On Tuesday 14th June, we hosted CFOs, Heads of Finance and Finance Directors in Geneva for a drinks and networking event, before joining those in the Deutschschweiz region on Wednesday 15th June. 

As we enter the second half of 2022, the one thing that we can be sure of is that we are going to see continued change and challenges, which the Finance profession is used to dealing with after COVID-19.

Whether it is rising inflation (3.4% in Switzerland in June, but still well below the Eurozone rate of 8.6%), supply chain challenges, rising fuel costs or other impacts from the ongoing situation in Ukraine, the ability to quickly adapt to market conditions and deliver real time financial information and accurate forecasts will be of paramount importance.

The Finance recruitment market remained resilient in Q2, with high volumes of vacancies available and, after many discussions about the need for data visualisation skills, we are finally seeing increased requests for skills in Power BI, Tableau or other similar products.

What are clients and candidates saying?

One of the main topics of conversation at these networking events was how quickly Finance recruitment has changed, moving from vacancy-led during COVID to candidate-led in the current climate, and how attracting the desired candidates is proving increasingly difficult.

From our discussions with candidates, an increasing number who are currently in permanent jobs have confirmed that they prefer to secure their career moves through a recruitment partner. Reasons include:

• A more informative process, with a better likelihood of the right fit in terms of role, company culture and career development
• Greater clarity about salaries, ensuring roles are within the desired range - the lack of salary information on direct advertisements is the biggest source of frustration amongst candidates
• Structured job searching is time-consuming alongside a current role - these individuals want to ensure their time is well spent on relevant opportunities
• Greater chance of success – “Why would I apply for a role that I can see has had 150 applications on LinkedIn?”

These are just some of the reasons why companies relying on advertising roles are unlikely to draw interest from their target audience.

If you're interested in joining us at future events in either Geneva or Zurich, please reach out to John Bower, in our Finance & Accountancy recruitment team in Switzerland: [email protected]