Financial and Consulting Services

Financial services organisations – be they retail banks, lenders, insurance providers or otherwise – have moved out of the downturn having witnessed massive changes to the very fabric of the market. Regulatory changes abound; bailouts are common; there is far greater conservatism in every region throughout the world, and some of the globe’s most recognisable brands have merged – or disappeared.

Over the last three decades, the consulting services industry has become a critical component of every established economy, and encompasses a broad spread of disciplines from accountancy to law to outsourced recruitment. One of the harder-hit sectors during the 2008 / 2009 downturn, the consulting services sector is undergoing regrowth, but is evolving without the volatility of the investment banking sector. In every country throughout the world, the expertise and experience held by consulting services organisations helps to ensure compliance, profitability and ultimately, organisational success.

Vanessa Byrnes, Client Services Director for Financial and Consulting Services at AMS, talks about the challenges of recruiting in this sector.

Challenges

Throughout the world, both the Financial Services and Consulting Services markets face distinct and unique recruitment challenges.

Within the consulting industry, it’s difficult to provide an effective form of differentiation between product offerings given that the services provided are so similar. This drives organisations to place differentiation points elsewhere – namely, the people that deliver the services. Simply put, the unique selling proposition for consulting services organisations is the quality of their people.

The best talent is highly prized and in short supply, which drives massive competition between the key players in the market. Shortages are compounded by the ongoing poaching of candidates by the investment banking and financial services sector which view the consulting services industry as a talent incubator.

Financial Services organisations face a different challenge altogether – managing high volumes and high turnovers of entry-level professional staff across wide geographies and in hard-to-resource places. They, too, suffer from the insatiable appetite for top talent at the top levels, and must compete with investment banks and consulting organisations for the best staff.

Mix in the massive appetite for top graduates, highly cyclical demand, high industry attrition, legislative risk and regional supply pressures, and it’s apparent just how difficult it can be to source talent in these sectors.

Credentials

In the financial services space, we offer far more diverse services on a more transactional basis, ensuring rapid scalability and flexibility to accommodate changing markets, whilst our advanced sourcing strategies ensure that we have a constant supply of candidates pipelined ahead of our clients needs.

AMS works with consulting services providers throughout the world delivering recruitment results through outsourced solutions, and supporting the wider talent and resourcing agenda through consultancy services.

Our Solutions

We’ve tailored our outsourced solutions considerably to meet the unique challenges faced by both sectors.

Financial services clients benefit most from our ability to deliver high volumes of good candidates to branch networks and back office functions, minimising cost, maximising efficiencies, and doing so in a scalable, flexible manner. Our network of regional and global client service centres affords far more flexibility and cost efficiencies than onsite solutions – yet where there is a requirement for strong engagement with the hiring community, our team work onsite with our clients. Additionally, we provide ad-hoc support through our own consultancy business, delivering employer branding and process optimisation projects, assessment centre and selection advice, and outplacement / redeployment support.

When providing outsourced solutions to our consulting services clients, we work onsite and alongside the hiring community to deliver a high-value integrated service to managers. The on site service is supported by a network of offsite support centres, which provide additional capacity, flexibility, and drive both cost and time efficiencies. This allows our recruiters to give managers the close support that they need, while minimising unnecessary costs and providing capacity to absorb changes in recruitment volume.

However, in both sectors we provide far more than just recruitment solutions to our consulting services clients. Our graduate recruitment programmes help secure fresh new talent; and our executive recruitment teams map and identify the best talent that’s available.

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