Scottish market insight
The latest industry survey for Scottish Financial Enterprise (SFE) and Capgemini shows a decline in business confidence at the end of 2007, and mixed forecasts for 2008.
But the Scottish market place seems to be avoiding much of the job losses and problems that are hitting The City in the wake of the sub-prime crisis.
According to the survey the good news for the financial services market place is that of the 15 large Scottish financial services firms that responded, 67% intend to bolster headcount this year.
“The demand for contractors has remained steady and we have actually witnessed an increase in demand for permanent staff, trading well ahead of last year…”
“This certainly reflects what we have been witnessing in the market place over the last few months” said Steve Shields, manager of Badenoch &Clark in Scotland. “The demand for contractors has remained steady and we have actually witnessed an increase in demand for permanent staff, trading well ahead of last year. Our major financial clients are looking hard at headcount and contractor usage but as many of the roles we are working on are linked to long term infrastructure projects these do not seem unduly affected by the problems in the global market place.”
Indeed many financial organisations are predicting increases in headcount with 53.4% of respondents to the survey expecting to raise staff numbers by 5-10%, and 13% intending to boost numbers by 25%.
Interestingly, staff turnover has not been highlighted as the main staffing issue facing financial organisations in Scotland. Instead it is a lack of senior talent in the Scottish finance market that is seen as the biggest issue with 47% of survey respondents citing it as the major challenge to there business plans.
The Scottish financial services sector remains focused on local talent. Some 87% of respondents said 61-100% of their employees were Scottish or sourced in Scotland. And of those with a non-Scottish skills base, a massive 80% said just 0-10% were sourced from outside the UK.
“Scotland’s financial services community should be a net beneficiary of cost-cutting and firing in The City. This is a time of real opportunity for the industry here. Other than welcoming some fresh faces to Scotland, it’s also a great time to try and lure back some of our native talent. The Scottish Government is putting a high level of emphasis on spotlighting the potential of the Scottish finance and banking industry and Badenoch & Clark, with its operations in both London and Edinburgh, is in a very strong position to support this initiative.
For further information and to download the full report please visit the Scottish Financial Enterprise website at www.sfe.org.uk.
We welcome your comments on this article.
Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately.