivation and appetite for the role? Unravelling these questions is step one.

Understand your desire to change jobs

This will require a phase of introspection and evaluation. Here are some practical steps you can take to understand your motivations:

• Pinpoint what specifically feels unsatisfactory about your current job. Is it the tasks, the environment, your colleagues, the company culture, or something else? Evaluate factors like job responsibilities, autonomy, recognition, and support.
• Note down moments or situations that consistently trigger negative emotions or dissatisfaction. This can help you identify patterns and common denominators.
• Make a list of your core values and compare them with your current job's alignment. If there's a significant mismatch, this could be a source of discontent.
• Evaluate whether your job offers opportunities for skill development, career advancement, and learning. Assess whether it aligns with your long-term career goals and aspirations. If you're feeling stagnant, this might contribute to your desire for change.
• Consider whether your job allows for a healthy work-life balance. If it's consistently affecting your personal life, it could be a reason for wanting to leave.
• Discuss your feelings with a mentor, coach, or trusted friend. They can provide an external perspective and offer valuable insights. Consider consulting a career counsellor or coach who can guide you through a structured assessment.
• Evaluate your relationships with colleagues and supervisors. Think about how your job impacts your personal growth and well-being. If interpersonal dynamics are causing stress, it might influence your decision.
• Create a list of pros and cons or a mind map for your current job. This visual aid can help you see the factors influencing your decision more clearly.
• Envision your ideal work situation and compare it to your current reality. Identify the gaps and consider how you might bridge them. Reflect on any external factors, such as industry changes, economic trends, or personal circumstances, that could be influencing your decision.

Try to develop a fair and reasoned assessment of your situation, so you can make an informed decision. However, you should still listen to your instincts, as sometimes a gut feeling can provide valuable insights that logic alone might overlook.

Speak with your manager about issues with your job

If the idea of changing your job still resonates after taking the time to reflect on it, we suggest that a good first step is to have a discussion with your manager. If they know that you are having concerns or issues, they can try to address these with you. You might decide to bring this up during your formal review, but that isn't obligatory and if you are very unhappy you shouldn't wait. However, addressing any misalignment between you and your job can be a natural follow-on if you're already discussing your performance, achievements, and career development plans.

Be honest with your manager, but also reasonable about how quickly a potential solution can be implemented. If you want a promotion, this may simply not be possible overnight, and you may have to wait for the opportunity to come up or accept a sideways move instead. Uplifts in salary or performance-related bonuses may be reliant on factors outside your manager's control so, again, may involve waiting.

But lots of other initiatives and solutions could be much simpler to implement depending on the organisation - for example, professional development or training courses, moving to a different team, being assigned a mentor, or opting for hybrid working. If you are looking to progress internally, ask for a timeframe so that you can set your expectations. If the date comes and goes and nothing has changed, you can move on.

Signs you could be ready for a job move

These are some common signs that it's time to change jobs. Do any of these resonate with you? If so, it could mean it’s time to consider making a career move.

1. You’re ready for the next step in your career

If you find yourself increasingly daydreaming about new challenges, different work environments, or more meaningful contributions, it might mean that your current role is no longer aligning with your aspirations. If you’re ready for the next step in your career, but your conversation with your manager hasn't helped you see how to get there, it could be that there is no further room for progression at your current employer. 

Restlessness isn't uncommon, and we will often see financial services professionals starting to think about moving on after two or three years if they aren't progressing within the company. So if you’re feeling less challenged in your role, you could just be ready for your next step.

2. You’ve plateaued in your current position

The ‘next step’ isn't always about a promotion, however. Sometimes, all we need to remain interested and engaged with a job is the ability to learn something new, develop another skill, or discover a fresh perspective. The desire to continue learning and growing is a natural part of career progression, so maybe you need to go out and identify those opportunities for yourself. If you feel like you’ve accomplished as much as you can in your current company, this could be a sign you'll need to look elsewhere to progress to the next stage of your career. 

3. You feel like the grass is always greener

Alignment with the company's values and mission plays a crucial role in job satisfaction. If you find that your personal values no longer resonate with those of your employer, it can lead to a sense of detachment and dissatisfaction. Feeling disconnected from the company's purpose might indicate that you're seeking a different work environment entirely.

Do you find yourself looking at peers or friends who are thriving in their roles and feeling a touch of envy? While a healthy level of competition can be motivating, consistently feeling envious of others might be a sign that you're ready for a positive change in your own career.

4. You want a different relationship with your job

If you spend your Sunday evenings moping about the house, dreading the impending work week, your job may have become toxic. Similarly, if you feel consistently overwhelmed and anxious, it's time to reflect on whether your job is contributing to this feeling. A reluctance to get out of bed in the morning or leave the house could be an indication that your current role is no longer fulfilling your professional needs.

As you explore your career options, have you started envisioning yourself thriving in a different role or industry? Fantasising about a job that aligns with your skills, passions, and aspirations is a strong indicator that you're yearning for change. This daydreaming might just be the catalyst to kick-start your journey toward a fulfilling new position.

Make a three-year plan for your career

It is always a good idea to create a plan for your future career. What might the next one to three years with your current employer look like? What do the career plans of your peers working in other firms look like? What steps should you take now to advance your career, whether with your current company or externally?

While change can be intimidating, it's also an opportunity to grow, learn, and take charge of your professional destiny. Whether you're just feeling restlessness, longing for a bigger challenge, or needing more alignment with your values, remember that your career path is yours to shape. Embrace the signs, trust your instincts, and embark on a new chapter filled with exciting possibilities!

Get advice and insights from a specialist recruiter

It can be quite daunting to start the process of moving on. It can really help to bounce ideas off a specialised recruiter in your area to get an overview of what is available, what could appeal to you, and what you would be a good fit for. We advise engaging with a specialist recruiter because this will avoid a lot of the leg work involved in changing jobs. Instead of falling into a research black hole on Google, get relevant and specific guidance from an expert, including factors such as job market trends or salary benchmarking. The more information you have, the more informed your decision will be. 

It's notoriously hard to find a new job when already in a job. Tailoring CVs and preparing for interviews is very time-consuming, so don't underestimate the work that will be involved. Engaging with a recruiter who specialises in your industry can save you a lot of time and make you more targeted in your applications. If you’re looking to change jobs, take a look at our open roles and get in touch with us for a completely confidential discussion.

Tips on returning to work after a career break

Technology and regulations in finance are constantly changing. This makes a return to work after a career break a challenging prospect. However, with the right support and resources, returning professionals can successfully re-enter the workforce and contribute their skills and experience to the industry. Here, we discuss the reasons for a career break, the impact of technology and changes over the period of the career break, return to work programs, candidates for jobs from a recruitment perspective, hiring people with relevant skillsets, part-time return to work, and diversity and inclusion.

There are many reasons why someone may take a career break, including caring for a child or elderly relative, pursuing further education or training, dealing with personal health issues, or simply taking a break from work to reassess career goals. It is important for employers to understand and respect these reasons and not view career breaks as a negative factor in a candidate's application.

One of the challenges facing returning professionals in the financial services sector is the rapid pace of technological advancement and regulatory changes. As a result, people may feel they have fallen behind in their knowledge and skills. However, many companies offer training and upskilling programs to help people returning to the sector catch up with the latest developments in the industry. These programs may include coaching, mentoring, training, and flexible working arrangements. Deloitte have an excellent return-to-work program, says Savvi Recruitment’s Lisa Scollan. “They offer a six-month placement to individuals where they get internal coaching and mentoring. They’re paired with someone in the organisation that can be there to give them support on a day to day basis.” This lets Deloitte leverage the skills and abilities of talented people, even when they’ve been out of the workforce for a number of years.

Companies like Deloitte are looking beyond traditional qualifications and considering other factors such as problem-solving skills, adaptability, and resilience. Savvi Recruitment's John Ennis notes that some of his clients are “tapping into a very highly skilled market of people who have taken a career break for lots of different reasons”. These companies, he says, are “targeting those people who've been out for maybe between two and fifteen years”.

For positions like this, Savvi Recruitment sees our clients focusing on the skills and experience that are relevant to the role, rather than the length of time since the candidate was last in work. Many returning professionals prefer to return to work on a part-time basis, particularly if they are still caring for children or elderly relatives. In response to these needs, employers are offering flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing or part-time hours. Part-time work is a strong tactic in these circumstances. Savvi Recruitment’s Therese Cadell says “I've had good conversations with clients in areas where there's a shortage of a certain skillset; internal audits or risk compliance, for example. Those clients will look at taking somebody who's very experienced back on a part-time basis or on a three-day week.” 

Diversity and inclusion are important considerations in this context. Obviously, employers are aiming to create a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture that values diversity and supports individuals from all backgrounds, and people coming back from career breaks can contribute greatly to this.

Returning to work after a career break in the financial services sector can be challenging, but with the right support and resources, it can also be a rewarding and fulfilling experience. Employers should consider candidates who have taken a career break and focus on their skills and experience, rather than the length of time since they were last in work. Return to work programs, flexible working arrangements, and upskilling opportunities can all help to support returning professionals in their transition back to the workforce. Furthermore, creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace culture that values diversity and supports individuals from all backgrounds is essential to attract and retain talent in the financial services sector.

The pros and cons of the four-day working week in Ireland

The concept of a four-day working week has gained popularity in recent years, and for good reason. The traditional five-day work week has been in place for decades, but many people believe it's time for a change. This shift has been supported by various trials conducted in different countries, including Ireland, and it’s making the companies taking it up much more attractive for potential employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes in the way we work, including a shift towards remote work and more flexible working arrangements. As we emerge from the pandemic, there is plenty of opportunity to rethink the traditional working week and embrace more innovative working patterns. Many companies are already offering more flexible working arrangements in response to the pandemic, and this idea of the four-day work week could be the next step.

There are several immediate benefits to the four-day work week. Most straightforwardly, it can improve work-life balance, leading to increased job satisfaction and better mental health. A shorter work week can also lead to increased productivity, as employees have more time to rest and recharge. It can also lead to cost savings, as companies may be able to reduce their office space, utility bills, and other overheads.

Almost all organisations that have implemented the four-day working week have reported immediate positive results (Silicon Republic says that fully 100% of employees indicated that they preferred a reduced work schedule). Employees report feeling more energised and productive, with more time to focus on personal activities and interests. Employers have reported reduced absenteeism and higher staff retention rates, as well as increased productivity and job satisfaction.

Implementing a four-day work week requires planning and consideration. Companies must ensure that the workload is distributed evenly across the four days and that employees have the resources they need to work efficiently. Communication is also key, as employees must be aware of their responsibilities and deadlines. It's important to have clear guidelines around working hours and availability, particularly if employees are working from home.

Several of Savvi Recruitment’s client companies have been trialling four-day weeks, with considerable success. Therese Cadell observes that one of her clients, an employee-focused and family-friendly company, is having a good experience. “It's early days, but it appears to be going well,” she said. “The model they're using is that people are still working a forty-hour week, but over four longer days rather than five. The business is not shutting up shop, on any particular day, though - this model uses staggered working hours. So they always have five-day cover for phones and clients, but each staff member is working four days out of five.”

Lisa Scollan’s is aware of a company that has been enthusiastic enough about the four day week to go on radio about it. Cavan and Longford-based KBG Accountants have been trialling it for some months, and have “nothing but good things to say about it”. Lisa continued “The way they’re implementing it is that staff are off either on a Monday or a Friday, and they each do four eight-and-a-half hour days through the rest of the week. Mark Reilly, one of the senior partners, says that their productivity has gone up, morale has gone up, and retention of staff is absolutely excellent.” They’ve published some of the results on their website.

Obviously, there are practicalities to be considered, such as the phone coverage mentioned above, and for customer-facing staff, care needs to be taken around scheduling meetings and deadlines. If companies are using the model with four ten-hour days, then there may need to be adjustments to building opening times, the presence of key-holders, and the timing of security and cleaning staff. It does appear, though, from the experiences of Savvi Recruitment’s clients who are trialling it, that these considerations don’t present much of an obstacle.

One of the most notable outcomes of the four-day week, as noted by KBG Accountants, is employee retention. Lisa notes “the way Mark Reilly put it is that if staff go to leave for somewhere else they're ultimately going to have to work a five-day week, which would be a big change for them.” The benefits of the four day week are clear enough to employees that very few would be willing to leave it behind. Savvi Recruitment’s John Ennis observes that this gives early movers a very attractive offering, “if you're presenting a four day working week as a key feature to the candidate market, which is notoriously competitive at the moment, it gives a definite competitive advantage in the market.”

Not all sectors will be able to take up the four-day week. Therese notes that healthcare and hospitality companies, which don’t really have a five-day week, will not be able to make much use of the four-day model. Even in these industries, though, the staggered approach wherein any given staff member only does four days, while maintaining full coverage, might be applied. And indeed, there are arguments that it could be a step toward resolving a crisis in retention in the healthcare sector.

Plan and execute a successsful career move in financial services

Making a career move can be a daunting prospect. Apart from the stress and upheaval, the process itself can take up to six months by the time you factor in the hiring cycle and notice periods. Planning and foresight, however, can make things much easier. Read on for valuable insights and advice on how to start your career move.

When is the best time to change jobs?

Plenty of people start to think about making moves from one employer to another in the New Year. But one of the key factors to consider when making a career change is the payment of bonuses. In the Irish financial services sector, many companies pay out bonuses in February or March. If having this financial cushion when making the transition to a new job is important for you, it's probably worth waiting until after you have received your bonus before making any decisions. 

On the flip side, waiting too long could mean missing out on a golden opportunity. So that you're ready to strike at the perfect time, start talking to recruiters about your job change well in advance. They will provide completely confidential careers advice, so you can start your preparations long before you need to make any decisions. If you're returning to work after a career break, timing won't really be an issue.

How long does it take to change jobs in financial services?

As we mentioned above, it can take time to find and move into a new job. In the Irish financial services sector, notice periods of up to three months are typical - particularly at managerial levels and above - which means that’s the absolute earliest point at which you can be in the new role. The recruitment process itself can also take time and is impacted by a range of factors, including the level of competition for the role and the complexity of the organisation. The overall time between your decision to move to starting in the new role can be as much as five or six months. So if you want to be comfortably situated in your new role by Christmas, April is the best time to get going.

If time is of the essence for you, remember that smaller firms may well have more agile practices and a faster decision-making processes. This can potentially cut the hiring cycle to four to six weeks. The bigger firms in Irish financial services and consulting do tend to take up to twelve weeks, and then you'll have to work through your notice period.

Start the process of looking for a new financial services job

To increase your chances of success, it’s vital to be proactive in your job search. This may include networking with industry contacts, leveraging online job search platforms, and looking for a suitable agency to partner with. In fact, we recommend talking to an experienced recruiter early in the process. They will talk to you about current trends they are seeing in the job market, what skills and competencies are in demand, what salary ranges are being offered, and other guidance that can help you optimise your approach. Even if you decide it's not quite the right time for you now, this will be a valuable conversation to have.

Here are some other ways to prepare for a successful job search

1. Think about your non-negotiables
   Everyone is different, and your ideal job could be anathema to someone else. So be clear with yourself about what you want and don't want. This will save you time, as you won't apply for jobs that aren't a good fit. Consider also factors such as the possibility of working from home, hybrid working, four-day working weeks, and so forth, all of which can be important factors in your decisions. Make a list, and discuss it with your recruitment agency to understand if you may need to adjust your expectations.
2. Choose a recruitment agency
   Specialist recruitment agencies such as Savvi Recruitment are the best possible resource when looking for a new job. They have access to a wide range of opportunities and can help you navigate the recruitment process, as well as advising you on your CV, LinkedIn profile changes, etc. A knowledgeable recruiter will be able to provide you with a lot of information to help improve your search. 
3. Update your CV and LinkedIn profile: Your CV and LinkedIn profile are two of the most important tools that you have in your job search toolkit. Make sure that both are up-to-date (see our blog about writing a great CV), aligned, and tailored to the roles that you are interested in. Incorporate relevant keywords in your CV and application to increase your chances of being noticed by automated applicant tracking systems (ATS).
4. Update your knowledge of the landscape
   Especially if you've been on a break or working abroad, take time to research the key players, major firms, and trends shaping the industry. It will help you tailor your approach, and you'll be able to demonstrate your up-to-the-minute insights in covering letters or interviews. Given Ireland's prominence as a financial hub, sound understanding of Irish and EU financial regulations and compliance standards could be a deciding factor.
5. Start networking
   Reach out to industry contacts, attend relevant events, and consider joining professional organisations to build your network. You never know where your next opportunity may come from! Don't forget that LinkedIn has also become a vital networking tool for Irish professionals. 
6. Start applying for roles
   Once you have identified opportunities that are a good fit for your skills and experience, don't be afraid to apply. As well as the popular job websites, visit the career pages of major financial institutions in Ireland to find job openings. Tailor your application to each position you apply for and address the specific skills and experiences that align with the job requirements.
7. Prepare for your interviews
   If shortlisted, thoroughly research the company and be ready to discuss your expertise in relation to the role and the Irish financial services environment. Don't forget to demonstrate your familiarity with Central Bank of Ireland regulations, AML directives, and MiFID II requirements where relevant.
8. Follow up after the interview
   After interviews, send a thank-you email expressing your interest in the role and appreciation for the opportunity to discuss your suitability.
9. Don't give up!
   Job hunting can take time. Stay persistent, continue networking, and refine your approach based on feedback.

Looking to move jobs in the Irish financial services industry?

If you have been thinking about making a career move in any of the financial services or related sectors (banking, insurance, asset management, fintech, etc.), talk to Savvi Recruitment. We can help you stand out during the recruitment process and land that perfect next job. We'll help you find the best roles to match your skill set, connect you with employers, and prepare you for the recruitment process. Get in touch for a confidential discussion today. 

How to write the perfect CV (and avoid some common mistakes)

Ready for a change? If you've been considering a career move (if you're still not sure, check out our blog about the signs you're ready for a new job), it could be time to dust off your old CV. Your CV is a vital tool for showcasing your skills and experience, so this professional introduction to potential employers needs to be as good as it can be. Luckily, our experts are on hand to offer some top CV writing tips!

While a well-crafted CV is essential to stand out from the crowd, many employers will only spend 20 to 30 seconds looking at your CV. That means you need to make a strong first impression and be sure that the document reflects the attributes most relevant to the position to which you’re applying.

The elements of a great CV

It's a competitive job market, so we're walking you through the steps to create a winning CV that highlights your strengths and captures the attention of recruiters. We'll also shed light on common mistakes to steer clear of, ensuring your CV leaves a lasting impression for all the right reasons.

1. Start with a strong career summary

After your personal details, the first thing on your CV should be a strong personal profile. Think of it as an elevator pitch that concisely summarises who you are and what you’ve done - your key skills, professional background, and career goals. The statement is an excellent way to introduce yourself and explain why you’re the ideal candidate for the job.

This executive summary sets the tone for the rest of your CV. It should be tailored to the specific job you're applying for to immediately grab the reader's attention. Be sure to use action-oriented words that highlight what you’ve done and accomplished. For example, rather than say you were “responsible for” ("responsible" is an adjective), say you “spearheaded” or “oversaw” or “coordinated” (these are action verbs). See this comprehensive list of action words, grouped by duty or accomplishment, to get some inspiration.

The personal profile should give readers a compelling, quick insight into you and encourage them to read on.

2. Showcase relevant experience and skills

Your work experience section should highlight roles and responsibilities that directly relate to the job you're seeking. As well as experience, this section allows you to present sector-specific and transferable skills (hard skills and soft skills like communication, problem-solving, or adaptability) and aptitudes, which can help you demonstrate you are the ideal candidate. Tailor this section to emphasise how your experience aligns with the employer's needs.

3. Quantify your achievements

Don't just list your responsibilities in each role, quantify your achievements whenever possible. Did you win an award? Did you manage a large team? Did you achieve a quantifiable reduction in risk? Quantifiable accomplishments provide concrete evidence of your contributions to past organisations and ability to meet goals.

4. Include all the necessary information

Your CV, no matter what the industry or role, and regardless of other formatting, should include the following information:

• Personal information, including your name, email address, and telephone number
• The personal profile, or executive summary
• Work experience, including the company names and locations, jobs held, and dates of employment
• Education, including institutions attended, graduation dates, degrees earned, and honours
• Skills and capabilities, e.g., project management, certifications, coursework, and software
• Hobbies, which can personalise you and give you a connection with an employer looking at the CV

Recruiters often skim CVs, so keep it concise. You need to balance effectively representing the scope of your experience and abilities with turning your CV into a novel. Focus on the most relevant and recent experiences, which could mean cutting older or non-relevant work experience in order to prioritise quality over quantity.

How to make your CV stand out

In addition to the above advice, here are a few suggestions that will give you a leg up when looking for a financial services position:

• Start with a template: Avoid the dreaded ‘blank screen syndrome’ by turning to one of the hundreds of sites with offering CV templates. These tools can help you get started and ensure that you’re including everything needed for an effective CV.
• Use the hobby section: A shared interest or hobby can make a connection and can also act as a good lead-in for an interviewer, helping to set you at ease.
• Rate your skills: It’s one thing to list your skills; it’s another to quantify and contextualise them. Provide concrete evidence of skills - for example, don't just say “leadership skills” but say “managed a team of 10 sales representatives, achieving a 25% increase in monthly sales targets”. Instead of “compliance skills”, say something like “ensured adherence to evolving regulatory standards by leading a team in conducting quarterly audits, resulting in a 100% pass rate”.

Customising your CV is essential

Customising your CV for each role is a critical step for job applicants. An employer will have a specific profile and fit in mind, so it's important to make sure the CV matches the criteria. Tailor your CV to align with the job posting. Bring forward the skills, roles, achievements and experiences that are most salient and ditch those that have no relevance. It is time-consuming to do, but it's a mistake to send the same CV with every application.

