Accountancy & Finance
There are signs of a recruitment recovery, driven by a renewed focus on ESG and DEI strategies. Andy Young, director of accountancy and finance, Investigo, highlights the trends for 2024.
Here are the key areas leaders need to prepare for in 2024:
Subdued but positive – signs of a recruitment recovery in 2024.
Focus on ESG – why strong ESG policies will be vital this year.
DEI commitment – how organisations are making renewed commitments to improving diversity in the industry.
2023 was an interesting year to recruit in for commerce and industry clients within accounting and finance. The Budget last year, increased interest rates and more companies returning to the workplace have created an uncertain market.
The recruitment industry overall is down, with less movement within the market. Clients are more cautious about hiring, focusing on getting the right person rather than someone to fill a seat. Salaries have stabilised from the 30-40% uplift we saw at extreme points of 2022. As a result, processes are taking longer, clients are more selective and workloads are being redistributed across the current teams.
However, salaries have not gone backwards. Clients are still recruiting and hiring managers will still need good recruiters to aid them in building world class teams. There was a big difference in companies’ hiring approach from 2022 to 2023. While 2022 saw a bullish growth mindset that resulted in mass hiring, a tougher 2023 saw companies seeking replacement hires, upskilling or redistributing responsibilities around their team.
With more redundancies in the market, clients are finding it hard to see the wood from the trees with an overwhelming number of applications to roles. When organisations are making mass redundancies, it’s also challenging to justify the need for individual roles to be recruited.
Across our five disciplines of consumer, industrial, tech, media and PE backed clients, it’s the tech teams that have felt the impacts of the market most, following the demise and layoffs of the likes of Amazon, Facebook and other big tech businesses.
Q4 saw signs of a resurgence, with our consultants registering almost as many roles as they ever have, as businesses planned for 2024. It will be interesting to see whether the increase in hiring signals a return to the positive market we saw a year or so ago.
What’s becoming increasingly clear is that ESG will change the finance landscape for organisations of all sizes. ESG information is increasingly in demand as we move from a voluntary to a mandatory reporting environment under new requirements from the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Leaders will need to understand what kind of ESG data is relevant, will help them make the right decisions and have the biggest impact on customers and competitors. Once you know what data you need, it’s about finding the right tools to sort through thousands of data points and gaining robust validation of that data.
Finance has a big role to play in ESG, with businesses looking to the finance team to provide accurate non-financial data for investors. As companies look to put the right frameworks in place for ESG reporting, they’ll increasingly look to hire an ESG controller or create a team dedicated to ESG reporting.
Finance professionals with strong attention to detail and stakeholder management skills, who can prepare the business for upcoming changes to regulations and policies, will be in increasing demand. Last year, we hosted a roundtable event with leading experts on ESG to discuss how ESG will change the landscape of finance. Find out more here.
More and more of our clients are committed to increasing their level of diversity. Indeed, we were heartened that 23% of respondents to an accountancy industry survey we conducted earlier in the year were from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Having a diverse workforce is a start, but how can you ensure people feel included and have an equal chance of progressing? When hiring or promoting, use objective data to evaluate the quality of your decision-making. There’s value in hiring based on ‘gut feeling,’ but in reality, it will only lead you to make ‘safe’ hires that are in line with your longstanding view of what constitutes a good candidate.
Work with your HR team to identify gaps in your talent pools, which will allow you to set up localised teams to address them. Lastly, set DEI targets for your leaders so their advancement depends on the inclusivity of their leadership, making your approach effective from the top down.
For more information on creating a more inclusive workplace, please check out our market leading DEI brochure, Powered Up.
Despite an uncertain market, businesses are recognising the importance of ESG and DEI. Strong ESG policies deliver positive brand impacts, and demand for ESG controllers is increasing. The power of improving diversity within the sector is also identified as an important development area for 2024.
Organisations are increasingly focused on improving diversity and environmental policies. This creates opportunities for skilled candidates from all backgrounds to help drive positive change in the sector for 2024.
