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Mixed messages from the market
London, 28 February 2010
The recent 2010 National Management Survey results released by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and XpertHR provide a fascinating insight into the psyche of employees in the current market.
As a seasoned senior finance recruiter who has observed similar employment troughs over the past 20 years, this comes as no surprise to me. The same history, the same lessons and the same mistakes being played out.
Two facts, at first, seem at odds with one another: (See (1) and (2) below)
(1) That more Managers have resigned in he past 12 months (4.7%) than in the previous period (4.5%) - despite intuition suggesting that employees might be more likely to stick with the ‘devil they know’ than take a risk of moving in a recession;
Across many industries we see the following happening: Executive Management become paralysed with the fear of the unknown, seek to exert rigorous control and control any creativity or independent thinking. It is also worth noting that these same senior Managers own retirement plans have been knocked back down the road by several years as bonuses have evaporated and the equities markets have stagnated.
The ‘next’ generation – today’s Senior Finance Managers – feel under-empowered. Their hard work over the past few years focussed on climbing the slippery pole to the top seems to be for nothing; promotions are cancelled or delayed. In the meantime there is an unstoppable train of hard working, ambitious talent coming up behind them. Inevitably something has to give.
Here at Maven Partners we are seeing a discernable increase in the number of experienced Senior Finance Managers now wishing to leave to pursue other career goals – especially attracted by the unfettered surroundings of start-up’s and smaller, faster-growing businesses that have been able to react more readily and easily to the changing market conditions and the opportunities this presents.
(2) That nearly half (46%) of all employers are struggling to fill vacancies and that 77% cannot identify people with the right skills – this despite intuition (once again) suggesting that there should be easily available human resources as a result of the severe cost-cutting and job lay-off’s that continue even now.
When I read this my first thought always goes out to the rich seam of currently unemployed talent who must struggle to tally these facts. But sadly it is true. Time and again we hear from clients that in these times they only want the best – no – in fact better than that. Employers expectations are beyond the norm and occasionally beyond the pale. Searches are taking up to 30% longer and failure rates are creeping up. Why are they overlooking the thousand’s of talented and experienced professionals that is actively looking for work?
Is it really still the case that Employers attach a stigma to any candidate who is unfortunate enough to have found themselves on the wrong side of what is often an arbitrary line drawn by accountants in cost-cutting exercises? Sadly the truth is that a lot still do. One of the most common reasons we hear today is that candidate’s do not have the right matching industry experience to fulfil the role. In Senior Finance recruitment this is simply lazy and shallow thinking on the part of the recruiter.
At Maven Partners we take particular care to make sure that we work with clients during the initial brief to think outside the obvious box –some of the best hires come from sources left or right of the centre mark. Equally we work closely with senior finance executives to really understand their underlying characteristics and drivers and ensure that they are included in short-lists where we know they would make a great fit but we also know that we will need to invest time to prove that case.
Experienced senior recruiters know this. Inexperienced recruiters do not and try to squash the wrong size square into a square hole. I suspect that this is one reason why companies are struggling to recruit.
If you would like to comment on this article or simply get in contact with Maven Partners, please call Matthew Leedham, Managing Partner on +44 (0)20 3178 8849 or e-mail: matthewleedham@mavenpartners.co.uk
