finance and accountancy salary review and market index 2016...transactional recruitment salary...

Finance and Accountancy Salary Review and Market Index

T: 01442 824400 E: [email protected] W: www.mrkassociates.co.uk

2016

Contents

Welcome 3

MRK – the statistics 4

Qualified market insight and salary survey 5

Qualified market insight 6

Qualified market insight 7

Qualified salary survey 8

Part and Non-Qualified market insight and salary survey 9

Part and Non-Qualified market insight and corporates 10

Active Studiers 11

SMEs 12

Part and Non-Qualified salary survey 13

Transactional recruitment market insight and salary survey 14

Transactional recruitment market insight 15

Transactional recruitment salary survey 16

Contract vs. Permanent – the statistics 17

Registrations, offers, interviews – the statistics 18

Temporary salary survey 19

About MRK Associates 20

2

Dear Colleague,

This is the most comprehensive review of salaries and recruitment trends for finance professionals across the northern Home Counties. This insight is based on the analysis of permanent and contract placements made across all finance disciplines throughout 2015 and 2016.

We are proud of this research and the findings within it, which I know you’ll find of interest. In 2015 stability returned to the UK economy, which saw a continuous thaw to recruitment freezes – especially to the business of Herts, Bucks, Beds and Oxon.

Yet, we are still seeing similar trends despite the metrics and factors motivating the industry – namely the speed in which clients move to confirm their candidate of choice. We have started addressing this and other factors that will circle the industry through our blog – if you haven’t contributed, please do so. We would love to hear your point of view.

If you would like to discuss your recruitment needs or have any feedback or comments on this salary insight, please do email me: [email protected]

We look forward to working with you throughout 2016.

With kind regards,

Roland Seddon

MRK Associates


Welcome to the MRK Associates salary review and market index 2016.

3

Percentage of contract roles filled by MRK Associates. 2015 compared with 2014

30% increase

How many permanent roles did MRK fill in 2015 over 2014?

Registered in 2014

39% increase

How many more clients have you got in 2015 over 2014?

2014 2015

56%more clients

4

Registered in 2014

Registered in 2015

Registered in 2015

5T: 01442 824400 E: [email protected] W: www.mrkassociates.co.uk

Qualified market insight and salary survey

6

In 2015, in the £24,500 - £40,000 and £41,000 - £100,000 salary bands, MRK registered significantly more jobs (a 60% increase overall) than the previous year and, although filling more jobs by volume, our % fill-rate dropped slightly. This has been due to the large increase in job registrations in a buoyant economy and the candidate shortages which have resulted as the market has changed.

In all salary bands, we noted candidates increased awareness of the improved market conditions resulting in many candidates becoming more specific on the type of positions they want to apply for. This does two opposite things for the market; primarily there are less relevant candidates submitted for each job but, to the contrary, these candidates are 100% committed to the recruitment process because they are genuinely interested in the job.

Similarly, how businesses approach candidates was noted. Many companies were slow in understanding the urgency needed in the recruitment process as the market developed into a more candidate driven environment. This resulted in many companies losing the candidates they preferred as they were offered positions elsewhere. This has changed now with companies taking more advice from us in terms of the timescales and processes they should follow to ensure they secure their preferred individual. The best candidates are getting 3-4 offers on the table at any one time so employers who can show decisiveness and are willing to put an offer down that sets the standard and illustrates their seriousness will win out in the majority of cases.

Qualified market insight

“Whilst more roles were created in

2015 as confidence returns to the

market, there is a growing shortage of good calibre, skilled

candidates.”

continued...


Qualified market insight

Whilst more roles were created in 2015 as confidence returns to the market, there is a growing shortage of good calibre, skilled candidates. As a result clients are waiting for supreme candidates to become available. So, businesses are waiting for the perfect person and then have to have a slick and decisive process in place to ensure they can recruit promptly. No longer do they have the luxury of an extended first interview process to ensure they have two or three good people for second interviews. The people met first will be gone by the time you meet the last one - “it’s find a good one, offer a good one!”