My colleague, John Ennis, always points out that a CV is like any other marketing document. Its job is to get you an interview and start a conversation with the prospective employer. To do that, it has to present the most relevant information for any role.

Customisation also matters when it comes to the industry in which you’re applying. For example, formality is essential in CVs for professional services and financial services sectors. A plain CV is best; logos, graphics, and flash design is more appropriate for those seeking work in creative industries.

Common CV mistakes to avoid

What should you not do on your CV? Here are a few of the most common errors that can stop even the most qualified candidate from moving forward in the hiring process:

1. Spelling and grammar errors: Proofread meticulously to eliminate typos, spelling mistakes, and grammatical errors. They can make you appear careless and undermine your professionalism. Don't simply rely on Word to check your work, print your CV out (it's much easier to see mistakes on paper than on a screen) and ask at least one other person to read it for you.
2. Inconsistent formatting: A clean, organised format is crucial. Use clear headings, bullet points, and a consistent font to ensure your CV is easy to read. Avoid using multiple fonts or elaborate designs that distract from your content - they can make the document appear busy and amateurish.
3. Length: Brevity is important, so keep your CV to two or three pages in length. Don't make recruiters wade through irrelevant facts to find the information they really need. If you find your CV is too long, consider eliminating content that’s irrelevant to the job you’re seeking, combining sections, and reducing the length of your personal profile.
4. Bias risks: CV reviewers can be biased (consciously or unconsciously). If you think you might be affected by factors such as gender bias in recruitment, mitigate the risk by removing your photo and gender identifiers.
5. Covering notes or letters: This isn't a mistake as such, but covering notes and letters are on the way out, so there is no need to include one unless the job advertisement requests one.

If you are getting back into the job market, talk to an experienced recruitment consultant. At Savvi Recruitment, we help place qualified candidates in executive positions, contract/temp roles, and full-time jobs. We work with financial services firms and professionals every day to find great matches. To learn more about how we can help you land the ideal financial services job, contact us today for a confidential discussion.  Alternatively, browse our open roles in areas such as banking, insurance, compliance, and risk.

Ireland’s first Women in Finance Charter: process and progress

Ireland’s Women in Finance Charter was put together in April 2022. It establishes and documents the financial services industry’s intent for increased participation of women at every level, including junior, middle and senior management, as well as directorship roles within Irish financial services organisations.

The Charter itself as well as its guidance notes and templates were developed by the industry to assist companies in fostering and harnessing the talents and experiences of women in financial services, which is essential to the development of a strong “pipeline of talent”. This is intended to lead to greater diversity of thinking, lived experience, and leadership in decision-making, for the overall benefit of the business and the wider financial services community.

Ireland’s Women in Finance Charter represents a positive step forward in the attempt to level the playing field for women in the Irish financial services sector. It seeks not only to encourage more women to join the financial services industry and to create more parity between men and women, but also to track progress made towards those goals.

Naturally, these first steps still have a long way to go. However, we are seeing positive change already. Therese, Partner at Savvi Recruitment,  John, a director, and Lisa, the Operations Manager, sat down to talk about what changes are occurring and what we can expect from the Women in Finance Charter in the future.

Setup of the Women in Finance Charter

As Lisa explains, “the charter is a government-led measure to encourage gender diversity across the financial services industry in Ireland”. While it's not a requirement for companies to sign up, they can do so as a way of showing their commitment to increasing gender diversity within the financial services industry. Thus far, more than 50 companies have signed up.

A number of Ireland’s lead financial organisations have put their weight behind the charter, including some of Savvi Recruitment Consultants Clients; Irish Life, Deloitte, Elavon, FBD to name a few.

By signing the Charter, organisations are committing to working towards gender balance at all levels within their organisations and to implementing specific targets for the promotion, retention and development of women in their workforce. The charter requires signatories to publish annual progress reports detailing the steps they have taken towards meeting their targets. 

The importance of the Charter

The Women in Finance Charter is important for a number of reasons:

1. Promoting gender diversity: The charter aims to promote gender diversity in the financial services industry in Ireland by encouraging financial institutions to take action to improve the representation of women at all levels of their organisations. This includes improving the representation of women in senior management and leadership positions.
2. Improving the financial services sector: By improving gender diversity, the financial services sector in Ireland will be better able to serve the needs of all its customers and respond to the demands of a changing society. Research has shown that companies with more gender-diverse management teams tend to have better financial performance, higher innovation and stronger customer satisfaction.
3. Addressing gender imbalance: There is a gender imbalance in senior roles within companies in Ireland, as in many other countries. Women are underrepresented in senior management and leadership positions, particularly in the financial services sector. The Women in Finance Charter hopes to address this imbalance by encouraging financial institutions to take specific actions to promote, retain and develop women in their workforce.

Action within Organisations

Ireland's Women in Finance Charter hopes to encourage businesses to pay more attention to whom they’re hiring and how much they’re paying, with a special emphasis on the disparities between men and women.

“That's important from a recruitment perspective as well,” says John. “It’s about getting the most qualified candidate for the role, but if you don't have enough suitably qualified gender-balanced candidates through learning, development and mentorship, you can’t produce that balanced and diverse shortlist of candidates.”

It’s more than recognising that women make good candidates as well, though. Parity also requires recognising that the realities are different for men and women. Thankfully companies have more inclusive policies across all genders. They have recognised employee requirements regarding the likes of pregnancy, maternity cover, parental leave (maternity and paternity) and even IVF – all of which, unaddressed, take their toll on careers at the partner and director levels. 

Leadership in Achieving Balance

Ireland's Women in Finance Charter will also help to increase perspectives in the boardroom. As John points out, having women at the senior management table “is not just going to increase your productivity, it's going to increase your all-round holistic view from a risk and compliance perspective”.

In this way, Therese says, the charter is designed to bring more women into the financial sector, and to advance the careers of women who are already working there.

Savvi Recruitment is helping to drive change by adhering to protocols to prevent bias, and creating adverts that bring women to the table and create fully vetted, gender-equal lists of candidates. We hope that Ireland’s Women in Finance Charter is but a first step in the direction of closing the gender gap once and for all.

How to achieve gender balance in your recruitment processes

When a business identifies a need for recruitment, the initial response to advertise the role should be paused to allow for important considerations. We at Savvi Recruitment recommend that a business seeking new employees conducts an internal review first to determine if the team is well-balanced - and if not, what needs to be done to correct the imbalance. Are people with a particular skill set needed? Is there a lack of diversity in one or more fields, be it gender, ethnicity, age, or civil status? If there is an imbalance, can it be addressed in-house before recruiting new employees? As our co-founder Therese Cadell points out, many successful Irish financial service firms are putting a priority on helping staff get the mentorship and guidance they require to progress up the ranks. A firm should balance external recruitment campaigns with internal recruitment strategies.

"The financial services sector has evolved," explains our Recruitment Director John Ennis. "We're increasingly asked by our clients to present a diverse shortlist of candidates. More women are in Irish financial services than there were before and getting qualified candidates of both genders is not as challenging as it would have been even five or six years ago." John explains that outsourcing the creation of a diverse shortlist to a professional recruitment agency that understands the importance of a diverse workplace is an important step in increasing an inclusive work environment that attracts customers and top-tier professionals alike. Even so, it's not the only thing a financial service firm should do to create a balanced team.

Gender-inclusive advertising

Creating a gender-inclusive advert is important in order to attract the right candidates, Therese explains. Words that highlight qualities and characteristics associated with men will likely attract more male candidates than female candidates. Such words can include but are not limited to, "competitive", "dominant" or "leader". On the other hand, words such as "support", "understand", and "interpersonal" appeal to women and will thus likely attract more female candidates than male. "That's your first step", Therese says. "Any companies coming to us, we can give them guidance on the whole process from start to finish so that you're going to attract both genders, but always with an eye on the end-goal that you get the best candidate, irrespective of gender, for your company and for the position."

Granted, assessing gender balance in financial services is easier than doing so for IT and construction companies. The CSO Labour Force Survey for Quarter 3 2022 shows that only 9.1% of Irish construction industry employees are women (although this is up quite considerably from 6% in 2018). In the IT industry, only 22% of middle management level employees are female. In both instances, it is clear that cultural norms in these industries are keeping many women out even though many individual companies are making an effort to diversify their workforce. For such companies, gender-neutral advertising can play a key role in enabling a firm to create a balanced workforce with the skills and abilities needed to propel the company forward; although we have to concede that such companies automatically attract more male candidates than female ones. 

While in some cases women may be uninterested in certain roles, past bias in these industries keeps women out because a lack of job and job advancement opportunities in these fields has made it impossible for women to gain the experience and expertise many employers need in advanced positions. What's more, many women and minority ethnicities are hesitant to join a firm that isn't diverse. Thus, the fewer women there are in certain industries, the fewer women will want to join firms in these industries. Even so, Savvi Recruitment's tools and expertise have enabled it to produce a very strong gender-balanced shortlist for 95% of all its clients.

Preventing bias in the interview process

"The best thing to do is to start, if you can, with a gender-balanced interview panel," Therese explains. Because humans, including those with the best of intentions, have inherent biases and preconceived ideas, a diverse interview panel ensures that no one individual's unconscious biases keep a good employee from taking on a necessary role in the firm.

John adds that such a panel should use a list of core competencies and core requirements. He points out that interviewers must be aligned around what the company is looking for so that each candidate is asked the same structure and format of questions to accurately compare each applicant's skills and abilities in key fields. Keeping a score tally helps prevent bias in the interview process because candidates are judged solely on their abilities rather than other factors such as age, gender, or physical appearance. John also notes that a company will need to determine which skills and qualities are "must-haves" and which are "nice-to-haves", as it is unrealistic to expect any employee, male or female, to have all the required skills and qualities a company may be looking for.

Achieving and maintaining gender balance can be a change for an organisation, but it's one they have to overcome. We understand the importance of an inclusive workforce and offers all the tools and expertise any firm needs to target and identify the right candidates for any position in any industry.

Gender pay gap reporting in Ireland and four ways to effect change

Until quite recently, Irish employers were under no legal obligation to report employee pay gaps according to gender. That all changed dramatically after the passage of the Gender Pay Gap Information Act which went into effect in May of 2022. This legislation currently only applies to companies that employ at least 250 people, but this threshold will decrease to just 50 people by 2025.

In short, the Gender Pay Gap Information Act requires employers to publish public records of their gender pay gap rates. Of course, this reported information can have a profound effect on profitability and general company health in areas that range from recruitment outreach to public perception and opinion.

As reported in The Irish Examiner, the average national gender pay gap in Ireland is roughly 14 percent. This provides companies in Ireland with an established benchmark for success or failure in this critical human resources statistic. Companies that have a better than average gap - or none at all! - can use that to attract the best candidates. Those with a wider gap have work to do.

Key elements influencing the gender pay gap 

Irish gender pay gap reporting recently emerged as an important topic of discussion for us at Savvi Recruitment. In our in-depth analysis, we identified four fundamental elements that are exerting a profound influence over the gender pay gap in Ireland. By meeting challenges and leveraging opportunities in these areas, senior executives can escape the pitfalls of the gender pay gap while reaping the benefits of closing it.

Senior roles

In the words of our co-founder Therese Cadell, the pay gap is largely due to “workplace hierarchies and structural imbalances within companies”. In other words, payment of men and women who share the same job titles at a given company can often be quite similar. But a significant lack of women in senior positions can still create a staggering company gender pay gap. “So maybe the base pay gap is caused by having more men in senior roles and more women in lower grades,” says Therese. “The bonus pay gap is because there are more men in senior level positions, and these levels have higher performance bonuses and commission as well as equity allocation.”

Mentorship

Our research suggests that mentorship is an essential component of the gender pay gap issue. Recognising the many obstacles that stand between women and the senior administrative positions that they deserve, they see a tremendous need for targeted mentorship and guidance. In light of this need, Lisa Scollan praises the mentorship efforts of the insurance company Irish Life. “They have a number of mentorship programs in place for women that they can take part in,“ she says, “and it's encouraging women to be promoted within the company up into more senior roles as well.”

Maternity policies

Beyond mentorship, Irish Life serves as an aspirational example in terms of their employee-friendly maternity policies. As Lisa points out, Irish Life has introduced pregnancy-related benefits that include incentive and paid time off for employees going through medical procedures such as IVF treatment. The potential of these kinds of initiatives to decrease the gender pay gap are obvious and can be widely applied.

Diversity initiatives

To get women into more board and leadership-level positions, both government and industry programs are supremely important. Therefore, Lisa Scollan sees tremendous potential in initiatives such as Ireland’s Women in Finance Charter. Led by four large industry partners and supported by the Irish government, this charter asks Irish signatory firms and representative bodies to commit to “greater gender balance and inclusivity at all levels across the financial services sector.” It's not a requirement for companies to sign up, but it’s a way of showing their commitment to increasing gender diversity within the financial services industry,” says Lisa. “With them making their public declaration to make their businesses more gender-balanced and that they're committing to setting targets and timelines around that.” Looking at things from the opposite perspective, our Recruitment Director John Ennis regards diversity initiatives as a tremendous potential advantage for businesses. As candidates seek balanced workplaces, he notes “The positive aspects you'd certainly be including diversity and equality and gender balance as one of your selling points… so certainly, from a recruitment perspective, it puts you in a good position to attract new talent.”

Our analysis shows that closing the gender pay gap makes good sense in the current business environment and that wise businesses are already addressing issues of gender equality in the workplace. “I think the takeaway from this is that companies are not ignoring it, companies are embracing it,” says Therese. “They need to ensure they are working towards parity in the gender pay gap.”

If you have questions about the gender pay gap or any other topic related to recruitment, contact Savvi Recruitment Consultants today by phone or by email.

A recruitment expert’s top tips for preparing for a job interview

So you’ve decided you’re ready for a change. The great news for professionals in the financial services area is that overall employment in this vital sector is projected to grow on a global scale over the next decade. That means the jobs are there awaiting talented candidates like you, but you’ll also face talented competition for every role. This means you’ll likely need some help preparing your CV and with preparing for an interview!

Preparing for an interview is crucial to moving forward in the process

One crucial task you need to undertake is preparing for an interview with your prospective employer. Our Savvi Recruitment team has come up with some strategies to help you prepare for your upcoming interviews.

Our goal is to share a set of tools that help you feel confident, allowing the interview to feel more like a mutual get-to-know-you session, rather than something that fills you with stress and dread.

Let's see what you can do to prepare for a successful, engaging and mutually enlightening interview every time.

1. Research the organisation

Researching the organisation before the interview gives you a substantial head start for success. First and foremost, performing your due diligence ensures that you understand what the business does, its mission and vision, and how you might fit into it all. Conducting intensive research into the company will fill you with confidence and reveal your natural curiosity and sincere interest in the organisation.

According to John Ennis, the Director of Savvi Recruitment, "Preparation is key. You need to do your research. You need to learn a lot about the role and the company. It's important to show that you've done some research. That helps let them know you are interested in the company. And our recruiters can help you with the reasons and research strategies you might use."

Therese Cadell, Savvi Recruitment Partner and Co-Founder expands on John's research thoughts, recommending that you search Google for recent company updates and events to show that you remain engaged with the latest news about the company and the latest industry trends.

Think about how important it is for the interviewer to have read through your CV and any accompanying information you sent. They want to see and feel that you have the same enthusiasm for their organisation.

2. Determine the type of interview

There are several interview types you might face, so let's explore a few you might encounter and should know before you start:

• Screening or telephone. These interviews are typically exploratory sessions to touch base and determine mutual interest and are typically conducted by an internal or external recruiter. At the end of this interview, the recruiter is likely to invite you to participate in an individual video interview to become more acquainted.
• First interview. This interview gives you and the hiring or financial services manager the chance to dig deeper and learn more about each other.
• Second interview. Once the hiring team determines that you are a good potential fit, you will receive an invitation to interview with more members of the team, typically 1 or 2 people, whether via video or on-site. Questions may be competency-based, behavioural or technical.  Either way, you’ll be able to find out in advance of the interview and prepare accordingly.
• Presentation or project.  Some interview processes will include a specific project or presentation.  This could be instead of or in addition to the second interview.  For example, you may be asked to prepare a presentation on what you’ll do on your first 90 days in the role.  Usually, you’ll have some time to prepare for a project like this.
• Final interview. Once the organisational leaders have made their decision, they will likely want to extend an offer in person for a final interview. Here, you can discuss the hiring terms, including compensation and benefits.

John Ennis elaborates on the nature of any type of interview, reinforcing the idea that it is a mutual endeavour, meant to help you and one or two of the company's representatives get to know each other. Regardless of the type or stage of the interview, "Ensure your questions are also answered at interview, specific to role or company. It's a two way process. Asking good questions is as important as giving good answers."

3. Prepare answers to questions

Consider the possible questions your interviewer might ask, and prepare thoughtful answers to avoid coming across as unprepared or uncertain.

Consider and develop answers to standard interview questions, like the following:

• Why do you want to work for our company?
• Tell us a little about yourself - You can be prepared for this question - make it relevant to the role. Think of it as an elevator pitch.
• What are you most proud of, or what are your achievements?
• Why are you looking to make a move at the moment?
• Why should we hire you?

4. Go into the interview fully focused

Remember to turn off your phone or other electronic devices that could pose an interruption or distraction during this crucial meeting, whether you are conducting a video or in-office interview. You don't want to have to pause your thoughts, much less reach for your device.

When it comes to an online interview, Therese has made several recommendations for a smooth interview, with a focus on treating it like a face to-face one:

• Turn off your devices and fully focus on the interview for several minutes before the session begins. It will help put you in the mindset of becoming and remaining fully engaged throughout the interview.
• Some people can get confused about dress code - a good rule of thumb is to dress for the job you want, not the one you have.
• Make sure your family or whoever is in the house with you knows what’s going on - you don’t want someone coming in to ask you for a coffee in the middle of an interview, as it wouldn’t happen in a face-to-face one.
• Give yourself time to get your laptop set up - log in 5 minutes early, as though you’re waiting in a lobby.  That way if there are any technical glitches, you’ll have time to iron them out.
• Make sure you have the right lighting
• Ensure your camera is at the right level so you can make eye contact
• If you can’t have a clear background, then adjust settings to blur out your background

Lisa Scollan, our Savvi Recruitment Operations Manager suggests taking steps to ensure you are calm: "If you are travelling to a face-to-face interview, give yourself plenty of time to get there. That way, you can head into the meeting calm and focused."

5. Deal with the "tell me about yourself" question

This question is a good one to prepare because it almost always comes up at an interview.  Think of it like an elevator pitch that you can keep practising until you’re comfortable with it.

Share a little about your past and present work, trying to keep a focus on experience that relates to the role you’re applying for. Discuss why you decided to pursue education and work in the financial services industry, your previous and current positions, and where you see yourself moving in your profession.

We'll help you prepare for a winning interview

Our team is here to help you determine the best roles to match your skills and education, connect with the employer, and prepare for a stellar interview session that ensures that you advance to the next step in the hiring process. Let Savvi Recruitment help you stand out during each interview and avoid common mistakes. Rise above the rest and define your own limits.

Salary benchmarking: getting employee compensation right

In all of the talk of the “new normal” over the last couple of years, one trend has emerged. Things are going to continue to change rapidly.  This year, one rapid change is inflation. It’s hard to keep up, and many workers are getting left behind. 

As a result, over half (56%) of Irish employees say that they are likely to switch to a new employer in the next 12 months. You know that you have to keep up, but it’s hard to find the right balance between taking care of your employees and risking the long-term health of the business. There is a process that can help: salary benchmarking.

What is salary benchmarking?

Salary benchmarking is a method that allows a business to compare its compensation packages to direct competitors. A good benchmark highlights whether or not you are competitive, and fixing gaps in your compensation can help you with recruitment and employee retention.

Understanding the complexities of pay rises

Perfecting pay rates for employees is always challenging, but right now, the challenge is multiplied. With rapid inflation, there is a cost of living crisis. Employees need more money to keep up with the cost of living. At the same time, company revenues are not rising fast enough to cover inflation with flat pay raises.

That’s rarely financially viable. Or, as Savvi Recruitment Director, John Ennis, put it, “It might not be sustainable to give everyone a 10 percent cost-of-living adjustment, as much as businesses might like to.”

Tips for carrying out salary benchmarking

In order to find solutions, a salary benchmark can help you compare to your competitors and explore options.

When carrying out a salary benchmarking exercise, a couple of tips can go a long way.

For starters, limit the scope of the exercise. You don’t need to benchmark every salary for every position in each exercise. Instead, pick an area of focus and review it carefully.

By that same token, there is a lot more to review than just the salary, such as the total benefits package. It’s easy to get bogged down when an exercise loses focus, so narrow the range of benefits that you are comparing as well.

You can also laser focus your data sets that are used for comparison. You don’t need a list of every competitor in the world. Instead, pick two or three, or a specific data resource, and then make your comparisons.

What are the alternatives to salary increases?

If flat pay raises across the entire company won’t work, then alternative solutions are necessary. There are a few ways to address the cost of living crisis while working towards economic efficiency. Most of these solutions still involve money, but they aren’t as expensive and overwhelming as a flat 10 percent raise for everyone in a company.

One-off payments

This is a nice solution that makes it easy to control costs. A one-off cost-of-living payment allows a company to put cash in the hands of employees. Employees appreciate the assistance, but because it’s a one-off payment, costs don’t spiral into the future with ever-present increases in salary.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it shows clear effort to employees without putting the company under financial stress.

Cost of living vs pay raises

Sometimes, a one-off payment just won’t cut it and wages need to go up. Instead of giving everyone the same raise to adjust for the cost of living, it’s possible to distribute progressive pay increases. In this case, employees most impacted by the cost of living crisis receive the largest pay increases, on a percentage level, and employees who might not be struggling so much with the crisis might receive a normal pay raise.

