Vanity sizing, also known as size inflation is used to refer to the phenomenon of clothes becoming larger over a period of time although staying the same in terms of a size 8. In recent years the same has come into a effect in the workplace.

The guiltiest person of this trend setting may be surprising, the late ‘Kim Jong il’, he reportedly had over 1200 titles including guardian deity of the planet, ever-victorious general, lodestar of the 21st century, supreme commander at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the United States, eternal bosom of hot love and greatest man who ever lived.

Not that I’ve seen anything like the above applied in the work place, there has been ‘Revenue protection officer’ which was a ticket inspector, dinner lady became SMSA – school meals supervisory assistant.

In the office, where you’ve probably got a few “chief” whatnots, vice-presidents, apparently the number of members of LinkedIn, a professional network, with the title vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in 2005-09. Steve Jobs had fun with job titles and called himself “chief know it all”

Is this a substitute for pay in tough economic times? Or is this the latest fashion trend? How do you work out your market rate? well that’s where Morgan McKinley know the market, company structures and most importantly in my opinion about the role you’ll be doing whether your chief whatnot or director of space and time.

job titles, market rate, professional network

In the aftermath of the FSA’s 2011 record-breaking number of individual fines, totaling a whopping £65.5 million, it appears that cooperation and not complacency will be the theme of 2012.The FSA’s aggressive stance looks set to have a deterring effect that will echo throughout the financial services sector.

With the implementation of new EU compliance regulations in 2012 including UCITS 4 impacting risk management; MiFID2; FATCA; Dodd Frank; and RDR within the wealth management division, firms are under pressure to alleviate risk and take action.  As recruitment experts in this space, we are seeing the increase in demand for professionals with niche skills sets. Combining technical ability, product knowledge (particularly in equities and fixed income) and, importantly, a strong cultural fit are all important in the hiring process.

Macroeconomic factors such as financial market instability and ongoing eurozone debt issues have caused employers across financial services to become more rigorous, seeking only the best talent in the market. Stringent requirements from hiring managers have increased the overall hiring time, which in some cases has meant them losing excellent candidates to competitors.

Morgan McKinley registered its largest number of temporary compliance candidates in 2011, as challenging market conditions continued. With some compliance functions being offshored and near-shored this has meant more professionals seeking both temporary and permanent opportunities at the same time, with the prospect of competitive rates reflecting the need for specialist skills to be successful  in the jobs market.

Although visibility in employment patterns remains relatively unclear, traditionally the post-bonus period creates more fluidity in the market, but this is still hindered by cautious business decisions, as headcount continues to be closely scrutinised in the early part of 2012.

Compliance, Dodd Frank, Employment, FACTA, FSA, MiFID2

However we choose to look at the specifics, this year’s budget is a PR gamble for the government.

With many of my clients being financial institutions, or constituents of the FTSE 100 I have a particular interest on how today’s changes will be viewed by big business and on high earners within these organisations. Is Britain, as the Chancellor proudly declared, ‘open for business’ or will we see high earners move away from the UK?

It’s an interesting one. In many respects, the UK still offers much to large corporations which is why we continue to see many businesses trading here. However, the ongoing furore over banker’s bonuses has led to some, including a Senior Executive at a Wall Street Bank to describe London as ‘the worst major City in the world to do business’.

Let’s imagine that bonus payments were no longer discussed in the media. We live in a world where individuals decide to work in a location purely based on the tax implications of doing so. By looking at today’s budget, has George Osborne done enough to ensure that, on paper, we have a viable and attractive tax system?

We have heard terms being used lately such as ‘tycoon tax’ and ‘mansion tax’ which imply that the wealthy should be penalised for being financially secure. Given that the top 1% of earners already pays 27.7% of all tax (ONS – 2011/ 2012); I believe that for the economy to prosper we need to welcome big business and their employees to this country.

