On behalf of everyone at Morgan McKinley in the UK, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and prosperous 2013.

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Our latest Bonus Expectations Survey is now available – this was carried out in November with over 500 professionals working across financial services in London, giving us real insight into their thoughts on bonuses and compensation.  Compared to last year’s survey we can see a definite faltering in confidence with only 60% this year expecting to receive a bonus. Last year 67% anticipated a bonus, and even more the previous year.

In addition a third of those who don’t think they are likely to get a bonus told us this is because their employers will not be paying bonuses at all for 2012/13.

On a more positive note – there were 27% who think that their bonus might be higher than 2011/12.  When we asked this question at the end of last year, only 14% were so confident.  However, the majority (57%) are not forecasting bonus payments any higher than last year which seems to sum up the overall attitude towards bonuses throughout the market.  Where we once saw bonuses as a very key part of the negotiation between job seeker and employer, this is less and less true now.  For most job seekers who are motivated to move by improved pay, it is their basic salary that is becoming more important to them in making the decision to take up a new role.

In terms of the amount that will be paid, almost 90% don’t think they will get any more than 30% of their base salary as a bonus – similar to last year.  Most of these actually think their bonus will be no more than 10%, relatively modest in comparison to the years before 2008.  Our Spring 2013 Bonus Satisfaction Survey will reveal if professionals were in fact being over cautious, or if their predictions were realistic….

Read the full results of our latest Bonus Expectations Survey and November Employment Monitor

bonus, bonus survey, Hiring, Professionals, salary

I recently attended a small but significant networking event hosted by Silu, an organisation aimed at professionals working or doing business in China invited a Morgan McKinley guest to speak at their panel event – alongside editors from The Banker and eFinancialCareers. Richie Holliday, COO Morgan McKinley Asia took up the opportunity to speak from his experience overseeing Morgan McKinley’s offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong, as well as Singapore and Japan.

The event titled: ‘Asia calling: where is the future for financial services professionals’ is the first of many seminars from Silu as it aims to become a hub for professionals in Asia, particularly those focused individuals seeking to return to China (known as Haigui) for career enhancement.

Haigui (an informal term for Chinese people who have returned to mainland China after having studied or worked abroad) are in strong demand and sought after by multinational companies to bridge the cultural differences. Also a new generation of career driven individuals are in China looking to make a name for themselves, in a competitive career environment everyone is looking for the edge to give them the advantage and Silu offers an outlet to learn from successful individuals such as the two other guest speakers, Dr Mao and Dr Wang, both head of risk areas in leading financial services institutes

This signifies the impact that China will continue to have especially with cities like Shanghai progressing rapidly towards becoming a global financial centre. Richie presented key findings from Morgan McKinley’s China Hiring Market Report 2013. He also highlighted the changes happening in the market, for example, no longer can non-Chinese language speakers walk into a position even in financial hubs such as Hong Kong.

The event was very well attended and a great success for Silu, with Richie being almost mobbed at the end from those who wanted more information about the opportunities and possibilities of returning to China.

Now we are all in a globally competitive market, what skills do you think will be most important for you to succeed in the future?

career, China, Chinese language, Financial Services, financial services professionals, Hong Kong, Shanghai

Wondering what salary increase to ask for can be tricky. With our insight into who’s paying what and where, we have decided to start tracking the uplift in pay across the City based on employers making job offers each month.

Our London Employment Montitor now includes this metric each month. The graph below shows the percentage change – typically an increase – in the salary that people were previously on, compared to the salary from their new job offer. In the month of October 12, the difference was an increase of 20% indicating that despite the challenging hiring market, salaries are still increasing for those who are finding new roles.

Average salary increases across London's financial services sector

Job opportunities are still down 36% compared to the previous year, however seeing pay rise gives us some confidence that London’s financial services sector retains an element of competitiveness in securing the best talent and remains an attractive place to work as we saw from the recent Global Competitiveness report from Z/Yen that my colleague James Smith recently wrote about as well as the PwC report: Cities of opportunity 2012 – both rank London top as a global financial city.