Finally, a candidate driven market also means the increased prevalence of the dreaded counter-offer. Employers are desperate to hold on to the talent they have and will make crazy promises to get people to stay when they hand their notice in. Increases of £5000 - £6000 to people’s salaries have become a common occurrence so our advice to clients has been that they shouldn’t be trying to get a candidate on the cheap when offering them a job. If they offer £1000 more than their current salary then they are lining themselves up for the candidate to accept a counter-offer and they will end up back at square one.

This does two opposite things for the market; primarily there are less relevant candidates submitted for each job which can potentially slow a recruitment process (although this is not always the case and many client prefer less CVs) but, to the contrary, these candidates are 100% committed to the recruitment process because they are genuinely interested in the job thus reducing withdrawals and counter-offer problems speeding up the process.

... continued

8

Salaries quoted are a range of basic salaries we would expect, they do not include bonuses, benefits or incentive plans.

Qualified salary survey

C&I Salaries 2015-2016 SME SME Corporates Corporates £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000

Senior Management

CFO/Group FD N/A N/A 80-250+ 90-250+

FD or Divisional FD 70-125 70-125 70-150+ 80-170+

FC or Group FC in Corporate 45-80 50-90 60-120+ 60-130+

Middle Management

FP&A Manager N/A N/A 55-80 55-85

Financial Analyst 35-45 38-48 38-55 40-60

Finance Manager 38-60 40-60 42-70 45-75

Financial Accountant 34-45 35-48 36-50 38-55

Management Accountant 32-46 34-48 35-48 36-52

Qualified by Experience 30-45 30-48 30-42 (N/A)* 35-48 (N/A)*

Newly Qualified

Newly Qualified 32-42 32-45 36-48 38-55

Internal Audit

Internal Audit Director N/A N/A 80-120+ 80-130+

Internal Audit Manager N/A N/A 80-120+ 80-130+

Internal Auditor N/A N/A 38-55 42-60

* QBEs are rarely recruited into Corporates

MRK Associates Oxon & Bucks Beds, Herts & Nth London

Oxon & Bucks Beds, Herts & Nth London


Part & Non-Qualified market insight and salary survey

10

At the end of January 2015, there were 1.86 million unemployed people across the UK, 102,000 fewer than the quarter before and the unemployment rate was 5.7%, lower than for August to October 2014 (6.0%).

It certainly gave us hope for a strong year of employment within finance. We weren’t disappointed and have seen positive movement in Part & Non-Qualified.

The unemployment rate fell to 5.4% in 2015, lower than a year earlier (6.0%). It has not been lower since 2008. It would continue to fall throughout 2015.

As you would expect, we have seen trends from within the Part & Non-Qualified market in 2015 and we expect to see them continue in the same direction for 2016.

Part & Non-Qualified market insight 2015-201616

“It remains an area that is highly candidate driven and competitive.”

Corporates

The PLC’s and large corporate companies have remained very strict on their criteria although the need for high calibre individuals striving to learn and develop is exceedingly high. The competition in the market remains very strong as the corporates fight over a limited pool of people so it’s an extremely candidate driven market for studiers. These companies have focused on their direct sourcing model and internal recruitment teams to look after most of the transactional and early studier finance roles, but still rely heavily on specialist agencies for the more sought after candidates (ACCA/CIMA late stage studiers). It remains an area that is highly candidate driven and competitive.


Individuals getting towards the end of ACCA & CIMA qualifications remained highly sought after in 2015 as businesses have looked to improve profit margins and enhance their foothold in the market. This is mainly due to the positive opinions circling in the industry and with unemployment remaining low throughout the year. Studying accountants are viewed as the ones that can thrive in business partnering and value-add roles. They most certainly share the same personality traits as the business leaders in progressing agendas forward.