After months of speculation the 50p top tax rate  will be reduced to 45p from next year. It is widely accepted that it actually brought in little revenue and maybe acted as a deterrent in attracting or keeping – top talent to the UK. However, scrapping it is a high profile move and the Chancellor has ensured that the rich are taxed in other ways including the reduction in tax relief on pensions, the so-called Mansion Tax (taxing properties over £2m), the Tycoon Tax (forcing all tax payers to pay a minimum of 20% on all sources of income) and through the expected closing of loopholes to clamp down on tax avoidance.

So, what have we seen today? Has the government played the PR game and given gimmicky names to serious tax issues to appease their voters; whilst trying to do the same with high earners by reducing the highest tax rate?

It is very difficult at this point to predict if the above steps will improve the economy. I am concerned that over time, we will become a country that welcomes big business (the reduction in corporation tax from 25% to 22% over the next 2 years appears to give this impression) but not those who work for these organisations.

Like it or not, we live in a capitalist society; an advanced one at that. By definition, capitalism creates competitive markets and in these markets some will fair better than others. For this system to continue effectively, we need to ensure that everybody is treated fairly, with respect and not as a pawn in an elaborate political game.

budget, budget 2012, corporation tax, George Osborne, tax implications, tax issues, tax system

At Morgan McKinley, we use our 8 years of data for our employment monitor to provide a leading overview of the financial services market and to help make informed career decisions.

But I don’t want to write about recruitment this time, I want to write about football. (Don’t be put off, this is relevant).

Football, like all sports, is driven along by the gossip and speculation of fans, pundits, journalists. Everyone has an opinion, but lets be honest, no one really ever bothers with the facts. Well, the writers of ‘Why England Lose & other curious Football Phenomena explained’ did and it smashes opinions that have become ‘accepted’, here are some interesting findings.

They analysed a database of 22,130 international matches (1872-2001) and discovered that the significant factors which dictate a country’s footballing success are: experience (games played), GDP per head and population. Based on that, in the period 1980-2001, England actually slightly over performed compared to our potential beating out richer, larger neighbours.

After examining 1520 premier league games between 2002-06. Armed with the knowledge of the pre-match odds to know the favorite for each they found out that in the games where a penalty was not awarded, the favorite won 51.34% of the time. In the games when a penalty was awarded, the favorite won 51.3% of the time.

Another factor being that then only strong correlation between how a club performs and the wages it forks out each week, pretty much no impact from transfer spending power. Very few managers over perform against the weekly wage; the authors even suggest the fans should pic the team and yes, a club in Mexico is doing just that.

Of course football is still exciting no matter how much data you apply as anything can happen on the pitch and often does, like recruitment our data gives us the edge and allows us to look at the best career advice although our experience to help when the prediction goes out of the window also sets us apart from the rest.

Football, football data

I have nothing against interests and hobbies per se, I even have a couple myself, it’s more a case of questioning the need to share them on a CV on the basis that they might truly influence the decision making process. Really, do employers care about an  interest in cooking?  Does the ubiquitous interest in sports really demonstrate team player skills? If you believe the studies then you will question if employers even make it to the end of your CV to find out what your interests are. So maybe they are just a waste of everyone’s time and should be confined to Room 101?

Over the years I’ve seen many interests and hobbies on CVs from ‘member of a gym’ which could be anything from a serious body builder through to the likes of me (paid membership fee for nothing more than a monthly email reminding me I am a member of a gym I never go to) to ‘financial markets’ where the candidate didn’t know what the FTSE was but quick to point out that they weren’t technically lying as you can have an interest in something without actually knowing everything about it (it was at this point they became unsuitable for the job).

