eFinancialCareers

Scottish financial firms are still looking to increase headcount this year, but seasoned professionals remain thin on the ground.

An eFinancialCareers survey in conjunction with Scottish Financial Enterprise polled companies working in asset management, accounting, fund administration and insurance in Scotland.

The good news for financial services employees is that of 15 large Scottish financial services firms that responded, 67% intend to bolster headcount this year. The bad news is that 20% intend to decrease staff numbers.

How deep will the cuts be? Deep enough to be painful, but Scottish businesses aren’t taking a scythe to their workforces – all of those questioned expected reductions of 5-10%.

Increases are likely to be equally modest, with 53.4% of respondents expecting to raise staff numbers by 5-10%, and just 13% intending to boost numbers by 25%.

Surprisingly perhaps, high turnover in the fund accounting market was not highlighted as the main staffing issue. Instead, lack of senior talent in the Scottish market grabbed the top spot, with 47% of respondents citing it as the major gripe.

Still, firms aren’t about to increase pay to prevent employees jumping ship. Just 13% said they would increase salaries to keep hold of staff, with ‘more training and development’ thought of as being the golden ticket to retention – 67% said they would combat staff turnover through these means.

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.