 Again, it’s all about scaling the adjustments in a way that is financially sustainable.

Cultivating a feeling of value

In some cases, employees make enough money that they are not struggling with inflation to a significant degree. These employees may be at a point where more money isn’t always the most compelling way to make them happy.

When money isn’t the answer, the key is to find ways to cultivate a feeling of value. According to a survey by PwC, 73 percent of Irish workers say that “finding fulfillment at work is . . . very important.” Employees want to feel valued and appreciated by the company, and there are a few ways to try to do that.

Changing benefits packages around annual leave increases, work-from-home opportunities, or other non-monetary benefits can show employees that management is listening and trying.  It also helps to engage with employees and give them more autonomy over their work structure.

One of the most valuable investments is the creation of clear career paths so that employees can see where they have room to grow and why they should stay with the company.

The importance of communication

Clearly, the key to figuring out what employees want is asking them. Sometimes, the answer will be money. Other times, it won’t. The only way to know is to regularly engage with them and keep the dialogue open.

Too many managers don’t engage regularly and only really investigate these ideas during annual reviews. That’s not enough — especially during times of such rapid and dramatic change. Find a way to keep the dialogue going, and solutions will flow from there.

Get support benchmarking your salaries

If you want to stay competitive and recruit the best talent, finding a trusted recruiter to work with is a great first step. Savvi Recruitment is here to help you navigate the landscape of salaries, benefits, and employee satisfaction.

Top tips for attracting talent in the financial services sector

The art of attracting talent in financial services is as nuanced as the financial services industry itself. If you want to hire the best of the best, you’ll need to stand out from the competition. In particular, it can be difficult to differentiate yourself from the big firms and overcome the powerful brand recognition that they possess.

Staying up to date on the latest trends when it comes to attracting and retaining top financial services talent has become particularly invaluable as the recruitment market is more competitive than ever before.

Here are just four ways that you can draw the right kind of attention to your company’s employment opportunities and foster initiatives that attract the right kind of talent:

1. Creating your employer value proposition

When it comes to attracting talent in financial services, Savvi Recruitment Director John Ennis recommends beginning with a thorough and objective employer value proposition. “Your employer value proposition is really the starting point of why somebody would come to work for your company as opposed to a different company. And I suppose that's the key thing I would see in the marketing, is trying to define your employer value proposition, not just specific to that role, but to the company.” Beyond a substantial paycheck and other tangible benefits such as health insurance and paid time off, a good employer value proposition should take a holistic look at the workplace environment, the values that it represents, and the support and recognition that it provides. Savvi Recruitment Partner, Therese Cadell, sums up the supreme value of a good value proposition by insisting that it should show “why the person should join, not just the team, but the company” as well as “what a career with that company would look like.”

2. Crafting recruitment messaging that is on brand

After establishing an attractive employer value proposition, it is important to reflect that value proposition in a highly effective recruitment message. John Ennis emphasises the importance of getting “the message to the talent pool that you're looking to attract” before adding that getting your company’s “brand across to them is the key thing.” While he acknowledges that there are many small things that business managers can do to extend brand outreach in the human resources sector, John Ennis recommends enlisting the expert services of a leading recruitment agency with extensive marketing capabilities.

3. Turning your employees into brand ambassadors

When it comes to promoting your brand image among in-demand talent, you simply cannot underestimate the tremendous potential influence of your current employees. As John Ennis puts it, “your employees should be brand ambassadors out there in the marketplace for your company.” In light of the always complex and typically subjective nature of the average employer value proposition, nobody can identify your company’s finest employment advantages better than people who already work for you. “Because when you're trying to attract people into a company,” says John Ennis, “it is really very much, in a competitive market, about what is the most attractive thing about this role.”

4. Partnering with a good recruitment agency

We not only strongly recommend seeking out the services of a quality recruitment agency but taking an active role when it comes to ensuring that agency addresses your financial services company’s specific wants and needs. As Therese Cadell puts it, “Obviously some people hire directly themselves, but because the market is so tight and candidate driven, if you are using a recruitment agency, you should take the time to have a call with the recruiter to paint a picture of the current team, describe the structure of the department and give an overview of the day to day of the role is. There is no such thing as the perfect candidate. You can't be too rigid in your requirements. So an experienced recruiter will be able to find you the best candidate in the market who is motivated to accept your role. So an experienced, seasoned, and knowledgeable recruiter will be able to go out to market and find the right candidate for you.”

Savvi Recruitment is a specialist financial services search and selection firm. We have a proven track record of developing and delivering employer-driven talent attraction strategies that work. Our clients access our extensive network of industry professionals and experienced potential candidates who are looking for their next career move.

How to create a meaningful career path in the financial services sector

Amidst the uncertainties of today’s post-COVID business landscape, job hunters in the financial services industry are looking for much more than high salaries. They’ve also got a host of other expectations for potential employers, including everything from workplace flexibility to corporate social responsibility.  Opportunities for growth and development top the list for many aspiring employees. That’s where career progression paths come in. When it comes to attracting, engaging, and retaining employees in financial services, creating clear career development paths is a winning strategy.

What is a career progression path?

“Getting a foot in the door” has long been used as a metaphor for entry level job seekers. While this is still a factor, the next generation of financial service talent is looking for more than an inside edge to getting a job. They also want to know that the metaphorical door will open to a future with opportunities for career advancement.

In fact, prospective employees should be able to see exactly what their opportunities will look like three to five years into the future, according to Savvi Recruitment Partner & Co-Founder Therese Cadell.

Career progression paths are maps (both literal or figurative) that clearly delineate learning and advancement opportunities—and where they lead. They demonstrate exactly how employees can improve their skills and knowledge to master their current jobs and move on to new or different positions.

In doing so, they serve as an invaluable tool for companies to showcase their commitment to supporting their employees’ career goals.

Importance of progression for candidate attraction

While career progression paths are important for all job seekers, they’re vital for sought-after Millennials.

Because these employees know they’ve got options (either with your firm or elsewhere), they're demanding much more than "good jobs." They’re looking for careers and companies that connect with the things that matter most to them. They’re also happy to walk away from job opportunities that don’t meet what they’re looking for.

Career progression paths enable job seekers to not only see themselves at a particular company, but to envision themselves on the path to leadership roles in the future. Given the choice between accepting a job at a company where the path forward is unclear and one where they can visualise various forms of career progression, potential employees will favour the option with an appealing and foreseeable future. Giving them this perspective can be what differentiates your company from your competition.

Career progression paths also speak to a positive company culture, where learning and development are embraced and supported

The importance of progression for employee retention

The Millennial workers of today are challenging the idea of the ‘job for life’.  They’re not as concerned about moving onto the next role after a couple of years and are keen to develop quickly. So it stands to reason that when asked about their reasons for exiting a particular role, lack of advancement is one of the top answers. It follows that creating advancement opportunities—and clearly communicating their existence—can compel them to stay.

Indeed, career progression paths are a win-win for employers and employees alike. When employees feel more engaged and supported in their roles, morale, motivation, productivity, and responsiveness to organisational goals all increase.

And then there’s the fact that employee retention costs much less than employee recruitment. Just last year, it was reported that employee turnover could cost Irish businesses an average of €4,759 each.

Communicating progression paths effectively

Career progression paths can only be used as an effective recruitment and retention tool if communicated well.  After all, how can someone use something that they don’t even know exists? Ultimately, the key to harnessing the power of career progression paths lies in raising awareness about them.

There are many ways to get the word out about career progression paths at your company, including sharing information about career advancement opportunities, skills training and development programs, and career planning resources. These conversations can—and should—be both formal and informal. Savvi Recruitment Director John Ennis recommends that managers routinely sit down with their employees for causal check-ins regarding their job satisfaction, in addition to during annual reviews.

In the fast-moving financial services industry it’s also critical to address the speed of change. Make sure to cover the mechanisms your company has in place to adapt to everything from evolving technologies to new products—and how your career progression plans accommodate changing dynamics.

The better you articulate your company’s career progression paths, the more valuable they become in terms of encouraging workers to see themselves at your company at multiple levels.

One last thing to keep in mind about communicating your career progression paths? While transparency is universally beneficial, it’s uniquely advantageous toward diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Open lines of communication about skills- and competency-based career paths can help mitigate isolation and concerns about bias for diverse and underrepresented employees.

Where to start when creating career paths for employees

All of which begs the question: How can companies go about creating career paths for their staff? The answer is to start with some strategic thinking about your organisation, roles, and trajectories. Key questions to ask include:

• What “entry-level” or other positions do most people take with your business?
• What upward or lateral movements are common from there?
• What knowledge and skills are necessary to move between specific positions?
• What types of opportunities already exist within your company?
• How can you facilitate more internal movement between these opportunities?

You can use the answers to these questions to formulate a clear career map detailing exactly what steps are involved in progressing all the way up to leadership positions. This turns ambiguity about the possibility of career advancement into assurance.

While positioning your financial services company to attract and retain the best and brightest talent is always beneficial for your business, it’s more vital than ever at this point in time due to the current workers’ market and the resulting steep competition for top hires. Creating and communicating career progression paths can help you not only show prospective employees the opportunities that will be available to them if they join your company, but also help them see the career advancement and success they crave.

How to create a great candidate experience (and why it matters)

It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a skilled labour shortage. For those of us recruiting, that means there’s a smaller pool of candidates who are actively looking, and in tight markets, that can often mean it’s necessary to try and lure people away from a role that they’re already in. With historic high employment numbers in Ireland (only 4.5% of the population are out of work), there’s no doubt that we need to consider the importance of a good candidate experience in order to secure the best people.

So what does that mean? If you don’t think about how you’ll make your prospective employees feel valued, engaged and heard throughout the recruitment process, they will look for alternative companies who do give them a good candidate experience. Obviously you don’t want that, which is where a targeted strategy comes in.

Let’s discuss what candidate experience is, why candidate experience matters and how to improve the candidate experience journey.

What is the candidate journey?

The candidate journey is the set of experiences jobseekers have as they go from application to interviewing at a company, to being hired. From the first application right through to onboarding, the experience must be consistent, responsive and engaged, with no shortfalls in communication or sensitivity.

Think of it like this: even if the candidate doesn’t get the job, you want them to walk away having gained positive associations with the company. Your goal is to ensure that those who don’t get the role have as positive an experience as those who do.

Why does the tone of the hiring process matter so much? Because it is impossible to separate the candidate experience from the work experience - one leads straight into the other. Furthermore, you may need to draw on those candidates at a later date, for future recruitment drives.  If those candidates have previously had a bad experience with your company, it would be very difficult to re-engage them.

How to create a great candidate journey

Naturally, now you’re wondering how to create a great candidate journey. Here are the most important steps for how to improve candidate experience.

1. Make the application easy

Any job application that requires multiple steps is going to be very off putting for a candidate. Make it easy for them to apply for the role online, either directly or through a portal.

2. Get back to them quickly

Being responsive is of paramount importance. How you treat your candidates reflects how you could potentially treat your employees, so it’s very important. The worst thing to happen to a candidate is to apply and hear nothing back. Get in touch quickly and frequently with updates, and if there is a delay, acknowledge it and give a reason.

3. Set expectations

An open and honest outline of the process and what your candidate should expect will set them up for a great experience with your company. Tell them the number of steps in the process, who they’ll meet, process timelines and any other details like style of interview / interview format, etc. Giving them as much information as possible will not just set them up for a good candidate experience, but it’ll also help to get them prepared and get the best interview out of them.

4. Get feedback from your recruiter

Many people wonder how to measure candidate experience, and the good news is, it’s pretty easy. Just talk to your recruiter who will help advise throughout the recruitment process, and will provide any feedback of issues or improvements you can make.

Get help crafting the candidate experience you want

A positive candidate experience is absolutely crucial to attracting talent in such a tight market. If your prospects enjoy themselves and feel supported throughout the process, you’ll leave the right kind of impression on them. Doing so will take time and effort at first, but before you know it, you’ll have a process in place that makes hiring easier and more effective, and leads to happier, longer-lasting employees overall.

If you’d like some help on how to create a great experience for your candidates, Savvi Recruitment is here for you. We can help review your current recruitment process and give you advice.

Create a recruitment marketing strategy in five easy steps

Finding the right employees for your company is no easy task. According to recent statistics from CIPD, “There is currently a highly competitive market for experienced employees, reflected in survey feedback. The majority (85%) of respondents are facing skills shortages with one third (36%) indicating that they experienced significant skills shortages in the last 12 months.“  So where does a recruitment marketing plan come in?

If you want to find the best financial service talent, you need a good recruitment marketing plan to ensure they’ll bring their wealth of skills and experience to you.

What is a recruitment marketing strategy?

The first step in understanding how to do recruitment marketing is knowing what a recruitment marketing strategy is. Only then can you properly apply the following ideas to your recruitment strategy – and indeed, to hiring the many other kinds of professionals you need to keep your company running.

In a nutshell, a recruitment marketing strategy is a reliable, repeatable system you use to make your company visible to good talent and reel them in. A good strategy will paint a positive (but honest) picture of your company and attract talent that will complement your needs and values.

Why does a brand story matter?

Have you ever heard the phrase “brand story”? If so, chances are you’ve wondered what it meant. If not, it’s time you familiarised yourself with this important concept. This is a narrative about your company that transforms you from entity to brand.

While it’s often applied to selling, it is also useful for recruitment. If you haven’t yet outlined your brand story, make sure you do so – either on your own or with the help of expert recruiters.

Top 5 recruitment marketing ideas

In truth, building a better recruitment marketing strategy will take time. Expert help is the fastest way to overhaul your hiring practices and see success in bringing in the best people, but it’s not the only approach. Take a look at the following top five recruitment marketing ideas.

1. Enlist the help of specialist recruiters

Not sure what you’re doing when it comes to recruitment marketing? That’s okay. Step 1 in your plan is very, very simple: enlist the help of specialist recruiters to minimise the amount of work you have to do and maximise your success. Choose your recruiter carefully as they’re an extension of your company brand: picking a recruiter that aligns with your company values will allow you to:

• Gain access to a market where you want to make your brand visible
• Take advantage of the recruiter’s experience to engage the target market
• Market intelligently and conserve talent search funds
• Create job adverts that appeal to those you want to hire

2. Enhance your website careers page

The careers page on your website can be a really great employee attraction tool…if used well!

So here’s your cue to refresh and upgrade your careers page! It doesn’t have to just be a list of current vacancies - it’s a chance to tell your brand story and give candidates a window into your company, to see the type of people who work there and give them an idea of the company culture. 

But how do you convey all of this on one small page? Some ideas could be: 

• Videos of existing employees talking about their career journey with your company
• Talk about benefits package and other reasons they should work for your company
• Tell the story of your corporate social responsibility - aligning your company’s values with those of your employees could give your company a real chance to stand out as a good employer. A recent PWC survey has shown that employees have a particular interest in their employer's impact on the environment and society with the majority feeling that these areas are very important.

Additionally, it’s important to review your job adverts and descriptions for gendered language - doing so ensures that your job and company appeals to the widest possible audience. Natasha Welehan, Principal Consultant with Savvi Recruitment explains how:

“The reason it's important to know this is there is quite a lot of research out there that says if an ad is very masculine focused in terms of the language that's being used - and these can be words you might not have even thought of like, ‘competitive’ would be a masculine coded word, ‘ninja’ - really popular word at the moment, everyone's a ninja especially in the tech industry, that's a masculine coded word - but these words, this language in the job ad can actually put women off applying whereas there is research that says if the ad is feminine coded men just aren't really bothered.”

Tools like Gender Decoder, Text.io and Text Analyzer can be really useful in helping you identify gendered language.

Natasha also recommends looking at the actual job advert itself. Looking at a long wish list of requirements within your job description or your job advert can put women off applying.  Keep your list focused on the truly essential requirement. Think about what this person will need to perform well in the role.

3. Keep track of review sites

Part of recruitment marketing is maintaining the right image. It’s important that you pay attention to your public profile and ensure it always represents who you actually want to be.

Accordingly, keep track of sites like IrishJobs.ie, Indeed, Glassdoor and LinkedIn Jobs, where former employees can post what they really think of you. 

Positive reviews can be leveraged in your company’s marketing, to give prospective talent a taster of what it’s like to work in your company.  You can keep a track of negative reviews and address them too, but try not to get too bogged down in them.

4. Use job boards selectively

Job boards should play a role in any recruitment marketing strategy. They are an excellent resource to engage with active talent.

However, job boards are expensive, so don’t simply blanket your postings all over the internet. Instead, be strategic, opting for the ones most likely to highlight the individuals you need at your company. If you don’t know which boards to prioritise, ask a professional recruiter for help.

5. Don’t forget about social media

Smart marketing now uses all platforms.

Banks and consultancies are utilising different social media channels to highlight their brand story.

Therefore, part of your recruitment marketing plan should include being active on social media. This is a great place to showcase the day-to-day goings-on of your company and make sure it attracts people who will add to your culture and bottom line.

Get expert recruitment support today

Looking for the customised help you need to reach a new level of recruitment success? Savvi Recruitment Consultants is here to help. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you recruit top finance talent today!

Strategic talent management for financial services companies in Ireland

The financial services industry is a really big employer for Ireland. With lots of companies competing for the same people, strategic talent management is a must to help you get ahead.

According to Financial Services Ireland (FSI), “Ireland is a recognised global fintech hub” and “Ireland services over €5.2 trillion of assets under administration”. Even more impressively, “The domestic and international financial services sector employs over 105,000 people” and “17 of the top 20 global banks are based in Ireland”. To see more insights, download Ireland’s future
through finance (PDF).

If you’re looking for a financial service expert to join your team, there’s good news and bad news. On the one hand, the sector is hugely developed and there’s a large pool of educated and qualified individuals with decades of experience. On the other hand, lots of competing companies are fighting for the same top talent. If you don’t have the edge, you’ll likely lose out on the best candidates.

Strategic talent management will give you the edge you need.

What is strategic talent management?

If you’re wondering “What is strategic talent management?” then you’re not alone. Plenty of people who are facing an intensive search for the right candidate for the first time have this question.

In a nutshell, strategic talent management is a set of recruitment processes that allows a company to identify future talent needs and plan for the acquisition of such talent in a timely manner. It is an ongoing, frequently updated plan, accessible to decision-makers across the company, that helps guide the hiring process to ensure new team members fit with the company’s current culture and future goals.

Strategic talent management can help you achieve goals such as:

• Anticipating the future needs of the business
• Predicting labour market challenges that lie ahead
• Making a recruitment plan for the next 12 months
• Upskilling your staff and developing your existing staff to make them digitally savvy - after all, FSI have recently made recommendations for financial service organisations to “Support the rapid development of the fintech sector, reflecting the accelerated move to digital caused by the COVID-19 crisis”

Why is strategic talent management important?

As with any other aspect of your business, forecasting is critical when it comes to hiring. The goal of any company, public or private, is to grow – or at least to get better at what you do. That way, you can help more people and make a bigger difference in the world.

In order to grow, though, you need the right people on your team, which is where a financial service recruitment strategy comes in. A good strategic talent management approach looks at headhunting and hiring from every angle: marketing your job postings, the interview process, onboarding, benefits and perks, annual reviews, and long-term goal creation in partnership with your new employee. If you get these factors right, this approach will see you not only succeed in the attraction of the right candidate but also the retention.

At the same time, strategic talent management also helps you identify where the skill gaps are, who you need to add to your team, how your workforce goals fit into your budget and the best ways to encourage talent to come to you.

The benefits of strategic talent management

The above approach comes with a number of benefits, including:

Attracting the right talent

First and foremost, you want to bring good people to you. Strategic talent management increases the chances of doing so by creating a vision of your company and explaining exactly how the new worker will fit into it. This goes back to your strategic business plan, wherein you want to align your talent with your strategy, both now and down the road. To do so, you’ll want to paint a picture of what the job is today and where it’s going, and explain how the new hire will help deliver on that strategy.

Retaining good employees

Not every hire will prove to be a very long term fit, the goal is always for every company to retain the best people. Unfortunately there will always be turnover - expected attrition is typically 10%. But when you find someone who really fits with your company, you don’t want to lose them. Retaining talent is a challenge that any company faces, but you can reduce its incidence by ensuring your hires are a good fit from the start with strategic talent management. Purpose is a key driver for people, who want to feel they are a part of your vision. Explain your aims clearly to new hires, and communicate with existing employees so they know what the plan is. Most importantly, never stop selling that story to your people.

Filling skill and labour gaps

Your business is only as good as the people who help run it. If you have a particular skill gap that’s key for your business to deliver on its strategy, then it is important to identify that as early as possible and look to fill that gap. Be proactive rather than reactive.

Futureproofing your business

We live in a changing world, and it is important for businesses to be agile enough that they can respond to such change. Change is constant but it also provides opportunity. The unfortunate truth is that things do change, and you can’t predict everything. Hire people who are adaptable to change, have the right attitude and can embrace new trends, technologies and challenges. A person who can evolve and grow within the business, only then is your business truly future-proof.

At the end of the day, though, strategic talent management is a challenge. It is a skill in and of itself, especially when it comes to financial service recruitment. If you want help making the best possible plan, find an expert partner to guide you through the process.

[Podcast] How to increase talent diversity in the financial services sector

Jennifer Cahill and Therese Cadell, co-founders of Savvi Recruitment, along with John Ennis, Associate Director and Natasha Welehan, Principal Consultant at Savvi Recruitment discuss how to use the recruitment process to drive gender balance in financial service organisations.

(N.B. Cookies are needed to view the podcast player. If you can't see a player above, open the episode in a new browser using the link below.)