My all time favourite however, was the candidate who expressed an interest in ‘beavers’.  Clearly beavers as an interest merits further exploration. When questioned the lady was delighted to discuss her hobby of beavers –  all forty of them. “Forty” I exclaimed “Forty beavers….what do you…how do you…where do you???” Yes, even I was interested by this point. Her dilemma was, as she explained with much concern, she was off on holiday soon and had no-one to cover her Tuesday night slot from 6-7.30pm. Needless to say I was rather confused how you could look after forty beavers for only 1.5 hrs a week until she clarified that the lady from the Cubs, which ran straight after her beavers club, might be able to cover but it would mean a double shift for her. Oh, The Beavers, not beavers – I felt disappointment and relief all at the same time. But 10 years on, I’ll always remember this candidate’s name and her experience.

So even I appreciate that interests and hobbies on a CV can promote discussion at interview but do shared interests forge better working relationships – surely that’s the measure of the worth? From what I can see a shared interest in football for example –seems to promote nothing more than arguments from the conversations I’m privy to, an antithesis if ever there were!

So what’s the answer – do you include a hobbies section or not? Well, I can say that in my 16 years in recruitment I’ve never known a candidate to be rejected because of their interests or hobbies. More importantly I have known candidates enjoy success as a result of their interests specifically the candidate who declared her hobby to be ‘washing elephants’.The feedback from the client was that from a technical and personality point of view they couldn’t decide on their preferred candidate so they decided to look through the CVs one more time, it was this candidates rather unique interest that sealed the deal and she was offered the job. Now that really has to be the measure of the worth.

CVs, hobbies, interview

Scotland is currently going through growing pains once again in its history, this time to establish independence although interestingly Alex Salmond (First Minister of Scotland) wants out of the UK and for Scotland to govern itself as it pleases.  However, he is happy for Threadneedle Street to govern its money. Strange? I thought so.

Will the Scots bring back coins like the merk, groat or bawbee? Stirling University Professor of Economics, David Bell wrote in the Scotsman on Friday that it makes sense for Scotland to keep  the pound. He stated that jobless figures north of the border mirror the UK as a whole, and therefore it makes sense to keep the currency. This matters, as its easier to design a monetary policy for the whole of the UK as it now stands.

The Scots could always join the Euro although again they would have no control on policy.  Alternatively, they could adopt their own currency to avoid the unstable hyper-growth which happened to Ireland’s economy when it joined the Euro.  As the Irish did not have control of interest rates to act as a breaking mechanism it ‘overheated’.

Also, the Bank of England is part owned by Scotland (8.4%) as it’s a UK asset and the English are hardly in a hurry for the Scots to run off with this amount right now.

If Scotland was an employee should it stay with its company and work with the current system or take a leap into the unknown? It would do well to remember carpe diem, and take a leap into the new, but potentially rewarding, unknown.

In my opinion, If Scotland wants to aim to be more Scandinavian and less like the eurozone then it must gets its own currency underway and go for it ‘all or nothing’.

Alex Salmond, Bank of england, David Bell, eurozone, First Minister; First Minister of Scotland, monetary policy, Professor of Economics, the Euro

A recent article that I read talked about employers being warned about not putting too much trust in using social media, to solely recruit for new employees into their businesses.

The findings of this article stated that 57% of employers are searching for potential candidates on sites such as LinkedIn .  However only 5% of those individuals surveyed would actually hire individuals from these social networking sites.  In comparison to this, 19% of respondents said that they would hire primarily from recruitment consultancies with 76% preferring to use a specialist agency.

These are very interesting findings which will lead me to believe that whilst these sites are fantastic in terms of building your network of contacts and profile, they are limited in terms of ensuring that you are using a multi-layered approach to find the best talent in the market place.

Many of our clients will rely on us to use this approach to find their new employees and whilst we will use social networking to headhunt and source candidates, we will still use many other mediums, particularly focussing our efforts on referrals and recommendations to our business.  Our clients will also be very reliant on the fact that we will have met candidates sent to meet them face to face, that all will be fully referenced and this then in turn still highlights the importance of specialised recruitment consultancies.

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Singapore is a bustling, world-class city-state that has made waves around the world for its business excellence. If you are on a business visit or furthermore looking to relocate and work in this lovely place in South East Asia, you should habituate yourself with the most common business etiquettes in Singapore.

