News Story

OPEN SEASON ON TALENT

With certain skilled and experienced staff tough to find, many employers are registering open requirements with recruitment firms and will interview a suitable candidate any time they become available, regardless of current vacancies.

“There are countless cases of businesses who’s growth plans are very ambitious since the demand for their services has never been stronger,” said Emma Charnock, regional director of Hays in Hong Kong and China. “But finding the staff to facilitate this growth is a different story altogether. While the skills shortage doesn’t exist across the whole gamut of professions or levels, there are many hotspots where demand for certain skills simply isn’t matched by supply of suitable candidates.

“In these instances, employers have open requirements and will hire a new staff member that matches their specific requirements even if they are not actively recruiting at the time. This enables employers to secure the right staff they need for future growth, and it also allows candidates to access opportunities with the employers that are most suited to their own unique skills and experience.”

This trend is focused at present on candidates in the areas of most demand, such as those listed below from the latest Hays Quarterly Forecast. “If candidate availability drops in other areas, the reality is that this trend could spread and employers could register open requirements across the full range of skills they employ,” she said.

Hotspots:

  • Hays Accountancy & Finance: Demand for qualified candidates remains strong within multinational, listed and larger Hong Kong companies. The continued increase in reporting requirements locally and internationally means candidates with internal control (especially SOX) and strong systems implementation experience are increasingly sought after while mandarin language skills are now also in very high demand.
  • A number of large corporations, especially in the manufacturing and property sectors, have relocated part of their finance function to the PRC, creating new roles for finance managers/controllers. Candidates at all levels willing to travel to the PRC and regionally are particularly attractive.
  • The demand for IFRS/US GAAP experienced financial reporting and management reporting candidates remains high. In addition internal audit, compliance candidates and actuarial candidates with excellent communication skills are required.
  • Expansions and the need for accounting and audit services, particularly within China, have created hotspots within the professional practice market. The big 4 in particular have ambitious expansion plans for Hong Kong and China and this has created a hotspot for both supervisors and managers to oversee the increased number of new graduate appointments. Also required are audit professionals at the senior and management level and tax candidates with China and Hong Kong tax knowledge at the senior and management level.
  • Rapid growth in the banking industry in areas such as internal audit, risk management, compliance and regulatory reporting and expansion across the region have created hotspots for IFRS, US GAAP, SOX and Basel II specialists. Product control is also a hotspot, particularly in equity derivatives.

  • Hays Banking: Key hotspots of demand over the coming quarter will exist within corporate finance, credit, compliance and operations. With a booming economy and a large amount of money flowing into Hong Kong and the mainland, and given the relatively low cost of borrowing, increased structuring of some major finance deals with a mainland focus has heated demand, particularly for corporate finance M&A. Leverage and project finance deals have been more numerous recently with no sign of slowing down while credit approval for these large borrowings is necessary so there is an array of vacancies in credit to cope with the deal flow. Compliance candidates are also required from junior analysts up to department heads to keep the lending and investment in line with bank policy while operations candidates, from junior support to head of operations, are an obvious requirement to support all this activity.

  • Hays Construction & Property: With an enormous amount of construction work underway locally in addition to work in Macau and China, demand for experienced candidates is very high. In particular demand are architects, engineers, construction managers, commercial brokers and project managers with exposure to large-scale mixed-use projects. Investment and fund analysts and asset managers with strong exposure to the Chinese market are also required. In addition, high investment from foreign and local investors into China is increasing the need for investment managers, fund analysts and asset managers with mandarin speaking skills and Chinese exposure to manage investments effectively. Given proposed new projects for the coming year, such as new MTR projects, demand for resources will only increase.

  • Hays Information Technology: In particular demand are derivatives front office developers with three or more years experience, unix systems administrators with four or more years i-banking experience, project managers with five or more years SAP FI/CO experience and business analysts with three or more years derivatives experience. Technologies in demand include SAP FI/CO, Fidessa, Murex, C++, VB and Java.

  • Hays Legal: Continual demand exists within private practice for transactional lawyers in corporate, finance and US securities. A recent hotspot exists for banking lawyers. Top tier law firms still struggle for first-rate academics, language and technical expertise, while international law firms are increasingly looking at PRC lawyers with overseas education skills. Meanwhile the demand for intellectual property specialists is very buyout and there is continued growth in foreign direct investment.
  • In-house demand exists for derivative lawyers (credit equity and fixed income) at all levels of PQE. Despite talks for recruitment freezes, vacancy activity has not yet reduced.

    Full details of hotspots and market activity are available in the Hays Quarterly Forecast at www.hays.com.hk/forecast

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