eFinancialCareers

Unhappy? Disgruntled? Thinking of leaving? Now may the time to tell your employer – research suggests Scots finance companies are doing all they can to persuade people to stay.

The survey, by recruitment agency Manpower, suggests talent shortages are encouraging Scots banks, fund managers, and insurance groups to try keeping their employees happy.

UK-wide financial services headcount is expected to rise by 4% in 2007, and Manpower says this has pushed staff retention to the top of HR managers’ worry-list. More than two-thirds of HR’s said it would be their major focus this year.

Their main aim looks likely to be attempting to convince employees that they have a long term future with their existing employers. Manpower’s research found the lack of a clear career path was the number one reason for employees jumping ship – almost a third of people who switched jobs last year gave this as their reason for leaping.

David Bond of Edinburgh recruitment firm Cairns Bond says that employers are increasingly looking to offer employees more clearly defined career options, although Scotland ’s fund administration sector has yet to opt for fast-track promotions – you’ll have to go to Ireland for that.

He tells us: “People are spending a great deal of time looking at how people are likely to progress. However I have only very occasionally seen employers offering faster promotion I think that was just a factor of scarce resources in Ireland because the (fund) market grew so fast.”