At Savvi Recruitment, we know all too well the gender imbalances that exist in all organisations, but especially in the financial services sector. In this podcast, we share some of our best tips around ways to improve gender balance through recruitment, and some client recruitment strategies that we've seen that work well.

Transcript

Jennifer Cahill:

Hello, and welcome to the next episode of the Savvi Recruitment podcast. On today's episode we're going to talk about gender diversity specifically. Now, we do appreciate obviously diversity is much broader than just gender but we're going to focus in this episode just on gender diversity: some of the things we see in the market obviously it's a huge emphasis for all companies in terms of hiring and we absolutely see that, as many others will, in terms of to produce a diverse short list in terms of candidates that we're representing for any role. It's timely because after probably over two years of a delay now, the Individual Accountability Framework Bill was published at the end of July and so this is the bill and hopefully, well, projecting it will be enacted by the end of the year, hopefully that will bring into force the Central Bank's proposals around a senior executive accountability regime.

It also is proposed that they'll be able to strengthen their kind of administration sanctions against individuals who hold, looking like people in PCF-type roles are going to be the ones that fall in under that regime. A little bit more clarity around who's going to fall into the first tranche of this bill or this act when it is enacted so credit institutions, insurers and high-risk investment firms; so they're projecting about 150 firms in the first initial wave will be impacted by this bill. But they do intend to broaden that out over a number of years so if you're listening and you don't fall into that category or your firm doesn't, it's definitely something that's still coming down the line for you if you're a regulated financial institution. And it was the gender diversity angle on that is that really this bill was proposed by the Central Bank of Ireland after they conducted the culture report on the retail banking sector in Ireland in 2018, and again, finding massive failings there in terms of decision making as we'll all be aware. 

But very much attributing that in a large part to the lack of gender diversity at a senior management and a board level within those institutions. So again, the Central Bank you know, not skirting around it in terms of the importance of diversity, diversity of thought and experience in terms of good decision making, and I think very much risk appetite, and making sure that there's balanced views around the tables that are making decisions, particularly in regulated financial institutions. So again, there's a couple of things that make this just a timely topic for us to visit. So, what we're going to do is, we're just going to look at some practical things around what firms can do to increase gender diversity, and then also look at just what we're seeing in the market in terms of maybe challenges from our perspective.

So today I'm joined by Therese Cadell, my partner here in Savvi Recruitment. John Ennis who's a director with the business and then Natasha Whelehan will be a new face, she joined us a few months back, so then Natasha's first time. So again, just bringing you through some practical tips in terms of being able to increase gender diversity and also our observations of what we see in the market. So Therese, I might start with you just in terms of practical things that you've either seen or you've seen to work, I suppose, what firms could do as a first step in improving gender diversity.

Therese Cadell:

Thanks Jen. Well I think you start at the beginning and you look at your current headcount and I suppose, assess where you are regarding gender at the moment. Having done that type of audit, I think it's those numbers would be fairly transparent, like any process you need to set some goals and targets. And with that you know, bearing in mind the positions you have and the different functions you have you've got to establish realistic yet reachable gender diversity goals for the organisation, right? And once you've established them, then it's ensuring that you have the metrics in place to track your progress and I suppose, quantify the work. So look, I'm going to keep this simple, that's the first point, look at the numbers, look at where you want to get to, and put your process and procedures in place.

Jennifer Cahill:

Yeah, it's like any any other target that company has, whether it's financial or otherwise, you've got to start with a target, everybody's got to know where they're driving towards, rather than just kind of aimlessly going 'okay, yes, we want to increase gender diversity, what does that mean, what does that look like?' So that makes a lot of sense. Natasha, from your side of things then what what else would you would you recommend firms do?

Natasha Welehan:

Well, I think Therese hit the nail on the head. Start where you are, see what needs to be done, but then you need to start at the beginning of the actual recruitment process which is candidate attraction. So take a look at your job descriptions, take a look at your job ads, review them. And I think there's a lot more awareness out there now around the language that we're using in our job ads and say masculine coded language and feminine coded language, and the impact that can have on the pool of people that you're reaching. So you know, there's some really handy tech tools - I'm not the techiest person in the world - but there's some really handy tools out there. 

There's an app called Text Analyzer, another one called Textio. Now you can do free trials on those but otherwise they're paid subscriptions. If you just want something quick and easy I would say take a look at Gender Decoder. It's a website you go on and drop your text into it. It flags to you, are there words that are masculine coded, words that are feminine coded? The reason it's important to know this is there is quite a lot of research out there that says if an ad is very masculine focused in terms of the language that's being used - and these can be words you might not have even thought of like, competitive would be a masculine coded word, ninja - really popular word at the moment, everyone's a ninja especially in the tech industry, that's a masculine coded word - but these words, this language in the job ad can actually put women off applying whereas there is research that says if the ad is feminine coded men just aren't really bothered.

The other thing is looking at the actual job ad itself, looking at the list of requirements within your job description, and your job ad. You know, don't have a really long wish list, keep it focused. What do we actually need this person to have to be able to perform the duties of the job? Again there's research out there that says that women tend not to apply for jobs unless they feel that they can tick every box on the wish list whereas men will apply if they tick sixty percent so you know, if it's not necessary just don't put it on there. You are impacting who's applying to your job ads. 

Also AI, you know, everyone's talking about AI these days, and the use of AI within recruitment processes, it can have its place. It's very useful in terms of you know, booking interviews and so on. But AI can be used to try and remove bias in terms of using AI, using algorithms to actually select from the applicants and attempting basically to remove human unconscious bias. So yeah, that's a new one. It seems to be happening in a few businesses. I haven't tried it myself, I'm not too sure what anybody else thinks about the use of AI.

John Ennis:

I haven't seen it being used a huge amount - tracking systems and stuff, use those kind of ones - but, you've got to be careful again. From my reading on it is you have to be a little bit careful because the people who are building it may have been building in bias as well, just in the algorithms and that.

Natasha Welehan:

I would agree on that.

John Ennis:

You know, so it's not a fail-safe method either I guess.

Natasha Welehan:

I would agree on that, and the other thing I would say about AI, it's definitely something that's happening, we are seeing it. My other half works in tech. Possibly more in those large tech multinationals. I would say one of the things and the caveats around using AI, as you say, perhaps people are putting in bias when they're building the algorithms. It's also to understand what AI actually is, it's trained, AI looks for patterns so it could actually end up reintroducing bias into yourself, ironically. I'm not convinced about AI myself but I do think the other, that looking at your actual job descriptions, looking at your job ads, looking at the language that you're using. It's a very simple way of trying to appeal to a wider pool of applicants from the outset.

Jennifer Cahill:

I think that's the thing, I think sometimes this feels like maybe a mammoth thing that firms have to overcome and bring it in. But as we're kind of talking through here these are relatively simple things that can be done that could potentially have a very dramatic impact in terms of the numbers of men and women that are applying for particular jobs. The other thing that I suppose, theoretically I've read about but I don't see really in practice - but I don't know, maybe firms do it on the inside and we don't see it? But is to remove clues from a CV that indicates gender or ethnicity or educational background, or whatever it might be. And actually just removing, anonymizing, the CV from that perspective and just letting a first screen - the hiring managers look at a CV for the merit of the experience alone. 

Because again, what we're talking about here is is creating safeguards around unconscious bias. So I'm sure anybody would say 'Look, no, God that doesn't impact my decision making when I'm looking at a CV'. Whether it's male or female or ethnicity, or education, do they go to the same university. But there's lots of scientific research around things like confirmation bias and everything that feeds into the fact that we do - we're just human I think there's kind of there's no point trying to eradicate all unconscious bias, but, you need to acknowledge there will always be an element of it there regardless. So you need to put the safeguards in place just to make sure.

And there's a really good popular example of people auditioning for an orchestra in the US. And the questions started to arise on why is there more men the women in the orchestra. The people who selected the orchestra would have absolutely hand on heart said it's completely on the merit of the music and it just so happens that there's better male musicians that we're seeing over female ones. And what they did was they made everybody audition behind a curtain and just to test it. 

And what do you know? Turns out that the orchestra composition, over time, when they started to audition behind the curtain, turned out to be more 50:50 and more of a reflection of, equal numbers of men and women at that professional level of music. So again it's not that people are going out to do this and it's not trying to point the finger at people. It is unconscious. But again, because it's unconscious, we're not aware of it, we're not seeing it. So it just shows you that very very simple things can help to create a framework and safeguards around the impact of unconscious bias. Because it is there, and it is happening and there's no point saying otherwise.

Therese Cadell:

I hope you're not going to introduce that on the interview process, all candidates sit behind a curtain? [Laughter]

Therese Cadell:

But another point on that is, diversity in in your hiring panels to ensure that that you're diverse, when when the interviews do happen.

Jennifer Cahill:

It comes back to what Natasha was saying about language, because even how somebody explains their experience or talks about things, and women, again we're generalising here, but they tend to be more communal they will talk about 'we' more often. Again, we're conditioned that that's what women are meant to be, more collaborative. So again, language, to a male interviewer on the panel, they might perceive that as, 'oh well, I don't know what they did'. I think that's a really good point, if you have a diverse panel then there's a balance of feedback around that. 

But also the consistency around - I'm talking to a client at the moment on this - around competencies, and having a framework in your interviews for what you are testing for in terms of competencies, so that interviewers are asked to give their feedback within a framework of competencies with real life examples of where that person demonstrated. And again it's just eradicating the potential for 'I just like them', you know what I mean? 

I mean you do have to get a good vibe, I'm not saying don't, but to get consistency between first and second, maybe four different people meeting the candidates. You need to create a framework where there's transparency, where there's a consistency around what people are being judged on, and it just helps when two people sit down and go, 'But I didn't see that, and I didn't get that example, how can you say they're strong in that competency', just giving it a more concrete foundation for when you're making these hires. And it's again another safeguard. John, you had one more there you wanted to bring in.

John Ennis:

Just in terms of, if you look at the market that we're in, not just in Ireland but globally as well, being a very candidate short market. Everybody's complaining that it's very tight. This is like not just a very useful exercise in terms of 'oh we need to do this for diversity and inclusion' perspectives. Because it's been proven that the more diverse a company is the more innovative it is anyway, so it's not just about doing it for regulatory purposes. I know in this case it is - they're forcing it a little bit upon the financial services firms in this case - but it will actually benefit these firms as well to have a diverse leadership group across gender, ethnicity, race and that as well, to put quotas in place. 

But also just from a practical point of view anything that we can do to widen that talent pool will actually help us as well in terms of broadening that out. And I think there are practical steps that we can take as recruiters, and firms can take in-house as well, just in terms of the channels that they use as well. That they're not just using their traditional channels, they're widening them out to include disability sites or autism sites, you know, different types of women in work sites as well. That they're advertising their positions across a number of channels that might bring a wider pool of candidates into where they usually get them from, and that will probably bring a more diverse network or pool of candidates in as well. 

And then I think it's going back to training the people who are going to interview them or select them in terms of looking at them and looking at their skills rather than being influenced by where they went to school, you know? What gender they are, what their name is, what is their education, that type of thing. So it is bringing that in, and I think a lot of companies have done well on diversity and inclusion. We see a lot of positions within the HR function especially, you know, people leading that out and providing training on that, so the people I suppose, understand what it's all about and then I think in order to drive it through the organisation, you just really need the support from management in order to do that. Because they're the ones who control that and if they, as you said earlier Therese, if senior management are putting quotas and targets and really looking at and driving it through, then it will filter down and the policy will begin to be shaped by having that in place.

Jennifer Cahill:

Yeah, as I said you have to create the awareness, you have to put the targets in. And again, it's like any other target that you've set for people within your business that they take seriously, like a financial target or whatever it might be. But you're right, it comes from the top down in terms of setting that tone.

John Ennis:

We are seeing it more and more that we're asked, where's the diversity in our shortlist, you know? And this is a key focus for us. And it is challenging at times so there's no doubt about it, you know, especially within the financial services sector, particularly, I think it's very challenging sometimes especially from a gender perspective.

Jennifer Cahill:

Yeah, and we were going to touch on that, because people are probably listening to this more for the practicalities. I think a lot of us will have read and in theory we know, but the practicalities of making these things happen, it takes a bit longer, and it's not necessarily easy. And it's not a quick you know, flick the switch and it happens. Is around what we're seeing you know when we go to market and obviously our mandate is, and inherently we're female owned and run business, predominantly by Therese, obviously John you're here as well. But you know it is important just inherently to us obviously that we would always think of that irrespective, and that we're producing a gender diverse shortlist, but there are challenges around that. And I know John, you wanted to speak just to some of the things - again we're generalising - but, it's a trend, it's kind of what we would predominantly see.

John Ennis:

Well, I think from from from a recruitment perspective when you go to market, and you're looking for a 50:50 short list, even something as simple as male and female, you know, it can be, certainly in my experience, more difficult to get the same amount of women for the same amount of roles, simply because I think a lot of times men will be much more open to having a discussion about a role even if they're happy in their role. Whereas when you approach a woman about a role oftentimes, and not every time, but they will shut you down if they're not actively looking for a role, you know. 

And in the market at the moment a lot of people aren't applying anyway, so a lot of what our work is is proactively approaching people to see if they're open to a new opportunity, and I find men tend to say 'Well no, I'm quite happy where I am, but you know, tell me a little bit about the role, tell me what the salary is, tell me who's hiring, tell me why they're hiring', and they'll have a whole conversation for 20 minutes with you about the role even though they say they're not interested. Whereas women predominantly I find will say, 'No I'm not interested, thanks very much', and they'll put the phone back down again pretty quickly. 

And that's the difference. So you've got a much better chance as a recruiter getting more men interested, 'Well, we might have a chat you know', and then and then filtering through that as we go along. Whereas the women that you get will actually potentially be the ones who really are actively looking, but there'll be a smaller amount of them. Because at the moment the market is quite buoyant, people are working away quite happily, anyone who really wanted to make a move has had the opportunity over the last couple years to make that move. And so it is difficult to get the 50:50 shortlist from my experience, they just won't jump unless they're actively looking you know.

Jennifer Cahill:

Yeah I would see the same, I would totally agree with you as a woman. I don't know, look, people on this screen will know my bugbear when it comes to women. Particularly even when you get them in the process and they call me, maybe they get an offer, there's so much more they bring to the table in terms of guilt, maybe over a manager that they feel they're going to let down by handing in their notice, or not been here a long time and I'm going to leave people high and dry if I leave. 

And look, it's great, makes you a very nice person and you're very considerate, but is that the best way to decide things from a career perspective? And I would be a very strong advocate of it's a contract of employment, and it's about fair exchange, it's about what are you getting from it as much as what are they getting from you, and there is always always always, it should be a constant reassessment for somebody about that fair exchange and am I still getting out what I wanted to out of this role? Have I stagnated? Have I stalled? Have I plateaued here, is there enough? And what I would say again is, coming back to your point John, is if somebody calls you and goes are you open to an opportunity, you should always be open to an opportunity, always. 

Always hear somebody out about the opportunity, because how do you know? You could be happy, but how do you know that there isn't something? And again, maybe you enter into the market, something you hadn't even considered that somebody is interested in your background for. I just say look, there's no such thing as a wasted conversation. And again, what I see women kind of going oh I don't want to waste people's time, I don't like, if I go and meet them it's nearly like them saying to us yes please share my CV, is them saying I will accept the role if offered the role. And that's not the obligation, that's not the bar from our point of view, or clients. 

Because clients are very well aware, as you said John, in this market that there's nobody actively looking you know, particularly within the areas that we would do a lot in like finance and risk and compliance. Nobody's actively out there, they've moved already so they just want to get you to the table and we are telling clients then it's your job, you know, you've got to put your best foot forward in terms of selling your opportunity to this person. So if you're out there and you think, 'God I don't go forward for things because I don't want to waste people's time', please stop thinking like that. And if something even just piques your interest, have the conversation with the recruiter, but definitely go to the table if you're at least interested and find out for yourself a little bit more before you shut the door on it. And because again, as you said, it does impact our ability to kind of put more people. And it's amazing the amount of, and John and everybody else here, the amount of men who will be like, 'actually there's enough, I'll go and have a chat with them anyway', and they come out they're going, 'Do you know what? I really want that!'

Therese Cadell:

I think the female loyalty thing is huge to the org, to the people within the organisation, and certainly what I see in CVs, if they've stayed in one place for you know, over five years, maybe eight to ten years, and they move, you then will see them moving maybe every two to three years because they realise there is life outside of where they initially started and that it is a corporate entity you're working for. You can always meet your colleagues for lunch and stay in touch with them as you move on so it's just to think you know maybe a little bit selfish and think what's best for yourself rather than what's best for others.

Natasha Welehan:

Yeah, 100% agree.

Jennifer Cahill:

Yeah, men are a little bit more naysaying, I'm sorry John, you probably agree with me! [Laughter]

John Ennis:

They do, they probably just value the networking part of their working life a little bit more you know, and they see it, they probably see interviews, a lot of them, and I think they're right, in that even if they're not really that actively looking for a move, they see it as a good chance to meet somebody from a competitor, they see there's a good chance network, they see it's a good chance to find out a bit of information you know, and then it can often turn to actually, I really want it, you know? But it often doesn't start out, and the curiosity will bring them to the table a lot of times, you know?

Jennifer Cahill:

Yeah yeah, but also it comes back to look at why there are not more women at senior levels again, coming back to that point of networking because just market intel, like benchmark yourself, you're having a conversation about recruiter who's contacting you because based on their experience they feel you're a suitable profile, so don't knock yourself out of the race because you don't feel it. Take their steer. But also what are they paying, what's the budget for this role, is that consistent with what you're getting paid? You know knowledge is power, you know the next time you're going in for your annual review, you have to be out there, you have to know when you have to go into those conversations in a very very commercial mindset around, this is what I know my skill set is valued at in the market, not 'I feel' or whatever. 

I've talked to a number of recruiters, I've either been for a couple of interviews, I've had a conversation with a couple of our competitors, I'm happy where I am but I do know the value of what I'm doing and what my skill set is worth in the market. So again, there's a few things there that are very valuable and that again will encourage more women to, in a very commercial way, bat up and make sure that they're talking themselves up internally, where they are. So it's not just about 'Oh I don't want to make a move' but it's like 'This could help me where I am in terms of me going for that next promotion or looking for that next pay rise'. 

And again, because we see more men than women willing to do that, kind of keeping their head always up and out, I do think it's a big part of why you know - and again we have gender equal pay legislation coming in there for certain big companies, so again, there's a lot I think that women can do in terms of being more proactive about that and certainly the only way you know your value is being in the market, being out in the market. And not always keeping the head down. Yeah and just relying on, 'Oh if I deliver my job that's enough', and it just isn't, you know what I mean. You'd love to say but once you get to manager level and above, it's less about the delivery on the day-to-day basis, it's equally important the network you have, both in your organization and outside your organization, for you to get ahead.

John Ennis:

Sure.

Natasha Welehan:

Absolutely.

Jennifer Cahill:

So I think we're probably, we're kind of nearly coming up on time there, but I think we've covered - what we hoped to do was to come on, I suppose frame it in terms of obviously the individual accountability framework, you know. It's a timely topic, it's always timely and there's lots of things out there and financial services where we predominantly work, unfortunately isn't one of the better industries for the general diversity at a senior level on board, it just isn't. And hence the Central Bank has come out and will have powers when this bill is enacted to make significant changes to it. We have seen them pushing back on fitness and probity and interviews around PCF approvals using the mechanisms they have had to date to do what they can around it, even though that might not have been overtly said, it's certainly what we would have seen, that they have been doing successfully I would have said. 

And same with the iron circle a lot more women coming onto the eyelid circle and again that would be pushed by the centre back in terms of their preference to see more women. So look, it is great to see we are seeing change, we're definitely seeing the mandate there. But again just to flag some other very practical, straightforward, relatively simple things that firms can do to help increase gender diversity in firms, so thanks very much everybody.

Five ways to reduce the gender pay gap in financial services companies

The gender pay gap in financial services is well known to be larger than other industries. But with reporting now mandatory in Ireland, what does it mean for financial service companies, and what can they do to close the still-persistent gap in compensation?

The National Strategy for Women and Girls 2017-2020 included legislation to address the gender pay gap in Ireland. It defines the gender pay gap as the difference in average hourly wages between men and women, regardless of seniority, within an organisation.

In 2021, Ireland passed the related Gender Pay Gap Information Bill, which requires companies employing more than 250 people to publish data related to the gap, including the percentages of men and women receiving benefits and bonuses. The bill mandates that companies with 150 or more employees will need to report within two years and with 50 or more employees in three years.

The Irish legislation mirrors laws in place in the UK, which passed the Equality Act in 2010 and whose similar reporting regulations came into effect in 2017.

The data to date shows gaps persist

Financial industry data shows a persistent pay gap between men and women.

According to a recent TIC Finance report, in the UK banking sector, for example, women are paid 33.6 per cent less than men. Among the 49 entities within the industry with reported information, there were no firms where women were paid equal to men. Overall, 45.3 per cent of those employed in the studied firms were women.

According to the report, sixty-two per cent of those in the lowest pay quartile were women, and men received 44 per cent more in bonuses than women.

In a separate report, PwC noted that while there has been progress in other sectors, financial services has one of the most significant gaps in the UK. The PwC report noted that five financial services sub-sectors held the largest pay gaps and that the median gap was 26.6 per cent, compared to 12.1 per cent in all other sectors in the UK. In fact, the sector has seen negative progress in the past four years.

Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Financial Services

Closing the pay gap will take commitment from financial services companies. There are several initiatives companies can take.

1. Use Data to Make Informed Decisions

The reporting requirements are an essential tool at a macro level to quantify the gender pay gap. However, the same data analysis should drive decision-making within organisations.

