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Author: SRM Recruitment

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How to get the finance and accounting job you want, and navigate a tough market

If your finance and accounting job search is going slower than you’d like, follow Jim Smith’s top career advice tips to get the job you want.

Don’t get frustrated

Hiring managers and recruiters are receiving unprecedented levels of applications. Inevitably, many finance professionals and accountants are getting frustrated at the lack of contact through the job hunting process. Be prepared for bumps in the road – the process may suddenly go quiet, hiring managers can do u-turns. That’s not your fault.

Firstly, let go of the frustration and focus on your unique strengths. Take the positives out of any process that has not quite happened. If you were shortlisted for this interview, it means you have skills that are wanted by hiring managers. You’ll get the next one!

Don’t apply for everything

More than ever, hiring managers are looking for candidates with industry-specific skill sets. For example, if the role is in retail and you don’t have outstanding Hyperion skills, you’re probably wasting your time applying for that role. It may sound counterintuitive but narrowing your focus will help you land the job you want.

Also, don’t feel the need to apply for ‘junior’ roles beneath your experience level. Even though you have all the skills needed, think of the hiring manager and their level. They’re probably more junior than you and may therefore potentially feel threatened by your senior experience – so the role won’t be the right match for either of you.

Don’t be afraid to network to get the finance and accounting job you want

If you’ve been made redundant or are simply burnt out, don’t let misplaced embarrassment hold you back. Reach out to people you’ve worked with in the past, your friends/family network, as well as good recruiters. Tell them briefly what you’re looking for and clearly ask for introductions/recommendations and most importantly – follow up.

Qualify the recruiters you decide to work with

Ask questions to ascertain if the recruiter understands what you do and how well they know the finance and accounting job market. Then engage with recruiters who will give you the most credibility with hiring managers – go with your gut. A good recruiter should take the time to listen to what you want and give you honest advice on the market and what they’re seeing.

I’d also recommend asking how many other recruitment consultancies are working on roles you’re interested in and find out how many other people are going for an interview. If the recruiter is the ‘sole agent’ you’ll stand a much better chance. Ask what the likely turnaround time is too so you can better manage your expectations. In essence, I would recommend qualifying your recruiter, you’ll soon know who has your best interests at heart. Keep in touch with these recruiters.

Beware of unscrupulous agents

Recruitment agents will often pick up leads from talking to candidates. If it’s not someone you speak to regularly, be careful about sharing who you are interviewing with. There are some recruiters who will simply send their current candidates for the role you’re interviewing for, lessening your chance of success.

Ask a good recruiter to proactively market you to their client base

It’s still the case that many jobs are not advertised. A lot of opportunities arise from putting the right CV in front of a hiring manager based on personal knowledge of the client and job seeker.

This bespoke approach is something SRM specialises in and I’ve recently been proactively partnering with strong candidates from across industries, targeting specific organisations. This is very well received and my aim is to create opportunities and build long term relationships.

Seek advice from a recruiter who cares about people

We can’t place everyone we speak to but we can give you real advice on how to enhance your Linkedin profile, how to set up job searches on Indeed.com or improve your CV. If we can’t help you, we’ll most likely be able to put you in touch with someone who can. Importantly, if we say we’ll call you back we will.

If you need help to get the finance and accounting job you want in the northern home counties or career planning and advice, do give me a call on + 44 (0) 7375 409 089, connect with me on Linkedin or email me at jimsmith@srmrecruitment-com.stackstaging.com

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Richard Boyd joins the SRM finance team

Richard Boyd

This week we’re delighted to welcome Richard Boyd to the SRM finance team. We talk to Richard about getting back to real recruitment, the roles he can help you with and his top piece of advice for hiring managers.

Richard Boyd

Tell us about your career and what prompted your move

“I worked at two of the world’s largest recruitment consultancies for 16 years, progressing to a Director-level role. Just before joining SRM, I led a team of fifteen focused on qualified finance recruitment. My remit grew to include executive search and specialist finance roles such as tax and treasury. 

Getting back to real recruitment

Whilst I loved the role and had a great team, inevitably, mentoring and leading others became my focus. Over time I missed actual recruitment and spending time with clients! I like being out there with both clients and candidates and didn’t want to be as internally focused anymore. 

I genuinely believe there is massive scope here at SRM to grow the size of our team and our footprint on the London finance market, so the scale of the opportunity and growth potential was key to the move. 

An experienced team of recruiters

Joining an experienced team at SRM was key, especially working with a close-knit group of people who I knew viewed recruitment similarly to me – from a values, respect and way of working point of view. 

I knew Stewart Robertson from school and he actually introduced me to my first role in recruitment. I worked for Andrew Setchell in Southampton and then London and  worked with Rory MacSween during my time in tax recruitment – during some pretty tough times after the financial crisis! 

The benefits of a boutique recruitment firm

Working with a trusted advisor is even more important right now. What I’m seeing in the market is that people want to make a real connection and build a lasting, personal relationship. That’s something that a boutique firm excels at. I’m excited to be at SRM where we’re really focused on delivering a bespoke service based on your needs.

Tell us about the roles you’ll be working on

I’m primarily focused on permanent qualified finance roles in London and growing this business to better support our clients. I’ll also be focused on helping our clients with FD, CFO and Search level positions.

What do hiring managers and job seekers like about working with you?

I’d like to think I’m pretty straightforward. I’m definitely candid and my network appreciates that. I work hard for my clients and candidates and am passionate about finding people the right role.

Tell us about yourself?

I’m married and have a lovely five-year-old daughter so that keeps me pretty busy. Sporting wise; my main passion is road cycling, both watching and doing. I’m also a rugby and football fan. Hailing from the Westcountry I’m a big Plymouth Argyle fan (for my sins)! I’ve always had a really keen interest in American politics too. 

What’s your top piece of advice for hiring managers right now? 

Essentially: 1. be realistic 2. have a plan and 3. take advice

1. Focus on the key skills that will have the biggest impact on business objectives and you’ll find the right person more quickly. In a client-led market, we often think we’ll find the perfect person who can do everything perfectly but knowing exactly what you need and identifying core skills is a much more effective hiring strategy.

2. Have a clear plan for remote interviews and onboarding, work out your process and what you’re comfortable with. An efficient process is still really important to hire the best people.

3. Talk to your network or a trusted recruitment partner if you’re not sure whether your requirements are realistic or what sort of person will achieve the business transformation you’re looking for.”

Get in touch if you’re looking to hire finance roles or for help with your next career move

If you need help to source your next tax leader or want an honest conversation about your career, get in touch with Richard Boyd today on + 44 7376 497285 or connect with him on Linkedin. 

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How to avoid surprise resignations

Recognising the early signs of employee dissatisfaction is becoming increasingly difficult in a remote work setting. As teams lose the human connection, the biggest danger for managers is resignations coming ‘out of the blue.’     

Experienced recruiter and co-founder of SRM, Rory MacSween, talks us through his top six tips to reduce the risk of surprise resignations.

Don’t assume people aren’t moving 

It’s tempting to believe that people aren’t moving jobs due to the pandemic but that simply isn’t the case. In most recruitment markets, the best candidates are still very focused on career development and are open to moving. 

Conduct health checks with each team member – regularly 

It’s much easier to pick up early warning signs of dissatisfaction in the office and to have candid conversations face to face. But you can pick up the signs remotely and so avoid surprise resignations if you make time, listen and ask smart questions. 

Dig deeper for honest feedback to avoid surprise resignations

Ask for honest feedback and be prepared to listen. Questions like: “how do you think we’re managing as a company” can open up the dialogue for a more meaningful conversation. In the UK, bear in mind we don’t often complain and we favour politeness over openness so don’t be afraid to ask real questions about people’s true intentions.  

Scheduling time for informal ‘coffee break’ video conversations with individual team members can also work effectively to break down the distance. 

Plan headcount in advance

There’s no point in investing and growing the team if you are replacing half of your existing team in the next three months. If you haven’t already, plan your 2021 headcount following honest conversations or risk the knock-on impact of multiple resignations.


“At one client, 50% of the tax team tendered their resignation within three months. I’ve lost count of the recent conversations where hiring managers had no inkling the resignation was coming.”  

Rory MacSween, Director, SRM Recruitment

Ask a specialist recruiter about market conditions 

If you’re unsure about the demand for certain skillsets within your team, or how difficult it might be to replace specialist talent, talk to a recruiter who knows the market well. Be prepared and aware of how long you may have to wait to fill roles – don’t assume it’s a buyer’s market.

If you were in my shoes what would you do differently? 

Despite your best intentions, you receive a surprise resignation. Now’s the time to act to prevent this impacting the rest of the team. Diarise some time to talk through the reasons behind the resignation and ask what you could have done differently as a manager. Be prepared to act on the feedback and talk to the rest of the team quickly to allay any fears that they’ll be left with an onerous workload.

Get in touch if you’re looking to hire

If you’ve received a surprise resignation and are looking to hire the very best talent in tax, finance or accounting get in touch with me, Rory MacSween today on +44 (0) 20 3637 7808 or connect with me on Linkedin. Alternatively, if you’re planning your headcount or want impartial advice on the current market, please do get in touch with me.