There has still been a necessity for employers to have a mix of forward thinking, progressive individuals and very efficient, calm & assuring accountants that can keep things ticking over, whether it is AAT, ACCA or CIMA. Finance has two main types of jobs: the commercial/ analytical positions and the routine/process/reporting jobs. Companies need both to flourish so there has therefore been a correlation in both vacancies.

Encouragingly, more graduates were recruited into finance roles in 2015, showing that companies are confident with the business remaining profitable whilst the experienced staff

Active studiers

train the new employees.

More often than not, companies are now providing full study support to all of their graduates and this has also significantly increased in the SME market, which has moved forward positively compared to two years ago as their confidence in the economy has improved.

“Companies are now providing full study support to all of their graduates.”

12

“The SME market overall has been very busy for MRK Associates in 2015 and 2016 with the continuing confidence in the economy.”

The SME market overall has been very busy for MRK Associates in 2015 and to date in 2016 with the continuing confidence in the economy. This market appears to be in an extremely healthy position and we have seen a rise in the number of transactional positions and QBE (qualified by experience) finance manager vacancies. With unemployment rates falling to a 7-year low, SME’s have gained confidence and we have seen a big uplift in the amount of recruitment that has come through small to medium sized businesses.

We have seen a common trend in 2015 of company’s upskilling and promoting their current senior employees into business partnering and value add roles and recruiting company accountants/finance managers beneath them to run the daily operations.

Zurich’s SME Risk Index shows that SME confidence in the economy has continued to rise and therefore backs up this view. The number of SMEs worried about the economic climate (53 per cent) has reduced by 31 per cent on the figure from the beginning of the Risk Index in October 2012 (84 per cent).

SMEs

This means that almost half of SMEs say they are not currently worried about the economic situation. This fall in concern is linked to decreased worries across several key factors. Nearly three quarters of SMEs say they are not concerned about bank lending, with the result that just 24 per cent now say they are worried about financing their business.

This is accompanied by confidence that the economic situation will continue to recover. Most SMEs (57 per cent) are confident the economic situation will further improve within the next year, compared to just 37 per cent when the Risk Index began.

12



Part & Non-Qualified salary survey

Part & Non-Qualified SME SME Corporates Corporates Salary 2015-2016 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000

Financial Analyst 26-32 27-35 26-36 28-40

Financial Accountant 24-30 25-30 26-35 26-36

Management Accountant 24-29 25-30 25-35 28-38

Assistant Accountant 23-28 24-28 23-27 24-30

MRK Associates Oxon & Bucks Beds, Herts & Nth London

Oxon & Bucks Beds, Herts & Nth London

14

Transitional recruitment market insight and salary survey


“Small and Medium Enterprises are more comfortable than last year with the economic climate, research finds.”

Transactional recruitment has remained fairly stable throughout the year, with a constant need for credit controllers, purchase ledger clerks and early stage AAT studiers to come in at the bottom and work their way up. However, vacancies have still mainly arisen due to staff moving on or retiring, as opposed to the need to recruit because of business growth and expansion.

We have noticed a slight rise in salaries at the transactional level due to an increased confidence in the economy and an increase in the amount of multiple offers candidates are getting. Therefore, businesses are having to pay slightly more to ensure they get the candidates’ commitment.

Over the last 10 years, corporates have moved their requirements to shared service centres. Due to this scenario, SMEs and corporates have teneded to have similar number of roles (as a % ratio) due to the increasing reliance on offshore moves and the benefits they offer.

Transactional recruitment market insight

16


Transactional recruitment salary survey

Part Qualified SME SME Corporates Corporates Salary 2015-2016 £’000 £’000 £’000 £’000

Assistant Management Accountant 24-27 25-28 26-30 27-30 (Early stage studier)

(Assistant) Management Accountant/ 28-32 28-33 30-35 30-35 Finance Analyst (Part Qualified)

Management Accountant/ 33-37 33-38 35-40 35-42 Finance Analyst (Finalist)

Assistant Accountant (Early stage studier) 22-24 23-25 24-26 24-26

Assistant (Financial Accountant) 25-30 26-32 27-34 28-35 Accountant (Part Qualified)

