Professional Services
Hiring for advisory talent in both VAT and Customs/Global Trade is firmly pitched at ‘early’ Senior Manager, Manager and Assistant Manager levels, with the vibe around more senior hiring being more ‘if the right person arose’ – which, on occasion, is of course happening. Most VAT departments across the Big 4, mid-tier and small firms reported in with exceptional results and profitability over the last few years – a welcome tonic when good news elsewhere was hard to find. Departments are keen to grow, and in some cases, feeling thinly spread at these ‘delivery’ grades, and the fight to both retain and attract talent is intense at these middle levels. When any candidate contemplating switching professional services firms will have the choice of approximately 15 firms of different shapes, sizes and cultures to consider applying to (in London at least) and a good number of in-house options too, the impact on recruitment/retention is feeling pretty seismic.
Examples of retention efforts include firms promoting staff earlier than normal (in some cases, dare we say, ‘over’ promoting?), pay being moved upwards within existing salary bands (more staff being paid at the top of bandings rather than low to middle); secondments in-house; international assignments; sector specialisation switches for staff who want it. In short, listening to what their staff want, and delivering on articulated aspirations. Without taking away from the value of professional qualifications (we’re a big fan round here in these for the long term health of the Indirect Tax world as a technical discipline), individual success (or indeed interest) in passing exams is no longer a criteria for promotion or development prospects. Culture and staff welfare is being closely scrutinized – it’s a brave firm these days that doesn’t offer increasingly flexible working arrangements, with three, sometimes two, days in the office being the norm. Firms who get any part of their retention strategy wrong, do so at their peril….one slip-up is likely to result in a departing valued employee.
From a recruitment perspective, the above retention activities don’t help candidate flow, and candidates are becoming increasingly loyal and hard to source. Particularly when there is a perception that many of those who felt comfortable about switching employers in the last few years have now already done so, and it will take a while for a new batch to start proactively considering their career options. To be successful at hiring in the current job market frenzy, you’ll need to articulate like never before the warmth of the welcome and your working environment that any candidate will get if they join you. You’ll need to flex your selection criteria to match any supply and offer clearly articulated career paths both in the short, medium and long term. Above all, you’ll need to offer decent, appropriate uplifts on current salary packages (in preparation for any counter offer) – but only as much as the candidate’s experience is worth to you. We’ve seen a handful of examples of inappropriately high offers coming through (largely from the corporate in-house world) – a dangerous game to play, not least when the candidate struggles to prove that value to the company on joining. What goes up, may come down…..and when and if the current recruitment bubble bursts, you do wonder how secure such employees will be?
In order to get junior roles filled, some of the larger firms have started to hire those with VAT compliance backgrounds into advisory roles; similarly some large firms have transferred talent from non-European Indirect Tax backgrounds from their overseas offices into their UK teams. The historic constraints of requiring European Indirect Tax career histories for UK roles are being increasingly loosened in such a competitive market, although it remains rare to see firms appoint such individuals externally.
The growth of the Customs & Global Trade advisory discipline remains firmly on the agenda – the real need is for Customs & Global Trade advisory consultants at the middle grades once again – supply never meets demand in what remains a very small population. Considerable efforts are being made to grow teams from the bottom up – graduates entering the discipline; hiring Customs compliance people from industry into the professional services world if they have the right personal and professional attributes to make the transition – but it’s a long road.
