Eliot Bates: With the UK effectively in recession, this generally means a slowdown in the recruitment market. However, for treasury this shouldn’t be the case. This is down to the increased importance of a good treasury function in times of crises, such as we are in now with increased inflation and interest rates.
As a result, CFOs will look to their treasurers to guide them through tricky periods, which I believe we will see throughout 2023 and because of this, I don’t believe recruitment will slow down considerably for the treasury market. And yes, it will still very much be a candidate-driven market.
EB: As mentioned, if we are going into a recession, this means the spotlight shines on treasury. The hot areas for the moment are group treasurers who can raise debt and complete debt refinancing to ensure companies are in a safe place with the uncertainty of the economic landscape we are going into. As well as this, group treasurers who have a good level of gravitas are also being looked at very favourably. This is down to their growing importance – CFOs will be looking at this to ensure they can speak with the board, shareholders and also the banks.
During periods of economic uncertainty, the focus shifts to cash and liquidity with many companies having a closer eye on forecasting and working capital. An analytical skill set remains in high demand and modelling skills will be a priority as finance functions look to take a strategic view to navigate the coming months and years.
EB: We have just published our salary survey for 2022, which shows salaries increased largely at the junior end of the market and more incrementally at the senior end. The country is also going through a time of high inflation with levels at or around 10%, and what I am hearing from the market and where I expect companies to land is increasing their employees’ salaries by roughly 5%.
However, there are also concerns that increasing salaries too steeply can have an inflationary effect and many organisations won’t be in a position to keep pace with the current rate of inflation for an extended period of time.
Over the last year, companies have had to pay a premium to attract the best talent – this has resulted in candidates getting up to 20% uplifts on their salaries when they move between roles. This creates pressures on current staff to push for higher internal salaries or to look elsewhere to ensure they don’t get left behind.
Read more about the salary survey.
Eliot Bates was speaking to Philip Smith, editor of The Treasurer