Redundancy - Law of the Jungle?

Redundancy as a word seems to be rearing its ugly head more and more as we come to the end of the first quarter of the new financial year. But does it hold the same fear as it did twenty years ago, or when the last depression took hold.

As a recruitment consultantancy in the UK financial services industry, we are seeing people displaced at an almost scary rate but is it just the law of the jungle? Using that terminology, in lean times, the herd sacrifice the sick or weak animals for the greater good of the rest, streamlining and making more efficient the smaller group. I believe that this is what we are seeing now in the financial markets.

We have the larger blue chip financial companies shedding the financial professionals that are just reaching retirement age anyway, 'there you go, you gave us 20 years great service, there's a golden farewell' or the ones that are just not performing as they should - 'targets not reached in quarters 3 & 4 - there's a reference, close the door on your way out!' And its not just support staff or back office administrators. Historically, the last people to go when the economy slows have usually been financial advisers or sales people, however, over the last year these have been let go just as rapidly.

You might, after reading the first two or three paragraphs be thinking that its all doom and gloom. You would however, be wrong. Although the banks, financial organisations, IFA's, etc are getting rid of people - as fast as they are getting rid of the older and non performing individuals they are looking to take on new, younger, high volume, high achieving professionals. We at XL-Recruitment are seeing a trend developing of financial services organisations screening very heavily in order to filter out the best. Now this is a good thing although you might ask why?

From a recruiters perspective it means that a lot of the agencies that have, over the last year or two grown fat on the reactive work of job sites, etc will now have to revisit skills that they didn't have to use in a buoyant market - cold calling, headhunting, additional marketing, business development - proactive skills that have to now be brought back out, dusted off and polished once more in order to find the advisers that are successful - usually not the ones looking for jobs. A lot of consultants who have only worked in a buoyant financial services market won't even have these skills. This is why we are now seeing, as in the financial advisory arena, recruitment consultancies in the financial sector shedding staff just as quickly.

From a financial professionals perspective it means less competition and a clear run at a reduced amount of business, which should mean target achievement and therefore bonus. For the smart financial adviser who's performing consistently, now is the time to be pushing your case for a sales management role or senior advisory position, you're the ones still there, you're the ones performing, you're the ones worth £millions to the organisation you work for.

So, redundancy, is it a dirty word? Not if you're doing your job to the best of your ability it isn't!

Old hand, New Rules?

In my role as a financial services recruitment consultant I recently held a conversation with a highly skilled and fully qualified financial adviser who had been working abroad for a number of years in a non UK regulated, financial services market. Now, as a financial adviser he was clearly very skilled and had the relevant FPC qualifications from this country but he was experiencing difficulty getting back into the financial services industry as he didn't hold CAS status.

Certainly as a financial services recruiter I am seeing this more and more. As the economy contracts in other countries, financial advisers who left the UK to go and work in lucrative markets abroad are now looking to make a return to what they know - or so they thought.

With the onset of the Retail Distribution review and the surge in TCF the financial advisory landscape is perhaps even more rugged now for these people than it was a few years ago.

With the UK economy still in turmoil, financial services employers have difficulty justifying the expenditure of taking someone on who isn't going to hit the ground running so if they have to be signed off as competent, with the hours of observed meetings, compliance, etc that it takes, is it any surprise that many are reticent to do it.

There must be a better way of bringing people who are well qualified, highly professional and in most cases, very good at their job, back into a financial services industry that at the moment could do with all the fresh blood it can get.

For a financial adviser coming back to the UK from other markets abroad there are basically two options - 1) You go directly authorised under the protective umbrella of a network. In a lot of cases you won't get client support, you're self employed with no guaranteed income and of course there's no guarantee that your business will be successful, which will leave an unpleasant paragraph on your CV or - 2) You go back in on the ground floor as a trainee with a large organisation - many of which won't sign you off as CAS until they've had their moneys worth, as a trainee your salary won't be anything to write home about and for a financial adviser who has been relatively successful it can be demeaning to have to take not one but a few backwards steps!

I think there's a vastly underused commodity out there for the financial services industry and there must be a way they can be fast tracked back into a role that most are very good at and are clearly qualified for. Answers on a postcard!