To find out more about financial services salaries, please contact us to have a confidential discussion: london@morganmckinley.co.uk

Cities of Opportunity, City, employment monitor, financial services sector, Global Competitivess, global financial city, job offers, pay rise, salary increase, talent, Z/Yen

According to the online finance dictionary Investopedia, the term broker refers to a ‘firm when it acts as an agent for a customer and charges the customer a commission for its services’.

In the job seeking process, that’s where recruitment consultants like me come in: we act as brokers between the companies and institutions who hire us to find talent and professionals looking for new roles.

As an experienced financial services professional with good knowledge of the market you may feel no need to engage with a recruiter.  I understand that, however let me explain the pros and cons of either working with a recruitment company or alternatively not doing so and waiting to be headhunted directly…

Will a direct recruiter be able to help me?

More and more banks are building up their own internal recruitment functions – referred to as ‘direct recruitment’.  For a bank, this seems like a great option; bypass recruiters and hire directly – saving money on the fee paid to a consultancy.  However the probability of a direct recruiter finding the very best person for the role immediately drops – by definition a bank or institution will never have access to the same wide pool of candidates that recruitment companies do.  They don’t invest in the right tools and technologies to do so as it’s simply not their business – it’s ours!

For a hiring manager this is not necessarily the best option especially at a time when each new hire is key.  For a professional looking to develop their career – it’s only one role with one bank, compared to the opportunity to discuss multiple roles across varying organisations by speaking to a recruitment consultancy…

So is it better to talk to a recruiter than to a bank?

We are paid to source and find the best professionals in the market, for the right roles.  Like it or not, that’s what we do, all day every day to help companies build strong teams.  This simply gives us the edge over any employer in being able to find talent.  We also talk to financial institutions daily about multiple roles, across various teams in their organisations: so once we find good people, we know exactly where they might fit.  Acting as the ‘broker’ means we know what hiring managers are looking for; we may have already helped them hire somebody or even placed them in their own jobs, so we have a unique insight.  We also spend hours talking to professionals to understand, not just their next job, but their entire career plan so we can help them find the best roles.

I am certainly not saying that as a professional you shouldn’t take a call directly from a financial services institution – instead I hope this post makes clear the difference between their role and our role. Do yourself a favour and keep your options open by talking to a recruiter.

If you have a view on this topic – I’m keen to hear from you. Please email me at henver@morganmckinley.co.uk or leave us a comment below.

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London has come top alongside New York City in the Global Financial Centres Index published by Z/Yen last week. What’s more,  Morgan McKinley is located in four of the top 10 global financial centres identified in this latest report, with operations in London, Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong. In addition Morgan McKinley is located in Australia, China, Ireland, Japan and the UAE.

The report examines the major financial centres around the world in terms of competitiveness, and highlights priorities and concerns of professionals. According to the Financial Times, despite London’s top ranking, issues in the Eurozone and regulatory pressures continue to be a significant concern for professionals. Nearly half of the respondents in London don’t expect the city to be more competitive in three years’ time – compared to respondents in other European countries who were far more positive about where they live.

This illustrates the impact and turbulence of the global economic issues and in particular how the Eurozone problems have affected London’s financial services sector. Despite these issues, London’s ability to come out top of the ranking also underlines how the city continues to remain at the heart of global financial services and its geographical placement and attractiveness in terms of the talent pool and the large number of financial services institutions remains clearly in evidence.

Top 10 –  Global Financial Centres Index 2012. Please click on the countries to view Morgan McKinley’s local websites:
1. London & NYC
3. Toronto
4. Paris
5. Stockholm
6. San Francisco
7. Singapore
8. Hong Kong
9. Chicago

To discuss career opportunities in financial services around the world, please contact James Smith, Associate Director  -  jsmith@morganmckinley.com

eurozone, Financial Times, global financial centres, Global Financial Centres Index, London, Morgan McKinley

This month our London Employment Monitor highlights that jobs in the City fell by 19% from August 12 to September 12 – a larger drop than usual at this time of year.  With this following a rise of 5%, it illustrates that hiring levels are still very unpredictable in financial services, but with a fall of 43% on September last year, it’s clear that the level of new hiring remains subdued.

Despite this fall in jobs and also the low number of City job seekers in the market, there has been an uplift in offers coming from employers to hire strong talent.  This month we have compared the average rise in pay for those who were offered jobs last September with the average rise for those offered jobs this September – the difference was a healthy 17%, which gives a clear indication of what employers are willing to pay when they do choose to take on new employees.

This month’s Employment Monitor has been reported across newspapers and online media including CityAM who created this image to illustrate our data.

To read and download the full report you can visit the Morgan McKinkey website.

City hiring, Financial services hiring, Financial services in London, financial services jobs, Morgan McKinley London employment Monitor

Of the entire financial catastrophe that the collapse of Lehman Brothers inflicted on international markets, perhaps the most significant was that it came close to destroying confidence, and one reason the lethargic economy persists is that investors and employers alike still haven’t got it back.

Much of the continued strain, as measured in rates, fewer loans issued and in turn, less jobs, comes down to a lingering fear that another bank (or for that matter, a country) could collapse.

The main regulatory changes to safeguard against a repeat of Lehman’s collapse have been the Vickers Report and introduction of Basel 3.

In turn, the impact of all the aforementioned is cost cutting. Contraction in the market means that the financial services market is operating at a much smaller level. The general feeling is that this can’t continue and that we are nearing a point where the market has contracted as much as possible and so will begin to pick up again.

It goes without saying this is all linked with the wider global economic situation. The impact of the Eurozone crisis along with sluggish growth in both China and the US means that growth has been slow translating into banks

There has been a move away from complex ‘risky’ products to standard banking products generating less risk, therefore there is no need for large scale back office operations. However, support is required to comply with new regulatory requirements.

In terms of the impact of the current climate on job volumes, these have been undoubtedly reduced. However, from a finance perspective, this is not necessarily bad news for top ACA professionals with first time passes. Finance professionals who have positioned themselves well should be able to take advantage. I would encourage those who have been smart, haven’t fallen out of the profession or hopped around to keep an open mind and stay engaged. This will place these finance professionals in the strongest position when the current market situation uplifts.

banking operations, Basel 3, city jobs, economic crisis, economy, financial services jobs, investment banks, investors, Lehman Brothers, regulation, Vickers Report

The month of August 12 – typically a slower time in many industries including recruitment saw a surprising 5% uplift in financial services and banking jobs compared to the previous month.

We expected that the London 2012 Olympics would have some impact on employment and work, however we actually saw more jobs coming onto the hiring market in the early part of the month while the Games were in full swing.

This is actually the first time in three years that job availability has risen in the July – August timeframe, however putting this in context it’s important to note that the level of FS and banking jobs is still 34% below August last year.

With the UK Parliament now back from the summer recess, we are very interested to see how governments across the region will continue to handle eurozone issues which will inevitably have some impact on the immediate future of the financial services sector.

Read our August Employment Monitor in full for more insight into financial services hiring

banking jobs, Employment, eurozone, Financial Services, financial services sector, recruitment

Data from our latest London Employment Monitor shows that the London financial services jobs market remains steady.

Whilst there is a 2% decrease in available financial services jobs this remains in line with the usual summer decline in available jobs witnessed in previous years. However the figures are still 48% lower than the same time last year.

The number of professional job seekers interested in new roles fell by 24% from June 12 to July 12.

A  trend which has remained steady this year is the type of functions hiring managers are looking for; change management, compliance, risk and regulatory – where financial institutions are still looking to invest in strong talent.

As with most senior hiring managers and other experts in the recruitment market, our view on hiring in London is clouded by the continuing complexity and shifting nature of the global economy.

Watch the video below for further insights:

View and download the July Employment Monitor now.

financial services jobs, London Employment monitor