Data provides powerful information that can help contextualise the numbers within a firm and industry-wide. External market surveys, done individually or within consortia, can determine whether your firm is being consistent and equitable. Annual compensation surveys can equally determine changes in policy and processes to close the gap.

Analysis can also help determine the causes of gender pay gaps. These insights, combined with narratives, can identify which actions or initiatives will close the gap faster.

2. Re-examine Structures

The data shows considerable gaps in the lowest-paid bands of employees. Firms should use reporting on the pay gap to identify issues and structures within the workplace that are problematic.

When considering workforce dynamics, finance companies should consider the gender composition (along with other diversity factors) of grades and divisions and how they correlate to pay. Employers are likely to identify discrepancies that can be addressed by changing those structures.

For example, companies can consider the difference in pay rates for employees who do similar jobs in different areas or strata of the workplace.

3. Address Bias in Hiring

To address the bias in hiring, be sure that hiring committees are diverse and inclusive and that all receive training in unconscious bias. Firms should also review job postings and descriptions to ensure that gendered language is removed and that all candidates receive the same questions and are evaluated using the same scoring method.

4. Institute Career-Advancing Programs

There are pivotal moments in a woman’s career where firms can take notice and focus efforts on retention, promotion and equity. Consider programs that promote and support the education of women seeking careers in STEM and business fields. Early on, pair women with mentors who foster relationship-building, career navigation and networking.

Ensure that women leaving on maternity leave have a plan outlined for their work while they are out. It’s also just as important to have a well-defined return plan that allows for a seamless return and ensures continuity for work, clients and projects.

5. Communicate Clearly and Transparently

Be transparent with your employees about the gender pay gap, the goals and steps to address it, and the progress towards those goals. Not only should progress (or lack thereof) be reported broadly, it should be contextualised within the industry and the country.

It's also essential to frame the gender pay gap within a broader context of diversity, equity and inclusion and related initiatives to create an inclusive workplace. To put the gender pay gap into greater context, check out Gender Equality in Financial Services: A Beginner's Guide.

Attracting and retaining finance talent: 7 expert tips

What does it take to attract and retain talent today? 

In this article, we’ll take a look at attracting and retaining finance talent in today’s landscape and our Savvi predictions about how hiring will look by the end of 2022 and into 2023.  

We’ll then take you through our 7 expert tips for attracting and retaining talent!

Here are our 7 expert tips for attracting and retaining finance talent:

1. Craft a Plan to Improve Employee Retention

2. Consider The Great Resignation and How it May Impact The Financial Services Industry

3. Create Progression Paths for Your Finance Team

4. Create a Policy for Flexibility and Remote Working

5. Create a Benefits Package for Your Finance Team

6. Formalise Employee Engagement

7. Nail Down Advertising Channels For Your Finance Roles

Attracting Finance Talent Today // Predictions for 2023

2022 has been a year of transition in many financial service organisations and departments. We predict that we’ll continue to see big changes in hiring processes that will affect how financial services are attracting finance talent in Q4 of this year and into 2023.  

Between Covid and economic and political uncertainty, there are big shifts happening in financial services in Ireland, UK and across the globe.

There’s a lot going on in the world right now: the war in Ukraine, Brexit, high inflation and interest rates, drastically increasing oil and petrol prices and a cost of living crisis.  

All of this has impacted people’s sense of security and this means that in Q4 and throughout 2023, we’ll really start to see the impacts of these factors, with less people leaving their jobs.

Additionally, as inflation increases, employers may start to feel pressure to increase pay, and may indeed start getting more requests from existing staff for pay increases. 

We’re not sure if this is something that’s temporary, or if it will last for a while. But should employers throw money at the problem?  

In short, no. 

It’s an unsustainable solution as you’ll end up passing those costs onto your customers. There are other ways you can add value to an individual’s job to attract and retain finance talent, and we’ll explore those below.

Since Covid and lock-downs, we immediately saw an increase in financial services offering their employees a buffet of flexible working options, from hybrid and fully remote roles, part-time working, job shares, the list goes on.  

They also started to review their working policies and benefits packages in a bid to try and retain their talent. 

After all, when the great resignation kicked in back in 2021, it’s what people demanded. However, more recently we’ve started to see some employers kick back, so let’s look at a couple of examples.  

Firstly, financial services found that they could function perfectly well with remote working models and it certainly helped staff to know that the remote working option was there too. 

However, a lot was lost during lockdown in terms of communication, working relationships and so on, and businesses quickly found that while they could function well enough on a remote working model, they didn’t flourish.  

So while financial services see the value in flexibility, many have drawn a line at hybrid working models, and are saying ‘no’ to fully remote positions. 

A physical office has benefits that can’t be replicated over Zoom. 

Secondly, there are less employers willing to get into bidding wars at the moment with costs starting to spiral. 

Our Savvi advice would be to nail your recruitment strategy, stay consistent, hold steady and trust the process.  With the right processes in place, the right person will come along.

And now in a post-covid world, we’re also starting to see more and more difficulty in recruiting for junior and graduate-level roles.  

Why?  

Well, this is the generation that only got a fraction of the proper university experience. They’ve spent their uni years studying in front of a computer, locked down in their childhood bedroom of their parents’ house.  

These guys are looking to get out and finally get that independence and those experiences they’ve missed in their late teens and early twenties.  

At Savvi, we’re seeing less and less graduate and entry-level candidates on the market, and it’s getting harder to fill those roles. When it comes to attracting finance talent in 2023, this will almost certainly be another challenge we have to face.

The upshot of all this is that going into Q4 of 2022, resignations may slow down but some job areas may get more difficult to recruit.  And this situation will continue to evolve in 2023.

As well as having a solid finance recruitment strategy in place to mitigate the effects of the ever-changing hiring landscape, we need to look at how we can attract and retain finance talent:

1. Craft a Plan to Improve Employee Retention

Finding ways to increase employee retention is often the first step in shoring up talent shortages. 

If you are unsure why your employees are leaving, that's the starting point. There are many potential reasons, wages and benefits are often just one component of that. 

Before you onboard new talent, consider what makes your existing talent stay and why other highly qualified prospects leave so soon.

So where do you begin when crafting your employee retention plan?

Utilising "stay" and exit interviews to gather insights

A good starting point is to have a frank conversation with your existing team. 

Find out why they stay: What makes them committed to the company? What does your company do that encourages them? 

To determine why talent leaves, conduct exit surveys. 

These surveys create a focal point on what concerns are present. It could be poor training, a poor fit (which could indicate gaps in interviewing), a better job offer (find out why), or many other factors.

Know why employees want to stay

For Generation Go or the Millennial generation that is willing to leave one position to go to the other quickly, there are often a few core ways to encourage them to stay. 

In the financial services industry, focus on these areas:

• Provide holistic pay and benefits that focus on flexibility, including flexibility in work schedules, how they work, and how they take time off
• Encourage flexibility for all, including providing solutions such as extended maternity and paternity package while promoting a fair workforce regardless of gender, race, religion, or stereotypes
• Create a culture of respect where leadership and employees work as a team to achieve the best possible outcomes

Set clear expectations from the start

Another core component of the process is to ensure your employees know exactly what to expect from their job long before they step foot into it. That often means establishing expectations for the work they will do. 

This may include discussing what the work day is like, the challenges, the areas of opportunity, and more. Be sure they are prepared.

Then, set expectations for the long-term opportunities for that employee within the company. 

Is there room for advancement? What have other employees done to move up the ranks? 

Create an expectation of what tomorrow may look like for that employee if they work to meet their objectives.

By taking these steps, organisations can help to encourage their talent to stay. People who interview learn what the company has to offer. They learn what the workload will be like (are they working the typical business hours or not so much?). They also come into the company with a full understanding of what could be if they remain.

Authentic treatment, transparency, and respect are typically key areas to focus on with your team. Provide them with the ability to communicate their needs. 

This combination of hiring with full expectation of what reality is, along with providing a supportive, flexible, and transparent employee relationship, is what helps encourage employees to stay.

2. Consider The Great Resignation and How It May Impact the Financial Services Industry

The Great Resignation isn't something the financial services industry can simply ignore. The Covid crisis resulted in many employees re-evaluating their work-life balance with many deciding it was time to take a break from their high-paced, complex, and challenging jobs to look for opportunities that allowed them the flexibility they desired. 

Without a doubt, this has been felt in the financial services industry across the board. 

And while it seems that resignations will begin to slow down towards the end of 2022, it’s not over yet.  

However, resignation isn’t necessarily something to fear, if handled well.

Don’t fear resignation

Let’s look at how resignation can be an excellent opportunity for financial services:

• You can take the opportunity to embrace natural attrition for fresh talent and new perspectives
• You have the opportunity to learn and improve culture via ‘exit interviews’
• You can internally refresh processes around recruiting and employee offerings
• If staff leave on a good note, it can be a good branding exercise, as they’ll speak well of your organisation to others

The Great Resignation isn't over just yet. 

Those in the financial services industry with an employee-focused strategy are sure to fare better than those without.

3. Create Progression Paths for Your Finance Team

A core way of attracting finance talent is providing them with the ability to see their future. 

Working at an entry-level job used to be enough to encourage people to apply. The "getting your foot in the door" is still important, but for today's employees, a forward thinking approach is just as important. 

Top talent has options. 

They can often pick and choose where they wish to work from several companies.

By creating progression paths for your finance team, you'll build a way to encourage people to come to you over the competition. 

While wages and benefits matter, some may be more interested in what they could be doing in a year or more. 

Could it be possible to advance their position quickly? Is the company looking to just fill these minor positions?

Create a path and let others know about it

Consider the first positions many people take within your company. 

What upward movement is possible there? What types of opportunities exist? If there is not a clear, defined career map available, create one. 

Some companies have taken it so far as to create an interactive career map. It's a tool that allows people working with the company and those applying to see the organisational structure of their employees. 

That way, they can determine what steps they need to take to move up into leadership positions. It provides insight into the opportunities employees working there have for the future.

Be sure that, once you create these paths and outline these opportunities, that you let others know about them. That may mean talking about things like:

• Career advancement opportunities available
• Training programs to help talent gain the skills they need to advance
• Programs to help with career planning

Make it clear what your company does to support an employee's growth and upward movement within your organisation.

Doing this allows that prospective employee who is considering numerous positions and opportunities to see themselves within the company at different levels.

Recognise the speed of change in the industry

One area that is commonly considered a focal point for prospective employees is just how well the company adapts to and changes when new technology, financial products, or customer needs change. 

As you consider educating your prospective employees about how they could progress within the company, be sure to address how you handle the speed of change within the finance industry.

Does the company create learning opportunities to enable them to achieve their goals? Are there tools and workshops to help with new advances in areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning as they become available?

Make it clear to prospective employees that there are opportunities for them to not only take a job to get into the door but to move into various sectors of the company and into the corporate world, leadership, and other positions. 

That's going to help attract more people to your company on a consistent basis.

After all, you may not just be looking for a person to fill an entry-level role. 

You can firm up your hiring and spend less money seeking top talent when you bring in a person that's eager to learn and move up the ropes.

4. Create a Policy for Flexibility and Remote Working

Attracting finance talent means creating an environment in which people are able to do their job but also enjoy their life. 

The days of long hours on the stock market floor are long gone. 

While technology can do a lot of that type of work, today's employee – from financial investor to office manager – wants to see a better level of work-life balance. 

Their benefits package should showcase those opportunities.

Flexibility is the cornerstone

Employees want and need more flexibility. 

They may wish to better balance childcare or simply work when it is best suited to their lifestyle and living habits.

Organisations that build flexibility into their benefits package may attract more of those individuals, people who want to work and often are some of the most reliable but just need a bit more flexibility in terms of the hours worked or their number of days off. 

Many financial departments have set out to create that type of flexibility, often removing, when possible, the specific hours an employee works to just setting a weekly hourly goal, allowing employees to work as it fits.

Building a remote workforce

There are several positions in the finance world that require in-person service to meet customer needs and demands. 

Beyond this, virtually every other position can be done remotely. 

In 2020, companies learned that they could provide the same level of customer service and care without having employees all working from a single office space in the heart of the city. 

Employees learned that working from home – even carving out a small nook in a kitchen – could mean better opportunities for them.

Companies that build benefits packages that provide the opportunity for remote work, or even create an opportunity to work from home fully, may attract more of the well-qualified talent they need. 

Most importantly, it's essential for organisations to be specific. 

Have a plan for remote work, including how it may be structured, and then ensure that your prospective employees understand what opportunities exist for their needs.

5. Create a Benefits Package for Your Finance Team

Build benefits packages that attract talent. 

Doing some market research to understand what your company can do to meet the individual needs of your employees is always worthwhile. 

The days of offering a competitive salary and holidays are not enough. 

Many of today's organisations benefit by creating packages that directly apply to the specific needs of their employees. 

That could sound difficult, but there are typically some core components of these benefits packages that make sense.

We know the value of incorporating flexible scheduling and more remote work opportunities. 

What else do your prospective employees need to make the decision to work with you? In the finance industry, there are a few core factors that are typically part of that decision.

Consider insurance products

Discuss with existing team members and research the competition. 

Determine what type of insurance packages employees desire. This could include life insurance, medical insurance, dental insurance, and more. Quality coverage is just as important as offering the insurance package itself.

Pension and retirement contributions

Though the younger generation may not seem to care about long-term needs like this, that's often not the case. 

Many of today's employees want a company that's committed to them long term. These types of benefits offerings provide that type of flexibility to them.

Maternity and paternity package

Quite important when attracting a younger crowd is to provide financial protection and support to employees who may wish to build a family. 

Providing an enhanced maternity and paternity package could be one of the best benefits components for many of today's finance companies.

Time to manage illness

Paid sick leave can also be a factor for many people. A benefits package that offers competitive offerings in paid sick leave could be quite attractive to prospective employees. That's especially true when you consider their needs after the pandemic. Many people felt the financial pinch when they didn't have help to overcome their illness.

Ample time off

Having ample paid time off is always beneficial in the eyes of employees. It shows that you respect your team and want them to enjoy a higher quality of life. Your benefits package should be competitive in terms of how many days off employees have, including public holidays.

The best way to learn how to attract finance talent through the use of a benefits package is just to open the conversation. Talk to your team to determine what they need. Learn more about what the competition offers, too.

6. Formalise Employee Engagement

Attracting finance talent is not just about great benefits and strong job descriptions. 

It is also about, comprehensively, the relationships you build between your leadership team and your employees. Relationships lead to better retention. That does not mean you have to spend your off time with your staff. It does mean creating genuine relationships that allow you to best support the individual needs of your team.

How do you build employee engagement?

That's the hard part for many finance companies. The work is often very static – it's numbers and decision making. 

Yet, relationship building is more complex and takes creating conversations and opportunities.

Create an exceptional onboarding experience

How you interact with and support your new team members is the first step in creating strong engagement. 

To do this, be sure that you are putting time into connecting with your new hires. Meet with them enough. Get to know them. Provide a more personal experience rather than a software-focused onboarding process. It's a good idea to set them up with a mentor and create social connections for them.

Ensure remote employees remain part of the group

Remote employees can easily become less connected to the rest of the company. 

Yet, with more employees working from home, it's critical to find ways to build engagement. Set up those video conferences. Hold a lunch in the office once a week. Create opportunities for staff members to get to know each other rather than just focusing on the work at hand.

Build a positive company culture

To attract new talent in finance, you need others looking into your company to recognise all that it has to offer, especially a positive, welcoming company culture. 

Outline your company values. Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them and deal with challenges in a positive light. 

Work to encourage and support your new team as much as possible. Encourage employees to work together to support each other, too. This may include ensuring that any negative attention or tension is alleviated as soon as possible.

Engage with your employees on a routine basis. Let them know they can talk to you at any time. Encourage them to interact with you, too, when there are good and bad things to discuss. 

This type of open conversation allows employees to feel valued and respected. That provides opportunities for better retention.

7. Nail Down Advertising Channels for Your Finance Roles

To attract finance talent, you need to post opportunities and positions where they will see it. That’s easier said than done.

 With so many online websites, job boards, agencies, and LinkedIn opportunities, it’s important to zero in on what works for this industry.

Seeking top talent?

Networking with finance talent on LinkedIn is often the best step to take when it comes to high-end talent. 

That includes leadership and management positions and experienced professionals. Many people use LinkedIn for networking and work to consistently build their network with the objective of creating opportunities for the future. It’s often beneficial to focus your search on LinkedIn because of that professionalism and higher caliber of talent.

But not to become over-reliant on LinkedIn, there are other advertising channels you can explore.

The little black book

A top Savvi tip would be to reach back into your ‘little black book’ of old candidates - think back to who you have interviewed in the past that made a great impression but didn’t quite make the cut. Use old contacts to recommend people they know who might be a good fit.  

Your network is everything.

Finding other avenues

When talent is needed and you’re willing to train, job boards and websites can be an excellent choice, especially for entry level candidates. 

However, if you plan to go this route, you’ll need to spend some time focused on creating highly detailed job descriptions that make it clear what you need.

Utilising an agency like Savvi is often best for very senior or specialised positions as well as for organisations that want to alleviate a lot of the frustration and time consuming process of hiring. 

Even if you have an internal hiring team, utilising an agency opens the door to new opportunities, especially when you have very specific job requirements that must be met. 

Research these organisations to ensure you are turning to those that have specific finance industry experience, as that can prove to be the best overall decision for your organisation.

Advertising finance roles should be one step in the bigger picture. That is, you need to be sure you are communicating within the team to fully understand the requirements of the position, including soft and hard skills. 

At the same time, you want to be certain that you are reaching out to organisations that can support your efforts and who take the time to truly get to know your company.

Employee retention can define the success of a company. When you hire and train team members, you are investing in them. It’s costly to have high turnover. 

Yet, “fixing” this problem may not be too difficult with the right programs and tools in place to support your employees. It enables you to provide a positive place for people to work, and that helps further in attracting finance talent.

Book your complimentary recruitment strategy workshop with our finance recruitment experts today! We will use this time to help you resolve your key recruitment challenges.

​We offer insights and guidance on:

• Available talent pools and market salaries
• Market trends on flexible working arrangements
• Employer branding
• Your recruitment process
• Employee retention strategies.

Retaining finance talent in 3 easy steps

Retaining finance talent takes a concentrated effort.

Financial service organisations need to spend more time than ever hiring with care. This often means working to build relationships with prospective employees over a period of time. While job ads and LinkedIn searches work for some positions, for top tier talent, there is a nurturing process that takes time. 

This means that, beyond all else, organisations need to be sure they are working to retain that talent once they are in place.

Effective Employee Retention Strategies

Retaining finance talent means taking a look at a variety of factors that could be impacting your current employees. 

Here are some key factors to consider first:

Why are your employees leaving?

There are plenty of reasons this could happen. Some may include:

• Poor benefits packages that lack valuable products
• Inadequate salary
• Feeling overworked or highly stressed all of the time
• Lacking support and mentoring
• Poor management techniques or lack of them
• Concerns about the company’s financial health and future
• Desire for a better work-life balance

Exit interviews are a good way to learn a bit more about why your employees are leaving. 

It may also be important to simply have an open discussion with your team to better understand what is lacking and needs improvement.

Create mentorship programs

It’s always valuable to start with the right hires. 

That means working to ensure you are bringing in qualified professionals who can fill the position properly. At the same time, you need to have an onboarding process that’s designed to prepare them for the work they will do. One way to do this is through mentorship programs within your financial service organisation.

Mentors help to encourage and support the needs of the new employee. They are able to encourage social interactions and relationship building. They may also help your existing staff to feel valued and respected. 

Pair new employees with qualified professionals who can give them small amounts of support when needed. 

This helps set the individuals up for success

Build a healthy and competitive benefits package

Quite often, there’s a lot of discussion that pay is less important. 

Yet, a competitive benefits package and salary are very important tools for retaining finance talent. If you do not offer these benefits, your competition will. At the end of the day, employees must have their financial needs met, or they will find an employer that can help them.

What goes into a healthy benefits package? A good starting point is to consider what your competitors are offering. Are you in the same area? Consider:

• Compensation and bonus structure
• Opportunities for salary increases
• Insurance, including medical and life insurance
• Pension and retirement planning options
• Ample time off
• An enhanced paternity and maternity package

Work with your team to create a benefits package that represents how you can support your employees the best. 

A good program like this will help you not just retain your top talent, but also attract new talent on an ongoing basis.

Training and development

A common reason for employees to make the decision to leave is because they feel they have no room for progression or advancement. 

If they do not see promotions as an option or there is no way to gain additional training to improve their career objectives, then talented employees will leave for companies that can offer them more of the training and development they need.

Create a clear progression path for your employees where they know what their next step is and what opportunities may be available to them in the future. Incorporate training programs into their ongoing support services. 

Talk to each person about what their desires are. By finding ways to fulfill their career objectives, employees are more likely to remain with you than to start over at another company.

Discuss Solutions with Your Team

Set up some time to discuss retaining finance talent with your leadership. Discuss what isn’t going well and what concerns are present. 

Remove the blame from this conversation. When you lose talented employees, it is a company-wide problem that needs adjustment. 

Some core areas to consider, in addition to those already mentioned, include:

• Recognition and rewards programs
• Feedback and performance support for employees
• Flexible work arrangements
• Remote work opportunities that fit their lifestyle better
• A team-oriented work environment where people work together, including management and employees

Retaining employees in the financial industry is challenging because the work they are doing for you is easily applied to another job with the competition. 

For that reason, companies need to be aggressive in creating the best environment for success.

Focus on Getting the Help You Need

From executive search to permanent recruitment, Savvi Recruitment Consultants can help you to build a stronger workforce for your business. 

Specialising in helping clients in the finance industry find the very best, top tier talent available, you can contact us for help with both employee retention methods and creating better hires.

Book your complimentary recruitment strategy workshop with Savvi finance recruitment experts today. We will use this time to help you resolve your key recruitment challenges.