Financial Accountant (Finalist) 30-35 30-36 34-36 35-38

Accounts Assistant 20-23 20-24 21-25 22-26

Credit Controller 22-27 24-28 24-30 24-32

Credit Control 27-32 27-35 30-45 32-50

Manager 18-25 18-26 20-27 20-28

Purchase Sales Manager 26-30 26-30 28-45 28-45

Payroll 17-25 17-26 22-27 22-29

Manager 26-30 26-30 28-45 28-45

Accountant (QBE) 28-40 30-45 N/A N/A

MRK Associates Oxon & Bucks

Beds, Herts & Nth London

Oxon & Bucks

Beds, Herts & Nth London

Shortest number of days on offer to start date (2014 x 2015)

2014

32014

32014

3 2014

32015

2Contract vs Permanent mix

Contract vs Permanent mix

2014Qualified

50+ Permanent

2015Newly Qualified

40-50K - PermanentQualified

50+ PermanentNewly Qualified

40-50K - Permanent

An indication of how the Newly Qualified market overall grew 71.4% against the PQE market growing 240%

= approx 1:5

= approx 1:5

Contract Permanent

2014

2015

2014: % NQ jobs of total qualified jobs

73.7%

2015: % NQ jobs of total qualified jobs

58.5%


How many candidates registered with you in 2015 over

2014?

77%increase

Average number of days between job being worked on

to offer being made (2015 x 2014)

Overall

20 days 40 days

2014 – 34.3 days

2015 – 27.29 days

Non-Qualified

20 days 40 days

2014 – 27.5 days

2015 – 24.2 days

Qualified

20 days 40 days

2014 – 35.3 days

2015 – 30.2 days

2014 INTERVIEWS

2015 INTERVIEWS

135%increase in interviews

18


The demand for high calibre, interim and temporary candidates grew from strength to strength throughout 2015 and 2016 and did not see a “let up” in the run up to Christmas.

As the market sees significant shortages of skilled permanent candidates we find clients are relying more and more on interim candidates to fill the stop gap whilst they recruit the “perfect” employee.

Also, companies’ improved confidence has resulted in more projects being undertaken which in turn means people are seconded internally and the routine finance jobs are needed to be covered with talented temps/interims.

This in turn has had a significant knock on affect with shortages of good calibre, skilled, interim candidates and as a result of this clients are having to pay higher day rates as the cost of recruitment rises.

As 2016 has developed this trend is continuing as we see unemployment down to 5.1%, the lowest it’s been since early 2008. By definition, this means there is not a plentiful supply of good calibre individuals sitting at home with nothing to do. Temps/ interims are being ‘recycled’ meaning as soon as they finish an assignment they are lined up for their next one.

The message to our clients is that you will need to move more quickly through the recruitment process and if the right candidate comes along close the deal as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Temp 2014 fill rate was 40%Temp 2015 fill rate was 48%

Temporary salary survey

“As the market sees significant shortages of skilled permanent

candidates we find clients are relying more and more on interim candidates

to fill the stop gap whilst they recruit the ‘perfect’ employee.”


575-599 Maxted Rd, Hemel Hempstead HP2 7DX

MRK Associates is a recruitment and career advisory company specialising in three distinct areas of professional employment – finance/accountancy jobs, office support/administration jobs and revenue management/yield jobs. Our main geographical focus is in the Northern Home Counties area (Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and Bedfordshire) where we provide a personal, knowledgeable and professional service within these markets.

In a recent client satisfaction survey, 92% of respondents would recommend MRK Associates to friends, colleagues and peers.

When 83% of respondents inform us that the quality of the candidates we supply are outstanding/excellent, you know you can rely on MRK Associates.

When 83% of responses state that our focused programme of recruitment services met the needs of our clients, we are delighted with their faith.

Keep up to date with our latest news on our industry-shaping blog: http://www.mrkassociates.co.uk/news/

About MRK Associates

finance and accountancy salary review and market index 2016...transactional recruitment salary...

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