As the new financial year approaches we take a look over the last few months of 2017 and review how 2018 is shaping up in the interim world so far. Plus, see our predictions for the new financial year…
Senior Core HR
Q3
- Senior level roles £500 per day plus increased
- More specialist roles particularly across talent management, L&D and OD
- Projects on the increase particularly around growth of businesses and technology innovations
- Recruitment roles have remained high throughout the year as have the need for specialisms within this. Pay levels have had to increase to represent the lack of quality talent in the market.
- Corporate businesses back on line and looking at spending money with consultants and interims support the BAU piece
- London businesses continues to be busy with roles out in the Home counties increasing in volume
- More clients looking at interim to permanent as solutions as well as interim whilst they recruit the perfect person.
Q4
- Heavy focus on operational HRBP/generalist roles with a focus on the mid-level £500 per day roles
- Lean on need for GDPR and SMCR experience. Regulatory knowledge is critical!
- Hiring managers are being selective on hiring and waiting for the top talent – lots of elongated processes
- We expect the big hitting senior project-based roles will come into the market in April once new budgets are set
- Increased talk about Brexit and implications are starting to show – tactical focused roles are appearing that will be focused on supporting some projects around internal restructuring. Interims are starting to think about the uncertainty over the next year.
Junior Core HR
Q3
- High number of interim roles replacing permanent head count across commerce and industry clients – it was still an uncertain market and clients were opting for temp to perm positions whilst they review the changing landscape
- Clients in need of short-term HR assistants to pick up forgotten admin in the run up to Christmas
- Tech recruiters remain to be like gold dust within the commerce and industry sectors – we saw this talent determine higher day rates due to the increased demand
- Market remained busy right up until the end of December, which we didn’t predict. A job led market, however was a challenge with a lack of new talent coming to market which wasn’t necessarily out of the ordinary for the lead up to Christmas
- Lack of roles within PS, FS busy mainly within Banking/Insurance/Asset Management.
- We saw an increase in pipeline for positions starting late Q4 – we predicted a busy start to 2018 which hasn’t disappointed.
Q4
- 2018 has seen a steady stream of HR Adviser and Assistant level maternity covers roles rather than project roles in the market across our finance and professional service clients – especially our Banking clients!
- Increase in Graduate Recruitment roles in Legal and Management Consulting clients when compared to previous quarters
- Surprising growth in Diversity and Inclusion roles within Investment banking clients! Whereas this was more of a focus in Q3 for C&I clients
- Recruitment coordination and Junior HR assistant level interim support up to the £30k level has been in high demand with businesses across all commerce/industry and Financial/Professional services clients needing more resource
- Regional roles across C&I have been on the up with less London centric focus
- We have seen a drive in L&D recruitment at the mid-level (up to £50,000) – likely to be focussing on upskilling managers for the new financial year.
Payroll
Q3
- In the lead up to Christmas saw an influx of retail roles on both day rate and FTC
- Implementation was a key word and trend within our financial services clients as a number of them engaged Consultants on various projects to go live in 2018
- Payroll is continuing to evolve, and this is demonstrated in the roles we are getting on as clients look at such areas as implementation, outsourcing and streamlining systems
Q4
- As we draw close to what marks year end in most businesses, we have seen an increase in short term assignments to help out payroll teams with year end
- Specific projects due to M&A activity or following significant growth and increase in headcount
- Clients are a lot more open to considering more diverse industry experience when hiring and are more excited by transferable skills
- We already have a number of projects earmarked for the new financial year – the implementation space is yet to boom once again!
Reward and Analytics
Q3
- As expected, we have seen serious operational interim Reward volume to support through comp round with FS clients looking to bring in the £400-500 per day candidates and more junior Reward talent being sought after across broader commerce and industries
- Mid-level MI roles role have been light in the banking space for some time compared with previous years
Q4
- Demand for HRIS implementation and upgrade specialists has remained across industries with small/mid-size firms beginning their roll-outs – Workday experience is still a key skill required alongside other Tier 1 systems Oracle, SAP etc.
- The Senior market has remained sporadic with focus on hiring technical and operational candidates at the £700-£900 level to manage the BAU whilst Heads of Reward manage hot topic subjects. Hot on their agendas include Gender pay, SMR/SMCR and Rem Policy reviews so they have been bolstering their teams around them to take the pressure off and manage the BAU.
- Alongside this, uncertainties due to Brexit are coming to the forefront with scenario planning around implications of international relocations forming part of the discussions. This is another factor in increased interim hiring.