​We offer insights and guidance on:

• Available talent pools and market salaries
• Market trends on flexible working arrangements
• Employer branding
• Your recruitment process
• Employee retention strategies.

The great resignation in financial services: is it all bad?

Anyone working in financial services recruitment has likely encountered the Great Resignation that began in 2021. It was a time when a tidal wave of employee churn took place, leaving companies without the staff to manage operations, including in the financial services industry. 

Though there has been a significant slowing in the amount of turnover occurring, there are still plenty of people leaving financial services and finance departments.

But in 2022, is that necessarily a bad thing? 

Reframing the Great Resignation in Financial Services: Could it be a Good Thing?

Some organisations are working to turn this mass exodus into an opportunity, in a number of ways:

• They’re seeing it as an opportunity to revamp and redefine their employees and the benefits offered
• The speeding up of natural attrition within financial services organisations could be an opportunity for restructure, fresh talent and fresh ideas
• If an employee’s leaving experience is a positive one, not only do companies have the opportunity to gain some valuable feedback during an ‘exit interview’, but the employee could also become a brand advocate for their organisation

So how to make your organisation a place where people want to come to work, and stay?

The easy reaction is to think that you need to pay employees more. 

That's only a fraction of the process, though. It is more important for companies to focus on making tangible changes that allow them to do two things:

• Improve the quality of their hires
• Provide the benefits and supportive services that high-quality employees desire

To do this, it is important to understand what employees within organisations like yours are truly looking for in a company. It's not just money.

What Goes Into Creating a Stronger Employee Base?

The goal is not just to attract finance talent but also to create a scenario where you retain your existing talent. The right atmosphere encourages others to work with you. 

There are a few core components that may help you to work through the Great Resignation in financial services and turn it into more of an opportunity for your organisation.

Begin with encouraging and empowering existing employees.

In order to bring in new employees, you have to maintain those that you currently have, especially your top tier talent that you rely on for consistent support. 

A specific goal you should have is to ensure these people, those who are already working for you and represent your brand well, feel both appreciated and empowered within your company.

Speak to these employees openly. Find out:

• Why they stay
• What they enjoy about the company
• Where they are in their professional lives
• Where they hope to be in a few years
• How valued and respected they feel
• Gaps in the support they get from you

Often, keeping these lines of communication open allows you to understand what your employees need. That helps ensure they are less likely to leave your company with the rest of the pack.

Be authentic and deliberate about your hiring

Many companies found themselves facing financial difficulties as more and more employees resigned in the last year. It was harrowing and continues to be. 

Yet, hiring just to have a person there isn't good enough, and it can impact your employer brand. Instead, be authentic in what you need and what you can offer. 

Encourage people to work with you because they know your company and what it offers.

This starts in the job interview process. You want to be sure people fit your ideal company culture, but you also want to ensure they want what you can offer. That includes tangibles like money, but it may also include:

• Training
• Supportive services
• Benefits packages
• Development programs

Adjust the way you work to accommodate the needs of your talent

One of the many reasons for the Great Resignation in financial services was simply that people did not feel appreciated. That may mean that now is a very good time to start working on redefining how you treat your employees. 

Find ways to provide for what they need while still ensuring that the work gets done.

What can you do to show people that you offer what they need to thrive? 

There may be a few things within the financial sector that other companies are doing that could support your team.

• Provide benefits that match the desires and actual needs of your employees
• Compensation should be competitive, but so should insurance programs and paid time off
• Provide more flexibility in things like work schedules to allow for better home-work balance
• Consider remote work as a true alternative because it enables the same amount of work done and benefits your employees
• Focus on providing qualified employees with a respectful, diversified, and transparent place to work

When you focus on these areas, the Great Resignation in financial services no longer has to be a negative. 

It may, in fact, be an opportunity for you to change the way your company treats employees, build a better employer brand, and enable better hires; as well as get some fresh talent and fresh ideas!

Book your complimentary recruitment strategy workshop with Savvi finance recruitment experts today. We will use this time to help you resolve your key recruitment challenges.

​We offer insights and guidance on:

• Available talent pools and market salaries
• Market trends on flexible working arrangements
• Employer branding
• Your recruitment process
• Employee retention strategies.

Sample interview questions for every role in finance

If you’re in the finance industry, filling professional roles can be an ordeal. You have to carefully vet candidates to make sure they have the right skills, mindset, and experience to succeed. You also want to ensure that they fit in with your company’s culture.  This is where the right set of finance interview questions is vitally important.

As much as it feels like a lot of ground to cover, the interview process really boils down to preparation. You might remember that this advice was given frequently when you were on the other side of the interview. It still holds true today.

If you plan ahead with some careful questions, it’s a good start. You should also think about what answers fit the general mould that you are trying to fill. This will help you narrow down a more specific set of skills, traits, and metrics to vet candidates. When you do, you might find that identifying the best person for any given job is not quite so daunting.

With that in mind, you will find some sample finance interview questions below. These cover the biggest roles in the industry. You will see that some of these questions are a little more universal and can apply to other roles. Others can be adapted from one role to the next.

What really needs to be specific is the “right” answer to the question. Let the questions guide you to find the means to select your new hires.

Finance Manager/ CFO/ Finance Director/ Head of Finance/ Financial Controller

• What do you think makes a successful financial plan or budget?
• What is the largest budget that you have managed?
• How do you analyse risk management?
• How do you use various financial statements?
• How do you deal with errors in reporting?

The goals of these managerial finance interview questions are to test for working knowledge for the role. Similarly, it’s important to try to gauge the candidate’s management style to see if they are a good fit for the organisation.

Finance Administrator

• Which accounting software do you have experience with?
• Are you familiar with database management systems? Which ones?
• What is more important, cash flow or assets?
• Describe how you think a finance administrator role should be filled.
• How do you organize financial reports?

These questions are designed to show you how the applicant has worked in the field and how ready they are to work in your organisation.

Accounts Assistant

• What is the secret to successful multitasking?
• What is your background in accounting?
• How do you define success?
• Describe a time that you solved a problem using logic.
• What tasks do you expect to perform as an accounts assistant?

These questions give you an idea as to the experience level of the candidate and their expectations coming into the role.

Finance Officer/ Finance Executive/ Finance Coordinator

• What do you like most about working in finance? Least?
• How do you deal with disagreement from a subordinate?
• What is the most important component of a financial report?
• How do you differentiate between earnings per share and diluted normalised earnings per share?
• When would you recommend an interest rate swap?

You can use these questions to probe their understanding of working financial theory and how they execute certain skills within the role.

 Entry-Level/ Graduate Accountant/ Associate

• Why are you interested in this role?
• What accounting software have you used before?
• How do you keep up with changing rules?
• What kinds of reports are you comfortable making?
• What are the best ways to prevent accounting fraud?

These questions probe for understanding and skill, primarily focusing on the tasks and duties that come up in accounting.

 Tax Manager

• What sets you apart from other tax managers?
• How do you keep apprised of changing tax laws?
• How do you motivate a tax team?
• What research have you conducted?
• What is your favourite project that you have worked on?

Along with getting an idea of the candidate’s level of knowledge, you can also see what they enjoy about the role and what specific elements they can bring to it.

Payroll Assistant

• What are the top five skills you will be bringing to the payroll assistant role?
• How do you stay ahead of payroll deadlines?
• What are the best practices for ensuring payroll accuracy?
• What payroll software have you used before?
• How would you handle a questionable business expense submission?

These questions test integrity as much as they do any understanding of payroll. Both are important for this position.

Remember Your Goals

These sample finance interview questions can jumpstart your interview preparation. Ultimately, you have to stick to the goals, and that extends far beyond simply filling a role. (Learn about how to create your finance recruitment strategy and set recruitment goals, here). What are you really hoping to gain from a new hire, and how can you facilitate that result?

Plan your questions. Treat each interview as a fresh opportunity, and budget your time. If you have the freedom to be exclusive, take advantage of it. If you’re up against the clock, decide early where you are willing to compromise. If you let your goals drive your preparation, you’ll find the best person for the job.

3 tips for undertaking a recruitment strategy audit

In today’s job market more than ever, the recruitment process is predominantly candidate-driven. Due to the saturation in the job market, it has become more difficult to find the ideal candidate, who’s a good fit for your company and your brand. If this is something you have encountered in your current recruitment processes, it is undoubtedly time to look at undertaking a recruitment strategy audit.

Here are 3 ways to lay the foundations for a successful recruitment strategy audit:

Focus on Business Needs

Primarily, since COVID, it is important to review your business needs. What has the pandemic changed in your practices? How has it affected your productivity? Are there any skill gaps in your finance team that you need to fill?

Focusing on your business needs will help you refine your recruitment process and help cement both the candidate's and your own understanding of what is wanted and needed on this journey.

For example, when discussing your business with the candidate, be upfront about the business’s goals. Perhaps it’s strengthening customer service, increasing the overall market share, or growing the organisation? Be sure to know and understand the objectives of your business, then you can explain it clearly and confidently to a candidate so that everyone is on the same page and what is required is fully understood.

Of course, one of the aspects of current recruitment strategies that should be reviewed is the COVID-induced need for more flexible working policies and how that affects your business. Many companies have had to move toward a more flexible working environment. In fact, a more flexible working environment, the kind of flexibility, and the trust between you and your workers are qualities in an organisation that have been clenching really good candidates.

Not only from working parents, for example, but others interested in the business practices and flexibility as indicators of the work culture. It may be that some of the workers prefer to work out of their own office spaces; however, knowing they have flexibility is often an excellent motivator for taking a position. This is especially important if you want to hopefully build a work community and keep long-term employees who stay with their employer.

Map The Candidate’s Journey

The candidate’s journey is the set of experiences job seekers go through as they follow the process of attracting notice, applying, and after they start a new position. 

John Ennis, Associate Director at Savvi Recruitment has said,

"I see a lot of frustration with clients who don't have the recruitment process mapped out, and it all starts to break down mid process. And that's frustrating for the clients and candidates."  

The journey is defined by your employer brand and your ability to attract job seekers in this market, following through with your starter-retention rates.

Mapping out internally your recruitment process is an excellent way to prepare for your recruitment drive and to prepare a candidate for the next steps as well. This streamlines your process as the candidate will be aware and prepared for the next step. This, and open communication with the candidates, are key to a successful recruitment drive.

Candidate Attraction

One of the most successful ways to counter competition’s recruitment tactics is to have a strong recruiter brand. A strong recruiter brand with competitive hiring packages and a clear understanding of what the position requires will anticipate the best type of person to fulfil those needs. Roadmap your requirements and necessities; communicate them clearly throughout the candidate’s journey.

Be sure to make a candidate feel like they have your full attention while talking to them, especially virtually, and not making them feel as if you haven’t read their CV or looked at their background. While speaking to them, take the time to engage them, to make sure they understand the role, requirements, and responsibilities. If you expect this candidate to be a valuable member of your team, give them the time and attention they should get.

Please remember that advertisements and job descriptions are merely tools to get out your recruiter brand and what the position briefly entails. It becomes important to have a more personal touch because many candidates are already bombarded with LinkedIn and recruiter approaches to the extent that it is almost spamming. The number of licenses and people sending them out are generally of mixed quality and may not sift out the right person for your business needs. This is the place where using an agency like Savvi Recruitment Consultants may be key in connecting the right candidates to your business.

 The bottom line? A successful recruitment strategy audit will help you roadmap your recruitment process. Communicate your needs clearly to any candidates. Engage your candidates and be sure to have prepared to meet them. People make all the difference in successful recruitment.

If you are looking for a more in-depth look at your current recruitment strategy, Savvi Recruitment Consultants offers a free workshop. There is no obligation and Savvi Recruitment will invest time running through your current strategy and help you streamline a process that will serve you better.

[Podcast] Tips for developing a finance recruitment strategy

In our latest podcast, Jennifer Cahill and Therese Cadell, co-founders of Savvi Recruitment, along with John Ennis, Associate Director of Savvi Recruitment discuss the different recruitment strategy trends they’re seeing in the market currently.

(N.B. Cookies are needed to view the podcast player. If you can't see a player above, open the episode in a new browser using the link below.)

We work with a range of clients, all of whom are finding it tough at the moment in terms of having lots of competition to try and hire, particularly in areas of risk, compliance, finance, data analytics and consulting.In this podcast, we share tips and tricks around client recruitment strategies that are working well and are getting good engagement from a candidate perspective, with the aim of being able to help you attract talent and get ahead of the competition and to be able to secure those candidates!

Transcript

Jennifer Cahill:

So, welcome to the current episode of The Savvi Podcast, where we really just wanted to come on and speak about what we're seeing in the market. Because, I think everybody knows it's a very competitive market at the moment. All of our clients are up against it in terms of having lots of competition to try and hire, particularly in areas of risk, compliance, finance, data analytics, consulting. Pretty much everything, finance across the whole range of areas that we cover and we would see mostly within the financial services sector. So, we wanted to come on, just share what we're seeing around recruitment strategies. Share some sort of evidence in terms of recruitment strategies that are working well.

Jennifer Cahill:

That are getting good engagement from a candidate perspective, and those lines are able to attract and get ahead of their competition and being able to secure those candidates. And also maybe some tips on what not to do, but might feel intuitively something you feel you might have to do, given the market. So again, just kind of, it's really just tips and tricks and our observations in the market in the last couple of months. So I might go to you, John, just to kind of, I suppose, just even anecdotal examples of what you've seen in terms of clients that are really doing it well out there at the moment in terms of recruitment strategy and what they're doing.

John Ennis:

Yeah. Because as you say, it is highly competitive so you do need to kind of stand out when you go to the market and that can be hard to do in a noisy market. And any candidate that we've seen in recent times, who's on the market or open to an opportunity will have two or three by the end of it to choose from anyway, so that they're, everybody is looking for people with the same skill sets effectively. So when they're on the market, they're bound to have something else that they'll be pursuing or they'll be open to benchmarking against your own. So from a client perspective, I think it's always trying to stand out in that process and that can be difficult to do.

John Ennis:

But some of the key things I think to do is to, from the very start is to be very clear in terms of what you're looking for. And when you're working with your recruitment partners, whether it be their in-house recruiters or ourselves, agency recruiters, it's what we find works really well, is collaboration from the start. To give a good example of a client who's looking for kind of a head of risk in this quarter one, of this year. And they really came to us and engaged very well from the outset, which I found worked very well in terms of clearly defining kind of the profile that they were looking for, what the job entailed, what they absolutely must have, and then asking our advice in terms of what the market could provide in terms of budget and salary level and that.

John Ennis:

So everyone has very clearly defined parameters of what we're looking to achieve and what we're looking to get in the market so that when you're going to the market, you can talk to people around what it is and what it isn't as well. So you're screening in as much as screening out, I think, in the current market to make sure that you're getting that pool of candidates. And I think that's really important from the outset and it kind of sets the tone for the whole recruitment strategy that I would see it as it goes down towards it, because it is a long process, really, especially at the more senior end of the market where we would kind of specialize in the mid to senior end. It is a longer process kind of 8 to 12 weeks would be what our normal cycle times would often be throughout the process to get the right candidate to offer accept from starting a search.

John Ennis:

And I think one of the key things is setting out that clearly defined roadmap with timelines along the way, and then communicating that to the candidate, because at the end of the day, the candidate is quite invested in the process by the time they get into the second and third interview. So you have to communicate with them as to what the steps are, what the engagement process is, so that nobody drops off during the process so that you have them there at the end. And that's where I see a lot of frustration with clients who don't have that kind of mapped out because they'll go to interviews and then they won't have next steps ready. And then it'll all start to break down mid process. And that's frustrating for the clients and the candidates. And it's difficult then to go back to market as well. So I would say from the outset, you have to have a very clear kind of roadmap to how it's going to work from the very start and from the very engagement process as to when you're defining what you actually want.

John Ennis:

And I think those ones, especially on the senior hires, work very well, and as you say, it is a very competitive landscape. So you have to adapt that strategy, I think, to adapt to the market, adapt your strategy to the market and I know people will always say, it's speed that gets you over the end, but clients want, always say, oh, we want someone as quick as possible, but they want the right person. And the right person will do their due diligence as well. So it's not necessarily moving very quickly, but it is keeping the momentum up and keeping everyone informed of the timelines on it in that respect and moving again, if your preferred candidate is moving faster in one process, maybe you'll have to up it a little bit. So it is about movement in that respect, not necessarily losing the rigor around your interview process though.

Jennifer Cahill:

And we had that in one example last year, where again, very competitive around a risk and compliance role where we, they agreed given the momentum that they'd move people through from second to final round, even before others had finished that second round process, because they already knew that person was very strong and they definitely wanted them to meet other people. So instead of waiting, because there was a delay on another person coming in at second round, they progressed that person through. So it's those kind of pivots as you go through the process and having that flexibility to kind of adapt in real time if, needs be as well, which worked really effectively in that particular process as well. Therese, I'm sure you...

John Ennis:

Internally for the bigger ones. Sorry, I just think internally for the bigger ones, just in terms of having even who they are going to meet, who are the key people that they need to meet, having that all detailed from the very first engagement of knowing what's going to happen from your side. Now, things will pop up, people may be away, that kind of thing. But if you communicate that with the candidate, you don't lose anything at that stage. People would expect and things pop up on the candidate side as well. You know, that they're away on holiday, they've meetings, they can't move that quickly. So that will, there will always be tweaks that you make along the way. But if you have a clearly defined roadmap, it keeps it easier to keep it to that plan.

Jennifer Cahill:

No, definitely. Totally agree. Therese would you, I'm sure you would agree on that point, but any other elements that you've seen that have worked really well?

Therese Cadell:

I think just to expand on that point as well, on the process before the others, it's the most successful ones is the one you can say it's going to be a three round interview. First is online, second is technical test. Third, the client will want to meet you face to face. It's going to happen over this duration. And so it's mapped out from the start because invariably, that candidate will be in other processes. So at least yes, as John said, a couple of things will pop up. But again, it's very much, what's the candidate journey with the client. I suppose, the other part is maybe on communication and overly communicating insofar as the more information we're armed with. And obviously we're very lucky the clients we deal with, we know their business, we know their requirements.

Therese Cadell:

The more information we have about what's happening in the business, what's happening within the next 6 to 12 months, what are the requirements, immediately. But given what, what's the body of work that's coming down. Again, it's that hook that you're getting the candidate in. It's not just the immediate job, it's the potential, it's the opportunity, so again, it's the information piece and candidates just want to know, they want to know more and more and they will go off and they'll do their research. But again, it's down to information communication. That's the key that I'm seeing at the minute.

Jennifer Cahill:

And I think that's sometimes maybe not overlooked, but maybe seen as extra detail or a detail that we might not necessarily need. But as you said, hundreds are very astute in this market and because they have a number of options, it is, let's say we're kind of storytellers. We do need to be able to convey the story of your particular business, where it is right now, but what are the ambitions for where it wants to be in 12 months to 3 years’ time and how that journey might align with the candidates journey career wise in terms of where they want to go. And ultimately from anything I've seen in the last 10 plus years in recruitment people work for people, you know what I mean? There has to be that chemistry ultimately, between the person going in and the person that they'll report to and the wider team and that sense of, I suppose, the elusive fit, but it is that kind of chemistry test and value alignment, and that's becoming more and more important.

Jennifer Cahill:

And, we see a lot more companies leading with value statements and being able to demonstrate how they operate according to those value statements and particularly flexibility, obviously at the moment. I know there's been a lot of talk in the last couple of months around hybrid working models, work from home, I think, well, definitely from anything I've seen in the last couple of months, it's the first question, really. You know what I mean? Is there flexibility? What is that flexibility? And looking for quite a bit of clarity around that. And I know some firms obviously understandably, have had to take a number of months to really just work all that out and kind of put together their policy around work from home. But in general, we're seeing three days in the office, two days working from home, but there are lots of other clients where there is more flexibility around that.

Jennifer Cahill:

So there is quite a lot of variation, but it is one of the biggest factors right now and the experience that everybody has had going through COVID, where even over salary, you know what I mean? It's really your flexible working environment and what kind of flexibility and the trust that's there and even around hours, you know what I mean? That is really clenching really good candidates. And even that's from people, it's not just working parents that have these concerns, it's sort of everybody, because they're seeing it as an indication of culture within a firm, regardless of whether they might actually decide to go in five days, but they want to know that option is there, particularly if they're looking to build a career with a particular firm for the longer time, I think that's, they're taking that as a real cue more to cut that through.

John Ennis:

It nearly could kind of can be seen as a trust issue now, more so than as much as a flexibility issue from a work life balance, it's kind of like, do you trust me to do the job, because the other way of working wasn't as trustful, maybe that you had to be jacket over the back of the chairs or else you weren't actually there. But no, I think that we're certainly seeing flexibility as a new currency. I would nearly put it in right at the top and I'm not saying it would displace salary. Everybody works for money at the same time, but it is certainly key and it's one of the conversations that we would have. But just on your point there, just in terms of people working for people as well, one of the key questions we would always, when we're debriefing candidates is, how did you get on with the person you would be working for? Because, that is the crucial question.

John Ennis:

It really is, if that doesn't gel from either side, it's not going to work. So that's key, and that's where I think Therese, was saying kind of the in person is definitely back in, now that it's allowed as definitely the final step. If not, sometimes even bringing it in at the first step just to get that meeting as well, face to face.

Jennifer Cahill:

And because we've been in a virtual world for two years. It's only when you step back into the real world and we're actually back meeting people in the flesh. You do, you realize how much you weren't getting from a virtual experience. It's hard, sometimes you're like, oh, this works. You know what I mean? This whole virtual thing, why would we? We don't need to, but it's only when you step back into it and you actually see, in a people-orientated business, and that's where recruitment is. You're dealing with people, and people work for people. There's just something there, there's that chemistry that you just, it's not the same. And well, I've seen clients who hired with the best of intentions, thought that everybody ticked all boxes on both sides and to nobody's fault, when they came back into the real world, it didn't, it just didn't...

