As we transition from one Financial Year to the next, I just wanted to provide a few insights on how the market is moving from a recruitment perspective...

The market is still extremely busy and hiring within Projects has been relentless, predominantly within the contract space. The amount of opportunities is severely outweighing the pool of talent out there, so we need to be more creative in our approach when looking to partner in bringing on board new resources. 

Advice for Hiring Business Analysts

​Our advice to clients is that you need to adapt to this shift and be less prescriptive when hiring, perhaps forsaking some specific skillsets and factoring in the candidate's overall attitude, motivation and ability to learn and adapt. For longer-term roles, this mindset shift can help to alleviate challenges being faced in the candidate short market and is highly recommended. For shorter term resource solutions, I am seeing many organisations make a conscious effort to nurture internal talent that can organically transition into the role of business analyst. 

Given how narrow the pool of candidates is across all specialisms, inevitably the competition increases, meaning that good talent is highly sought after from multiple angles and strong candidates will have multiple opportunities in flight at any one time. Therefore, the need to act decisively has never been more paramount. Our role as recruiters is to provide as much clarity and detail in preparation for candidates when interviewing, but clients also need to ensure that they are selling the overall opportunity and making it enticing.

Business Analyst Salary and Day Rate

Both contract day rates and salaries are consistently climbing in line with these market trends, with many organisations in fact blurring the market by offering exorbitant financial packages, which is causing inflated rates across the board. This is often ruling other organisations out from being competitive and being able to attract the best possible talent. 

Business Analysts in Financial Services

Within the Projects space, we are seeing a consistent stream of regulatory and remediation driven work, as well as significant numbers of divestments, mergers and de-mergers, with several financial services organisations selling off parts of their businesses and refining their product offerings. There has been a steady flow of work across these key areas, and we only see this continuing as we move into the new Financial Year. 

Our advice to clients is simple…try and be as competitive as you can, but when you can no longer do so, then you need to pivot and adapt to the market we are all immersed in. Either broaden your horizons by being less specific in your search, nurture pre-existing talent from elsewhere within the business, or hire longer term solutions who have the right attitude and mindset to be successful, regardless of their relative inexperience. 

Advice for hiring summary: 

• be less prescriptive when hiring, perhaps forsaking some specific skillsets
• Consider elements like cultural fit and the opportunity to build on current skills and behaviours for longer term hires
• Assess the feasibility of internal mobility and organic internal transitions for shorter term hires
• Act decisively and provide candidates with adequate preparation because they will have other offers
• Assess the current market salary rate and ensure your offering is aligned

​Reach out to Adam Higgins if you're looking for more information on securing a new role or if you are hiring business analysts.