Top tips for business etiquette:

- Bring lots of business cards to meetings. They should be presented with both hands with the name facing the recipient. Upon receiving a card never write on it, put it casually in your back pocket, or slot into a folder, as any of these actions can be misconstrued as disrespect.

-  Punctuality: although Singaporeans tend to arrive late for social events, being late for business appointments is paramount to an insult.

- Plan meetings in advance. It is essential to arrange your meetings in Singapore in advance. Do so weeks, even months, prior to your visit.

- Small talk: casual conversation is often typical at the start of a meeting and is part of ‘getting to know you’ phase. You may be asked questions about your background or personal details.

- Handshakes: are the most common business greeting in Singapore. A gentle squeeze lasting 10 to 12 seconds is ideal. While Westerners tend to read a lot into a handshake, for Singaporeans, ‘pressing the flesh’ is considered merely a friendly greeting. There are no subtle messages encoded in a handshake’s firmness or duration.

- Body language: Singaporeans are reserved in nature, so it is useful to be aware of their body language and verbal cues. In Western environments, looking a person straight in the eye says: “You have my full attention.” In Singapore, the direct look may be interpreted as disrespect, or worse – as aggression. Catch your counterpart’s eyes for a second, then immediately lower your head and look down. Your body language expresses that you are honouring the person in your presence.

To find out more about what to expect from living and working in Singapore, or hear about current opportunities contact Anouska Serich on +44(0)20 7092 0015 aserich@morganmckinley.co.uk

international experience, Singapore, Working in Singapore

This seems to be a topic which is often covered in conversations within our office.

The compliance and regulatory markets have been growing at an alarming rate since the demise of Lehman Brothers and the start of the recession, and it seems whilst some other middle office functions have had steady growth, the compliance market has seen some astronomical growth, both within sell side and buy side organisations in London.

With the FSA introducing new policies and procedures on a regular basis, does this mean that the compliance markets are likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future?

Morgan McKinley has continued to see a demand for compliance ‘talent’ for the past three and a half years, especially within sales and trading compliance and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

With the introduction of the new regulators in 2013, will this mean that the compliance market will continue to see growth above other markets? …I think so!

Banking, City of London, Compliance, Financial Services, FSA, regulation

Offshoring operations overseas combined with an increasingly competitive jobs market, has left many professionals considering opportunities abroad. So what value is gained from international experience?

Stand out from the crowd. CVs with international work experience stand out. Employers appreciate the independence, personal resourcefulness and problem-solving skills necessary to work abroad. Particularly if you have sought the opportunity yourself.

Understand new business cultures. Working in a country that has a strong connection with your industry can add an incredible amount of value to your CV. Working abroad can also give you an understanding of other cultures, values and different ways of doing business. Surrounding yourself in a foreign work setting is very different from dealing with colleagues from other countries on the telephone. Even a relatively short period of time spent abroad can be very valuable to your career.

Acquire new skills. Learning a new skill or developing an existing skill is often easier in a new environment. Picking up a new language or learning new processes can be an invaluable benefit of working overseas and are often skills that can be used back in the UK.

Gain new contacts. An assignment abroad can quickly help build your professional network. Nurture relationships with colleagues, you never know where a contact may lead and who they might be able to refer you to for future jobs.

Earn money. Often companies pay generously for temporary workers, particularly abroad. Working as a contractor can be a lucrative option as well as tax efficient in many countries.

Lifestyle change. Working abroad can often offer a different lifestyle, and sometimes a greater work-life balance. In addition, it can give you thechance to explore new interests. It may even take you on to another contract or permanent role there or in another country.

Choosing to uproot and work abroad can be a big decision, plenty of research is essential before taking the leap. If the timing is right it can really develop your career opportunities.

abroad, CVs, international experience, Skills, work overseas, working abroad