John Ennis:

Gel.

Jennifer Cahill:

It didn't gel.

Therese Cadell:

But I would say a lesson to clients as well is, don't keep bringing people back in. It's back to the original, as I said, lay out the process, don't say, look, I want you to meet X. Oh, I think now you should meet Y. Candidates are patient and they want to meet as many as possible, but all this, let's do five or six rounds. I spoke to somebody yesterday who had done eight rounds of interviews with, I suppose, a startup, but a well known startup and then was offered a salary of 30K below what they put out their expectation, which...

John Ennis:

They have a great culture though?

Therese Cadell:

Hmm?

John Ennis:

Did they have a great culture though?

Therese Cadell:

So it was just going, it's why, because this person has a job in the background and they have to, they have a responsibility to their current employer and yes, they're willing to meet these people. They were approached by the team themselves. So it's just, it's a bit frustrating, so.

Jennifer Cahill:

No, it is. And again, comes back to what we were saying at the very beginning. Just the clarity around that process says a lot about the firm as well, because people do read into that. If, it comes across a little bit sketchy and disorganized, then that's kind of what you're portraying to the particular candidate in that process. I would say it doesn't happen as much, now. I think there is more of an awareness particularly given the market and it being more of an employee's market rather than employer's kind of market to pick. And that happened very quickly because during COVID and just coming out of COVID, it was an employer's market. But that turned on its head very quickly last year. So paying attention in an interview and particularly in the virtual world, if you're doing interviews virtually, your camera's probably at the top of your laptop, you know what I mean?

Jennifer Cahill:

You need to make sure that your eye contact is there because you're at home or you're virtual. There might be your phone going off to your side and you feel because you're virtual, you can maybe have a look at that. People can see those things, it's very obvious. It's a real turnoff for a candidate, if they're in an interview going, I kind of felt like I had half their attention throughout that interview. It was clear that they were maybe trying to respond to some emails in the background while they were having the conversation with me. And I know we're all under pressure and it takes time to do interviews, but you have to invest that time. And when you're at the table and you're meeting somebody, your focus, you have to have read their CV.

Jennifer Cahill:

I know this might seem really obvious stuff, but it does still happen where candidates come out going, it was really clear that person had just seen my CV maybe five minutes before they walked into the room or came onto the call. They were asking, you know what I mean? They didn't know my background. They obviously hadn't read it, their attention wasn't there. It doesn't matter how great the job is or how great your company is. If that's their first engagement with who might be their future new boss, you're just, they're, it's a total turn off. It's an absolute turnoff, so they're just not going to, I would say, recruitment is like dating. The dating psychology, it's sort of, if you turn up for a dinner date and somebody's preoccupied across the table, it's not going to go well. So it's a simple human thing...

John Ennis:

Or just say, get through the process. We're going, we like you. But, we're going to have to see a few more people...

Jennifer Cahill:

A few other people.

John Ennis:

Oh, okay. No, that's fine. That's an open relationship then. I can work for someone else as well.

Jennifer Cahill:

But it is, it’s true because that's really the worst feedback you can give to a candidate. God, they really liked you. I know they've interviewed you three times now, but they just want to...

John Ennis:

So, you want to benchmark? Yeah.

Jennifer Cahill:

I always think. Oh my God, if you're going out with somebody for years and they're thinking, oh my God, maybe the next step is marriage. You know what I mean? We're going to offer the job, but I'd like a year out. I just want to benchmark you, we're going out a long time. There could be new candidates that have come into the market. I go, I want to marry knowing, that I've married the best candidate. Who the hell goes back? Sure thing, take 12 months. You'll come back 12 months when you're happy that you've benchmarked me against the market and I'm good to go. So I always think...

Therese Cadell:

Well that sometimes translates as well, Jen. In an interview, when the interviewer is time poor and they approach the interview on reasons why they shouldn't hire you rather than engaging with you, focusing on the positive. So again, if you want that dating analogy, it's like going, looking at all the things that are maybe wrong initially rather than being open to all the right stuff that's in front of you. So it's, it can be a mindset that you will face at interviews. So people have to, both the clients have to go into an interview with the right mindset. This person has taken the time to engage with us. All our team in the background have presented this person. I need to have read the CV. I need to understand that this person knows what the role, the responsibilities, the requirements are. And I need to give them a fair chance and listen and give them my attention for the hour. And that's, to me, that's just basic respect. If, this person is going to be a valuable member of your team. So give them the time and attention that they should get.

John Ennis:

And I think as well, they have to kind of start selling as well. Some people are still stuck in that mindset of like, I mean, we're a great company. I mean, without actually being able to communicate exactly why to a candidate, we're a great company, but they feel that we're a great company. Everybody should be delighted to join us and happy to join us, which is a little bit arrogant sometimes because, you do have to sell to candidates in this market as well. I mean, in terms of why they should join you or why they should leave a perfectly good job to do this job for you. So a lot of candidates are what we call, I suppose, passive in terms of them not actively applying. In fact, I mean, if you put up an ad now, your active applications will be minimal to say the least.

John Ennis:

So, it is about when you engage with candidates, as Therese said, making sure that you're fully engaged, but also that what you want to sell to them during the interview. Just as much as what you want to find out for them, because it's very much a two-way street, and certainly the power, there's a lot of power with the candidates at the moment, which is a good thing. If, you're a good company and you're willing and you're able to communicate that to them, because that will give you a bit of an edge.

Jennifer Cahill:

I think that's a really important point, and it comes back to that point then in terms of where to advertise if people are looking at this and they're looking, we're not seeing. It is like we're nearly, we're pretty much at full employment. So the people that you're looking for in experienced hire across most of the common in-house disciplines are already in jobs. They're probably, anybody who's really miserable in their job, they move because there's so much opportunity out there. So the presumption has to be that whoever is at the table, we've maybe gone to them, kind of passive and sold them this opportunity and really kind of brought them the full story of why they should go and work for you and why this might be a better opportunity for them as opposed to where they are now.

Jennifer Cahill:

So we need the hiring managers to pick that momentum up and to continue that story and know that you're kind of getting somebody that's kind of lukewarm, the onus is on you as the interviewer to sell the story. You know what I mean? And that's just rapid fire around questions and turn focus on just purely and CVs are so one-dimensional, job descriptions are incredibly one-dimensional. Nobody's going to come to the table in this market solely based on God, the job description is really compelling, I've never heard that. So I know people invest a lot of time with them. They are important to, just to chronicle what actually is going to be involved in the role, but they're not as, they're not an attraction tool. Nobody is drawn to a job description, so it is just a tool. It's just a piece of information so they know what the role is, but it is about that interface between us maybe as an agency, if you're using an agency or your in-house talent acquisition team, that first touch point and then making sure that's consistent the whole way through.

John Ennis:

It's a very important point. It has to be aligned because if they hear different things along the channel, along the journey then that'll raise kind of red flags for the candidate as well. So I mean, everybody, again, it comes back to, as you said at the start that you have that roadmap and who you want to involve in the process. And as Therese said, no more than three interviews, but you can have a couple of people in each interview as well, and that can often work better than the one-to-one as well. I find, I think whether virtually or in person, I think it's always better to have at least two interviewers on the thing, if not three. You don't want to go too far into a panel because then it becomes a panel interview sometimes, but you need to have a couple of people there. Again, it shows that investment, it shows that they can ask other people and it's not quite sometimes as intense as one-on-one.

Jennifer Cahill:

Definitely. And about the advertising piece, because again, LinkedIn obviously recruiter and, we hear this actually quite a lot at the moment that candidates are getting bombarded with LinkedIn approaches and recruiter approaches and that I think they are really becoming like spam, but the amount of licenses that are out there, the amount that people are sending out and there's really mixed quality out there in terms of those approaches. And for us, certainly in the last couple of months, it's been more about people we know, it's been about the referral network of people who we know referring potential candidates to us. Kind of coming back to the Little Black Book a little bit more in terms of your network.

John Ennis:

Makes sense.

Jennifer Cahill:

Because again, if you're relying on LinkedIn to try and generate it all by itself, and if you're in an internal talent acquisition team and you're relying on LinkedIn recruiter, you probably need to go back through people who've applied in the past to roles. The people there that you didn't pick up, they weren't suitable. Just that they've had some engagement with your brand before, but again, it comes back to the strength of your brand. So that's...

John Ennis:

And you're assuming that their candidate journey the last time when they weren't successful for the role wasn't quite right for them, was a good journey because you don't, there's no point going back out to somebody who you treated badly through the journey or felt that they got treated badly just through lack of communication, oftentimes. Which is the biggest book where that candidates, we would see, I mean, just online as well as from talking to them, if they got didn't get any feedback or any closure even. It's not like you have to give detailed feedback. Because I know there can be issues around that, but it's just about communicating, and that wasn't quite the right fit or that, and that's up to our job as well is to be that mediator between it and make sure that everybody leaves, that the process... Because only one person can get the job, but you could have three or four very good candidates for that particular job. And there may be something else in the future that you want to go in a tight market, it's good never to burn bridges.

Jennifer Cahill:

And the people who are dissatisfied will always speak louder than the ones who had a really good experience. So I always say, you’ve got to look after the people who you're rejecting nearly more, but definitely to the same extent of the person that you're ultimately offering the job to.

John Ennis:

Yeah.

Therese Cadell:

And I would always say, do you know anybody in that company? Pick up the phone, have you worked with them before? Isn't that the best way to find out about the company and the culture, so it's, have all bases covered so you can make an informed decision. We're obviously working with you, guiding you, you're meeting the people at interview, they're interested. They're showing you what you can achieve within the company. And then just do your background checks within the company, that those that are in there are in a very happy working environment. And they're getting the goals and the reason they joined the company.

Jennifer Cahill:

I think what I have seen is this feeling because there's so much momentum and there's so much speed and people are moving through processes that some hiring managers think, okay, I've met them once. I really like them, let's just go straight to offer, I'm fine. I'm comfortable, we don't need to do a second round. And we're always like, whoa, comes back to the dating analogy. Not too keen, you're positive, you're interested, you're just, there's more horses in the race. You’ve got to play it a bit cool, you know what I mean? A little bit cooler, but it's not a good idea, from a rigorous process perspective, the second round is important. So as much as we're saying, keep momentum, as you said, John, it's not about just rapid speed. It's not about closing this off within a week.

John Ennis:

It's not about, it's not necessarily quick decisions...

Jennifer Cahill:

No.

John Ennis:

But it's just, as you say, I mean, it is that bit of momentum rather than speed, I think it's important differentiator that you are keeping the process moving and everyone's engaged and everyone knows when the next step will take place and to what the feedback was along the way. And then it'll, you'll come to, when you come to the end, you'll still have those couple of candidates that you're trying to decide between, to benchmark against at that point and they'll probably have decisions to make along the way as well. And they might not necessarily be able to make them instantaneously either. So everyone needs to give each other a bit of time at the crucial decision making period as well.

Therese Cadell:

And hiring is key, an incorrect hire can be a very costly hire. To both a team and their time, to the company, to the personnel in there. So, I absolutely agree with what you've both said. And so far as, while there is a process and it's competitive out there, you just need to adhere to it and make sure all the boxes are ticked.

Jennifer Cahill:

And just in terms, I suppose, what I've been doing as part of my study, in the masters at the moment is around, I suppose, academically what's proven to be most effective in terms of interviews. And I would've said actually going in, oh, casual, coffee chat and kind of get to know the person. And not that they're not important, but what's been proven in the, in all the kind of papers and all the studies that have been done is that, it's more competency based type. So in competency, I think people have this kind of going, oh no, give me examples of this or give examples that, and I think, oh, I hate those kind of interviews so much, but it's different to that. It doesn't have to feel as formula as that but it's going in, again it comes back to the clarity piece of HR and the hiring managers sitting down and going, okay, what are the core competencies for this role? Whether it's technical or whether, if it's a leadership role, it's the soft skills around leadership.

Jennifer Cahill:

And it being able to mentor and develop depends what stage this team is at in terms of its development. It's really important that if you're bringing in a manager or leader, those soft skills are as important as the technical ability. Maybe in some cases dependent on the seniority, more important than the technical skillset. So it's really important at the very outset of a role that you're mapping the core competencies for that role. And then when you come to the interview that you're in, your questions are structured around testing for those competencies. And that has been proven to be the most effective in terms of hires that have proven to be long term good, solid hires. And again, if you have the capacity like situational type questions, give them actual real life situations and go, what would you do in this situation? And make it as real life as relevant to the day-to-day as the job as you can, and just see how they think on their feet, see how that person in that real life scenario that they will encounter in this job will react and what would they do?

Jennifer Cahill:

Because again, then you're able to tease out what their kind of, what their kind of intuition will tell them in that particular scenario. And you'll be able to tell them very quickly whether that fits with culturally, how you like things done or that particular team in terms of the methods that you know maybe as a manager, that's going to work with that particular team. So again, rather than just very generic high level questions, and again, maybe not having a plan going into an interview, that the interviewers are very aligned in terms of, okay, going into this interview, fair enough. It's a two-way street as we've discussed, but there are some really core things. And let's be very clear on what those things are that we need to satisfy ourselves in terms of the core competencies.

Jennifer Cahill:

And again, I think that adds clarity at the end of a process around the decision. Because if you were clear going in what the core competencies are, sometimes you can get swayed around and forget those or lose sight of them or other people coming into the process might have a different opinion. But again, that clarity, if you bring it back to those core competencies and look at each candidate, according to those, you'll more than likely make a much better recruitment decision based on that.

Therese Cadell:

And that's interesting, Jen, because one of the companies I'm working with at the minute in advance of interviews, they send out candidates interview preparation notes saying that these are the core competencies, you need to be prepared for them and speak about them at interview. So at least there's, you can see if they prepared, they've thought it out. And they can include it in the interview.

John Ennis:

But I think candidates like that. I mean, one of the questions we would always get before, we would have always as agency recruiters, you're always trying to brief your candidates as well as possible and make sure they're as prepared as possible before they go into interview. Because obviously we want them to do well and get the job as those internal recruiters, as your hiring managers that the candidates have to remember. So the more help you can give them as a company before going, this is the three stages, this one will be this, this one will be technical, this one will be a competency based interview. And you give them that information prior to going in, the more successful interviews you'll have and the more good hires that you'll have at the end of it as well.

Jennifer Cahill:

And different psychometrics, we see different clients, maybe using personality profiles. And again, coming back to what I've been studying, they call it kind of a disk assessment or those, their self reports. It's somebody reporting about themselves. So they have validity, but there's kind of, you definitely the papers and the studies on it would say, look, I don't rely solely on those. And I don't think our clients do. They kind of use them as a compliment to the interviews, but actually if you're hiring at a graduate level, tests for general mental ability GMA, so like aptitude testing on verbal reason and numerical reason, that has been proven to not change over time. So if somebody, and it's kind of aligns more like IQ, you know what I mean? So, and it's more acceptable to grads or more junior candidates to go through an aptitude test.

Jennifer Cahill:

I think when you get to a more experienced level, the kind of base validity of that is much lower. We would see people kind of bulk at the idea of having to do an aptitude test at the manager level as a whole. But certainly if, you're listening to this and you're in the process of looking at graduate recruitment, I would highly recommend that you look at including an aptitude test because, somebody who comes out quite high on that, it doesn't change over time, emotional intelligence you can learn and you can develop, and that can change over time, but IQ and GMA does not change over time. So get them in early, get them in bright, hungry, right cultural fit. But it, I think it's a good thing just to get in early and to do those when they're open to doing them.

John Ennis:

I suppose, at that level, as well as they're always saying, you should not hire for attitude. A lot of companies used to have this kind of, you had to have a one, first class or a two, one or something like that. But a lot of them, even the bigger ones, like the big four have scrapped that, because it is about looking for a broader and more diverse candidate rather than it, as well as the technical ability at that level, and it is about attitude and aptitude.

Jennifer Cahill:

Oh, big time.

Therese Cadell:

And you always get a sense of their willingness to learn, you know what I mean? The energy, whether they're eager and that speaks volumes over. Obviously, they're smart people if they get into college and, but invariably I'd love that attitude over the academics.

Jennifer Cahill:

Actually, we have a client who has a policy of not hiring one, at all, because feel they couldn't possibly be well rounded if they’ve got a 1:1.

John Ennis:

Biased in the other direction.

Jennifer Cahill:

Exactly. So it's all, but look, that is, and look, we might do another feature in terms of the bias because look at, gender, diversity, all types of diversity and inclusion is massive. And it's a huge priority for HR and for corporates in terms of their ability to report on this and demonstrate it through recruitment processes. And it's certainly something we're seeing a lot of push back on us as the external agencies by our clients to demonstrate that we have looked at a broad, diverse market and rightly so. But again, we might come back on at a later at the point, because there are some easy things that you can do to maybe try and counter because everybody has biases. There's no point trying to say, we want to eradicate biases. That's not realistic.

Jennifer Cahill:

Everybody has them. It's about structuring a process where you eliminate as much as possible, the impact of bias in your ultimate decision. So again, I think we'll maybe come back on and talk about that at a later point, if there's any pointers. But look, I think we're going to leave it for that for today. Again, we didn't want to spend too long. We just wanted to come on kind of give our sense of what's happening, what people are doing well out there. And also if you want a more in depth kind of just an audit of your recruitment strategy, we're offering a free workshop, 90 minute workshop, absolutely no obligation. You can book that through our website, www.savvirecruitment.com. And as I said, it's 90 minutes free time that we will invest in you and run through your recruitment strategy with you and make specific advice in relation to elements that we feel you maybe could change or tweak that would serve you better, particularly in this really active and competitive market. Thanks very much.

John Ennis:

Thanks.

Therese Cadell:

Okay. See you. Thanks.

Creating a finance recruitment strategy: the ultimate guide

A finance recruitment strategy is an empowering tool for those hiring in a competitive market. It’s the game play. The outlined process of who you need to hire, but also how you will hire them and why. It is also a critical step today before you launch any job posting.

Companies are up against quite a bit in today’s hiring market. There is quite a bit of competition in marketing across nearly all sectors of the financial industry. Standing out is essential, and that can be hard to do in a noisy market. Today, candidates have options, sometimes two or three positions to choose from by the end of any interview round.

That may encourage some to focus on speed – getting a candidate in that looks good on paper and making it work. Yet, there is also little benefit in rushing through the hiring process. That can prove detrimental to the entire investment.

The solution? Create a finance recruitment strategy that ensures you have the tools and information you need about the candidate (and that means the right information), and you have the ability to move through the hiring process efficiently. How do you do that? Let’s explore some of the most important components of this process.

Complete a Finance Recruitment Strategy Audit

Long before you can build a finance recruitment strategy, you need to complete a finance recruitment strategy audit. This allows your business to adjust its interview model to ensure it creates a better outcome. That is, it needs to help the candidate have a good experience while also creating more opportunities to engage with that candidate.

This type of audit helps you to see if your practices currently in place are truly authentic, engaging, and beneficial to all involved in the process. Audits seem simple, often seeming to be just a series of questions. Yet, this can provide you with incredible insight into what the candidate is experiencing and if that is supporting their opinion of your hiring brand or not.

Asking applicants questions about how you are doing within the interviewing process can shed light on topics you did not think much about prior. For example, would they recommend your company to their friends or family based solely on the information and experience they had during the interview? Would they reapply and go through that process again if they did not receive an offer?

Don’t stop just on the interview process either. Your recruitment strategy audit needs to go further and should include the same type of focus on areas such as:

• The manager experience: Did the hiring manager have what they needed to complete the interview process? Is there a clear culture of open communication within the company in areas such as expectations, assessments, and goals?
• The quality of the hire: Filling the role is the goal, but having the right hire is essential. Track how new employees move through the hiring process, probationary periods, promotions, and so on. This may come back to the recruitment efforts you had.
• Sources: Which sources of candidates seem to provide the best end result? What lacks? Based on the above questions, should you look to a recruitment agency for support?
• The cost: Also think about the cost of the recruitment process. Was the money invested able to produce the ideal candidate? It is all about looking at the return on the investment here.

Your recruitment strategy audit needs to look at everything from how well you communicated your brand to your marketing efforts and the team’s successes (as well as struggles). In short, it gives you a starting point. Now you know what works well and what does not.  Read here for 3 more tips on creating a recruitment strategy audit.

Create a Recruiter Brand

It is often a big part of marketing today – creating a brand for your customers, so they remember who you are in a positive light. That same technique of creating a brand for your business should also be applied to your recruitment activities, and should play a pivotal role in your finance recruitment strategy. Your recruiter brand needs to shine through, so candidates understand it and appreciate it (and, most importantly, want to be a part of the company as a result of their experiences here).

A recruitment manager is a storyteller. They have to paint the picture of what the company has to offer to the candidate. We are in a very different market right now. It is not possible to sit back and confidently believe that the company’s reputation is enough to enable the candidate to want to work with you. You have to sell your company to them. Give them the reasons why they want to work there.

This should come through in your recruiter brand. You need to be able to convey the story of your business, including where it is right now. Then, talk about the company’s ambitions for where they will be in the next 12 months to 3 years’ time. How will that journey align with the candidate’s goals and their own journey?

There is much that goes into the recruitment process, but at the end of the day, people work for people. During an interview, they need to have a good idea of what working for the business will be like. There needs to be a connection – a type of chemistry test – and a valuable alignment not just from the hiring manager’s point of view but also from the candidate. If you are not communicating your brand and building a strong, positive, transparent brand, that candidate is likely to be less engaged.

Finance Interview Questions

It’s quite important to ask the right questions. To do that, the first step is investing the time into learning who the candidate is. Read their CV. Learn what they are saying they are bringing to the table. From a candidate’s point of view, if you are asking questions already answered on the CV, that may mean you have not really invested the time in reading it.

Second, the goal is to take what is on the CV and ask them questions about it. Dig deep to test their technical skills by asking questions about the specifics of the work they have done rather than surface level questions.

There is more to the process than just this. For example, it becomes critical to structure each question around the core competencies you want to ensure this person has. It is not a degree or the ability to use a specific program. Rather, it is, at the heart, the competencies you expect this person to bring to the table that is going to play a huge role in the work they do each day and how they contribute to the company as a whole.

Be very clear on what those things are as you develop your finance recruitment strategy. Once you know what they are, you can then create questions that are structured around those areas. This is a good way of testing for competencies. Ask about real-life scenarios. This is a proven strategy for the best hires.

For example, think about something that is crucial to the role you are looking to fill. What is a real-life challenge that occurs in that role? Ask the candidate questions about such situations. See how they react on their feet. What is their first reaction? Does that reaction really align with your goals as a company? Is it what you would expect?

Questions like this provide you with information that goes beyond simple “tell me about yourself” types of questions. You are able to tell very quickly if they are a good fit for your company, not just based on their knowledge but also their culture fit with your company.

Align Your Business Goals with Recruitment Objectives

Define your recruitment objectives. You cannot do that without fully understanding your business goals and plans. It is hard to hire properly if you do not know where your company will be in the next 5 years or what type of skillset your team may need in the next 12 months.

Outline what your business goals are as well as a basic timeline for them. If you plan to launch a new service, it is obvious that you need to have the right skillset in your new hires to meet those goals. You may want to seek out a compliance officer in a specific field that has the experience that can support that change or effort.

Likewise, if your company is on a path to scale, you need to have candidates in your interviews that may have some background in the fast-moving and complex area of expansion.

No matter what your company’s business goals are, communicate those to your hiring managers or recruitment agency. To do that, there needs to be clear collaboration from the start with the company’s leadership and also department heads, which is why your finance recruitment strategy is so important. Be very clear in what you need in a hire based on their skills and how well that meshes with your business goals.

Finance Salaries

One of the most common questions that companies have for recruiting agencies is – how much. The first step is not to focus on salaries, but instead to focus on what you need. That goes back to defining the core objectives of your hire. Outline everything you need in this individual.

Then, approach the process with the question of how much you need to pay in today’s market to get the qualified applicant you need. It can be hard to put a specific salary on paper until you know what the depth of the candidate’s talents are and what they may be able to contribute to the company. Yet, you still have to have some idea of what the market is paying.

Let’s be frank. It’s a highly competitive market. You do not want to do a disservice to the candidates you are considering by taking them through multiple rounds of interviews only to offer less than they are making now.

Remember, too, that while people work for money, they also expect a good working relationship and want to be sure that they feel valued at the company they choose. Some of that comes in not just their salary but also what the culture is like and if they connect with their would-be boss.

Finance salaries are competitive. In an employee’s market, you have to be competitive to bring people in. That may mean you need to adapt to the market and ensure that you treat people well. Remember, too, that you may be hiring for one position, but you do not want to sour your recruitment brand by not providing the candidate with a fair offer. That could hurt later when their talented friends do not want to interview as a result.

Advertising Finance Jobs

One of the most difficult steps today in hiring for the financial sector is knowing where and how to advertise openings. There are a lot of websites you could use, including services like LinkedIn. Yet, this is a difficult market by all accounts.

In many ways, you will find that today’s candidates are not actively pursuing jobs. They are already working, and they may be interested in a new opportunity if the right one comes to them. That is, job listings are a good stepping point, but networking and building a strong employer recruitment strategy is going to be where you find most of your candidates today.

There is the belief that if your company has a good culture and image, people will just come to you. Most people who were unhappy in their previous positions, though, have moved on. Right now, there are a limited number of financial pros, especially at the more experienced level, who are going to apply for job ads.

That is why it helps to work with a recruitment agency that can help you to create a customised, tailored finance recruitment strategy that ensures that helps you attract interested people. You also need recruiters that can network. That may mean talking to your current employees about their friends or letting an agency reach out to potential opportunities through their connections.

Executive Finance Recruitment

A common misstep when advertising for or interviewing for executive finance positions is focusing too heavily on aptitude testing. It’s insulting to some candidates to have recruitment agencies require aptitude testing. They have already proven their skills in the work they’ve done and positions they’ve held.

Rather, when working to attract executives to your business, the focus needs to be more heavily on attitude and alignment of cultural fit.

It is also critical to focus on selling the company at this point. That is, why should a person with this amount of experience who is likely already working in the industry make a substantial change? What is it going to do for their career and CV? While money is important, that’s not all that executives want in this area. They want opportunities to make a name for themselves or a way to truly better their lives through this new offer.

As a component of your finance recruitment strategy, outline what you can provide to those who have more experience and who may bring incredible leadership to the table. What soft skills are they bringing that could make them a leader within your company? Then, outline the reasons why they may want to make that change.

Create a Clearly Defined Roadmap

Once you begin to network, you should already have a well-defined roadmap for hiring that individual. This roadmap is an opportunity for everyone within the process to know exactly what to expect during the interview process. That includes the candidate.

Communicate what the steps are, what the engagement process will be likely, and what they can expect at each step. You also want them to have some idea of the timeline for this process. You do not want to head into an interview without knowing what the next step is. That means that the opportunity with that candidate is already breaking down. That is frustrating for you, but it is also frustrating for the client – who, again, likely has several opportunities to select from.

It is also important to remove speed from the mindset of the interviewing process. While you want to move through the process at a pace that keeps the momentum up to keep the client interested, it is also important for you to stick with the plan.

For many companies, that includes an initial interview online and then a second, more technical-focused interview. The third is where they meet face to face and have those open conversations. There is little reason to drag it on endlessly (remember, people have options), but you want to have a structured interview process that’s outlined clearly for all involved.

Communicate a timeline for expectations for this process, too. Hiring is not something that typically takes a few days or weeks. Expect it to take several weeks and even up to 3 months. During this time, there is ample time built in for candidates to move through the process while also facilitating their needs and your own. Flexibility is important, especially since many candidates are going to need to be able to make arrangements to meet with you at each stage and may have other obligations.

Adapting to the Recruitment Hypermarket and Focusing on Candidate-Driven Recruitment

Today’s candidate pool may seem limited. It may seem difficult to truly find anyone that can fill positions and mesh with your company. That does not have to be the case.

Rather, it is critical to adapt to the recruitment hypermarket, making changes in your finance recruitment strategy to address what is occurring in the current climate. A big part of that is focusing on candidate-driven recruitment.

Instead of having a very specific focus on creating a job description and using LinkedIn, really create a finance recruitment strategy that outlines what you want in a client and what you are going to offer to those candidates who apply.

Job descriptions are quite valuable, but when a candidate is reading them and determining where they should spend their time, they want more than just the salary. They want to know that this company feels like a great place to work.

How do you do that? A good starting point is to create a recruiter brand, as mentioned. Tell the story of your company. When you do, this helps to humanise it. Let people know more about who your company is rather than just about what you do.

This helps to attract talent. People want to work for companies where they feel valued but also where they can see themselves having good experiences, day in and day out. When you focus on that human aspect, you also create more opportunities for engagement. It is through those opportunities and small talk that you can really get a feel for who the candidate is and how well they fit.

It is also important to avoid some common mistakes:

• Yes, the finance candidate market is limited. No, you should not rush through the hiring process.
• No, you do not have to settle for what is available or choose a candidate that is not quite who you need.
• Yes, you do need to adjust your recruitment strategy to better suit the candidate’s needs so that you attract people who may not be actively applying on job boards but are willing to consider a move for the right opportunity.

Instead, focus on slowing down your hiring process and using a more comprehensive strategy to achieve your goals. This way, you draw out the top-talent that is so important to the success of your business and that position, even if they are not actively applying for positions.

Having a great recruitment process benefits everyone, and as we've seen here, this starts with a great finance recruitment strategy. It makes it easier for your hiring managers to know what to do and how to do their job. It helps bring in the right type of talent that can do the job but also has the skills to grow your company. More so, it provides your business with a strong recruiter brand. That may mean fewer turnovers and more interest in prospective hires down the road.

In our latest podcast, Jennifer Cahill and Therese Cadell, co-founders of Savvi Recruitment, along with John Ennis, Associate Director of Savvi Recruitment discuss the different recruitment strategy trends they’re seeing in the market currently.

Savvi Recruitment works with a range of clients, all of whom are finding it tough at the moment in terms of having lots of competition to try and hire, particularly in areas of risk, compliance, finance, data analytics and consulting.

In this podcast we share tips and tricks around client recruitment strategies that are working well and are getting good engagement from a candidate perspective, with the aim of being able to help you attract talent and get ahead of the competition and to be able to secure those candidates!

What are Irish CEOs preoccupied with right now? Answer: people

Updated: Apr 27, 2021

A survey of CEOs conducted by Ibec in December 2020 reveals that two of the top five areas of strategic importance cited by CEOs were people issues. Surprising? Not at all.

Those two people-related priorities given by CEOs for the year ahead were:

• Retention and upskilling of talent, and
• Employee wellbeing

The world has changed dramatically in the course of 2020. Working from home and how supportive or otherwise the employer has been are massive factors in an employee’s career decisions. How different employers responded to the crisis, how supportive and proactive they have been, was readily and enthusiastically compared among friends and family over Zoom calls and on socially distanced walks and coffees over the last 11 months. Yes, your employees have been putting you under the microscope.

26% hired in 2020

The survey reports that 26% of respondents had increased their workforce since March 2020, which bears out our experience here in Savvi Recruitment. There is definitely movement in Financial Services to name but one sector, albeit one that has been classed as essential right from the start of the crisis.

On upskilling, this may be a consequence of something else that the survey threw up – a challenge foreseen by a third of respondents is the availability of specific skills in 2021 (possibly linked to Brexit), so a preoccupation with upskilling the people they already have makes sense in that context. This points to demand for good training and development programmes, be they in-house or external. Training companies take note!

Avoiding the iceberg

On employee wellbeing, we sense there is an iceberg of burn out hiding just below the surface. Some firms are hurtling towards this iceberg, Titanic style. The return to offices later this year could be the catalyst for employee wellbeing to jump to the top of the list of strategically important issues.

Indeed 72% of the CEOs who responded to the Ibec survey said that returning to the office would be a challenge to them, suggesting our leaders are all too aware of the changes they’ll need to make to adapt to the new normal; not only to the physical environment in terms of reconfiguring things spatially but also on the soft side – looking at employee assistance programmes, helping employees adapt to the return to office life, whether that's about making them feel safe or helping them regain a sense of being part of a team, and negotiating the nature of that return to the office - will it be straight back to everybody sitting there from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday?

This is where a leader’s emotional intelligence will be tested. We feel, ten months into the Covid crisis, employers need to seriously address how their people are feeling and take remedial or preventative measures. What measures, you may ask – great question. We will definitely come back to this in another blog very soon!

Ask, don’t assume

Working from home suits a lot of people; there are others who prefer the office. And then there is of course the bottom line. The decision is a strategic one but there is absolutely nothing to be lost and everything to be gained from asking people what they want and trying to facilitate people as best you can. Based on conversations with our clients it would seem that many people will request a mix of home and office working. Don’t forget that new legislation will be coming in making it a legal right for employees to request remote working.

There are lots of more fascinating insights in the survey findings. The report, which you can access here, presents the findings in visuals – very easy to get through. I’m sure you’d like to know what your peers revealed about running a business in these very strange times.

Need a steer on the talent market and want to know what your competitors and industry are doing when it comes to talent management? 

[INFOGRAPHIC] A SEAR-ious recruitment process looks more like this…

We figured you had enough going on just now and as such, we organised a SEAR-ious Recruitment Process template for you to take and use to inspire your own version.

We reckon it's easier to edit than to create from scratch.

Should you want a free 90-minute workshop at your firm to upgrade all 5 areas of your recruitment process using out worksheets, framework and template to inspire your own, full details can be found here.

Get SEAR-ious! Upgrading your recruitment process is a best practice now, or a must do, later.

On 9th March 2023, the Central Bank (Individual Accountability Framework) Act 2023 was enacted. It sets out the basis for the Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR). 

On 13th March 2023, following the enactment, the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) launched a three-month public consultation paper (CP153) including draft regulations and draft guidance on the key aspects of the implementation.

What is Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR) ?

The Senior Executive Accountability Regime (SEAR) is fundamentally about re-establishing public trust in our financial institutions.

It aims to do this by increasing the accountability of those in senior management and board positions within regulated firms so that they behave in a more customer centric manner.

With the focus on individuals, SEAR directly impacts the recruitment process. It is even more imperative in a post-SEAR environment to ensure you hire the right individuals.

For individuals taking up new roles covered by the SEAR regime, it will be even more critical for them to satisfy themselves during the recruitment process that they are joining a firm they can trust.

So how does a firm instil trust during the recruitment process? Both the hiring firm and the candidate have limited face-to-face time during a recruitment process.

To establish trust, there will need to be more transparency on the part of the hiring firm. Candidates will demand significantly more information about a prospective employer during the recruitment process.

For employers, they will need to balance the need for greater transparency with confidentiality. As recruitment partners, we play a key role in managing the engagement between candidates and clients.

In a post-SEAR world, candidates will rely more heavily on our ability to be the impartial broker and provide significant insights into the culture of a firm and the individuals currently holding senior executive roles.

Fitness & Probity and CBI expectations: would your firm pass the 30-second litmus test?

Fitness & Probity appears to be higher up the CBI's agenda these days, and maybe for good reason

• SEAR is on the horizon
• On two different occasions recently, the CBI caught individuals lying on their F&P Questionnaire
• CBI's sense that regulated firms do not appear to be taking their F&P responsibilities seriously as evidenced by their published comments on the subject

Increased Fitness Probity scrutiny until the tide changes

• As of the publishing of this post, the CBI has stated that 80 PCF applicants have withdrawn from the process when challenged by the CBI (in most instances, when called back for a second interview).
• The number of Fitness Probity interviews has been on the rise, including interviews for those considered to have a stellar record.
• Fitness & Probity Compliance Audits being carried out within international banks following the Dear CEO letter.
• CBI requiring supporting documentation to support nomination of chosen candidate, including interview notes.

Would your firm pass the 30 second Litmus Test on Fitness and Probity Compliance?

If you would, then that would mean your firm could answer a big fat yes, to all of the following:

1. You have copies of all the CVs from shortlisted candidates on file that clearly demonstrates evidence as to:

• why the individual was shortlisted; skills, qualities, experience, background
• the size of the talent pool you used to identify the right person
• the degree of diversity represented across your talent pool of shortlisted and hired applicants

2. You have copies of all interview notes from recent hires and shortlisted applicants that further support your rationale for selecting the individual you hired.

3. You can clearly demonstrate the exact steps you took to independently check the quality of your hire.

If you can't say yes to one or more, then you already know what you need to do next to ensure your firm would get a thumbs up on your Fitness & Probity compliance procedures.

Should you want your firm to experience a 90-minute workshop objectively reviewing your Recruitment Process, Strategy, and how you're adjusting internal processes to be more in line with SEAR, our FREE WORKSHOP AT YOUR FIRM may be an ideal next step.

A 90-Minute Free Workshop at your Firm

Should you want a free 90-minute workshop at your firm to upgrade all 5 areas of your recruitment process using our worksheets, framework and template to inspire your own version, details can be found by clicking on the banner below.

CP86 and recruiting for the six key managerial functions

Under CP86 there are six core Managerial Functions that need to be in place

• Investment Management
• Distribution
• Fund Risk Management
• Operational Risk Management
• Regulatory Compliance
• Capital and Financial Management.

A designated person (DP) must be appointed to each managerial function

A DP may be appointed to more than one function however, the same person cannot perform both the investment management function and either of the risk functions.

For legacy ManCos/SMICs (those authorised before 1 November 2015), many are using an outsourced DP model (where the DP is seconded in from an external provider).

The expectation is that the current CP86 reviews by the Central Bank will challenge this model for lacking substance.

For those ManCos/SMICs that will need to increase resources and directly employ senior executives to fill the key managerial functions internally, it will be a challenging (but not impossible) market.

With the Brexit entrant wave last year, there was a lot of recruitment activity for these same skillsets. This makes the market for these candidates already tight so each ManCo/SMIC will need to develop a very shrewd and clear strategy to secure the best talent.

So, what do you need to know before going to market to recruit for any of the core functions?

1. Have a very clear understanding of the profile of candidate you need for the role and the level of experience the CBI will require.

2. Understand the existing market for these candidates (availability, salary levels etc.).

3. Understand what is motivating candidates with these skillsets to move and what is important to them in an employer.

Is your firm’s proposition to these candidates (in respect to point 3 above) enough to entice them to join?

If not, you need to look at ways that you can improve this before going to market.

You need to get the right hire, first time around.

Rush into the recruitment process and the likelihood is you’ll be back to square one in a few months.

The labour market is like any other – it’s governed by supply and demand. In a short supply market, your firm needs to be know its competitive advantages and leverage those strengths to best effect. It helps to know what the rest of the industry is doing to secure that talent away from you so you can close those gaps.

To fine tune your recruitment strategy, book our complimentary workshop, link below:

Why culture is so important in securing top FRIC talent?

So, how does a prospective candidate assess a company's culture? The impression they get from your management team during the interview process will be key, but they will also look at the following:

• working arrangements
• employee engagement and retention policies
• level of pension contribution
• long term incentive programmes.

Working Arrangement

Like most of us, your ideal talent will have demands on their time outside of work and likely be embracing the 2hr commute to circumvent the cost of living here in Dublin.

Flexihours and the ability to work remotely a day or two is as important as the compensation package.

As the cost of renting or buying in Dublin has increased exponentially in the last few years, more and more of our workforce are now commuting from Kildare, Wicklow, Meath and even further. With an average daily round commute of two hours, flexible working hours and the ability to work from home at least one day per week becomes very attractive and in some cases, absolutely necessary.

Candidates who have flexible arrangements in their current role, will not consider a move to a new role that offers less flexibility.

If your company doesn’t currently offer flexible working arrangements, then it is going to become increasingly difficult to secure the best talent as many new entrants and a large percentage of existing multinationals now offer flexible working arrangements so it’s becoming increasing the norm. Most importantly, offering flexiworking arrangements is deemed to be progressive.

Pension & Long Term Incentives

Other factors that are increasingly important are pension provision and long-term incentive programmes.

As the national conversation around our State pension provision has intensified, we are all more aware of the need to have a sufficient private pension for our retirement. A key factor in building up a sufficient pension pot, is having an employer that contributes to that fund. A company that contributes a high percentage of salary to an employee’s pension is deemed to be an employer that wants to invest in their employees.

Likewise, with Long Term Incentive Programmes (LTIs). These are schemes that usually consist of cash bonuses or share awards that reward long service. For anyone who is currently eligible for such a scheme with their existing employer, this will be a key consideration in deciding whether to make a move.

Whether it’s flexible working arrangements, pension contributions or LTIs, candidates are more focused on a prospective employer’s appetite to invest in them and reward service.

These are key considerations for any HR team in developing an employee engagement strategy and are key to securing the best talent in today’s competitive market.

5 ways to win during the CP86 hiring frenzy

Ok, so you’ve just completed a CP86 desk-based review with the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), and you are pretty sure you will need to make some changes, and fast. One of the areas identified is that you will need to ‘put boots on the ground’ here in Dublin and hire permanent employees for specific functions and/or increase the existing headcount. 

However, you are not the only ManCo/SMIC who needs to do this now, and so the search for talent intensifies.

Here are 5 ways to ensure success in a hyper-competitive market:

Clarity

Before you go to market, it is crucial that you have clearly identified what hires you need to make, at what level, what are the core responsibilities of each role, structure and reporting lines, as well as having a plan for what the entity/role will look like over the next few years. You may not have all the answers but be warned – candidates will want to make sure you are committed to Ireland, and that there is a well-developed business plan in place for the Irish entity.

Engagement

Once you kick off the recruitment drive, it is crucial that you keep the process moving, and keep the candidates up-to-date at each stage of the process. There is nothing worse from a candidate experience perspective than long delays between application, interviews, subsequent interviews etc. without any update/engagement from the firm. It creates a feeling of uncertainty and raises doubt in the candidate’s mind. Firms who have a clearly defined and seamless hiring process (how many rounds of interviews, timelines for interviews and interview panels at each stage of interview process) are more likely to secure the best talent, because being organised and engaged creates confidence in your brand.

Location

The interview process itself is obviously very important. This includes considering WHERE the interviews will take place. We have seen a lot of new entrants come to the Irish market, only to conduct some or most of the interviews in London or via web calls. If you are serious about Ireland, you need to demonstrate this by having the key decision-makers fly to Ireland for interviews, and not expect the candidate to always be the one to travel. A web call is no substitute for a face-to-face interview. If this role is based in Ireland, then Ireland needs to be at the heart of the interview process.

Efficiency

We touched on this earlier – being efficient in any process is also so important and often overlooked. Unexpected delays can arise, however if you are to secure the candidate you want for the role, you need to ensure the process is as efficient as possible. Your preferred candidates will also be in demand by your competitors so timing is key.

Your firm

Candidates in this market are quite shrewd and will want to know why they should come to work for you. What makes you different from the rest? Apart from offering them a seamless interview process, you need to back this up with the ability to accurately describe the firm during the interview itself – its culture, values and how you operate.

Candidates will want to get a good sense of ‘how we do things around here’, particularly if taking up a PCF role. Candidates are also placing huge importance on things such as work/life balance, flexibility and remote working, so if you can offer this type of working environment – it needs to be front and centre of your pitch to the candidate.