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How contract hires can save your finance team’s sanity

overworked-and-stressed-woman-at-computer

Most finance functions have been operating with lean or reduced headcount since the 2008 financial crisis. At the start of the covid-19 pandemic, the majority of Finance Directors were still operating lean functions or were even one or two heads down. 

Factor in the extra pressures due to the pandemic and it’s no surprise that demand for specialist finance contractors has remained consistent. 

Rob McKay, director of interim recruitment at SRM takes a look at why organisations are using contractors to bolster lean teams and how to ensure you hire the best finance contract professionals:  

Recognise the extra workload finance teams are facing

Finance holds the keys to the business and in a crisis, everyone needs to know where the cash is sitting. When we factor in extra demands for advice on government financial assistance to concerns about business stability and fluctuating demand, organisations have never required so much support from their accountants and finance specialists.

Understand the extra stress finance teams are facing 

On top of an increased workload, Adele Stickland, wellness in the workplace and resilience consultant says that morale in 2020 is low, for two key reasons:

◻️ People are tired of the pandemic and eager to get back to normal

◻️ Chaos of the pandemic has created an abnormal level of fatigue

As a result, many finance professionals are facing burn out. Action is needed to prevent resignations that may further destabilise the team. 

Work out where the pressure is internally

Next, understand exactly where the pressure is, why it’s there and what do you need to do to relieve it.

What’s the real reason you’re hiring?

Once you’ve figured out where the problems lie, it’s imperative to discuss the key reason you are hiring. What’s the one core job that needs to be done? This usually revolves around fixing a problem. The clearer you can be the more successful the hire. 

Use temps wisely to take the stress away from your permanent team 

Right now, organisations are hiring temporary finance staff to take on traditional accounting roles rather than forward-thinking commercial positions – management accountants, financial accountants and financial controllers are in particular demand.

This is a good strategy. It gives incumbent teams more interesting, future-focused work and at the same time alleviates stress as a good temp is a safe pair of hands to cover core accounting work.

Consider the cost of leaving finance teams to struggle as the pandemic evolves. Ensure workloads are still achievable and clear goals are in place to support the most important work. If they’re not, hire quickly or risk losing good people.

Rob McKay, Director of Interim Recruitment at SRM

It’s a myth that the economic outlook is dampening demand for finance professionals

Hospitality and retail are struggling and it goes without saying that these are testing times. However, most business closures and large scale redundancies are due to systemic business problems pre covid. 

Whilst there are more available candidates – we have heard of some organisations receiving hundreds of applications – it’s a myth that there are lots of people with the right skills for your temp role.

A specialist finance temp recruiter will know the talent pool of career temps well, the skill sets available and will have the ability to send you five good people to consider – saving you and the team time.

Interview within 24 hours of receiving your shortlist

In any market, good people and good finance temps are hard to come by – there’s a high turnover and you can’t assume there will be 15 strong people waiting for your role. 

So if you need a temp move quickly. An efficient interview process is critical. Aim to get all the interviews done in one session, there’s nothing more frustrating than losing out to a competitor with a more effective hiring process. If you wait, your shortlisted candidates won’t be around in a week’s time. 

Extending the contract – don’t lose out

As soon as you realise you may need to extend the contract talk to your temp. If you don’t discuss where the project is moving or leave it until a week before the contract ends, the temp will already be interviewing or have another role in place. Be open and honest on timeframes. In return, your temp will be honest about interviewing for roles.

Get in touch if you’re looking to hire contractors

  • Rob McKay, Business Director at SRM Recruitment
    Rob McKay, Business Director,
    Interim Recruitment

If you need help to source the best career contractors in finance and accountancy get in touch with me, Rob McKay, director of interim recruitment today on +44 (0) 20 3637 7808 or connect with me on Linkedin.

Why organisations hire finance temps – the summary

◽️ Take the pressure off permanent employees 
◽️ Finance temps can hit the ground running and focus on a task or project
◽️ To access specialist skills needed to complete a project quickly
◽️ Fix a problem 
◽️ Cover traditional accounting work so the team can focus on more engaging work
◽️ When permanent headcount restrictions are in place
◽️ Maternity cover 
◽️ Long term sickness cover

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Seven ways to tackle unconscious bias in finance and tax recruitment

Unconscious bias is the biggest barrier to diversity in the workplace. Has the increased use of remote working tools inadvertently helped businesses to tackle bias in the recruitment process or has the rise of video had the opposite effect? 

We talked to Rory MacSween, co-founder of  SRM, and diversity specialist, Emma Waltham, to answer this question and discuss the seven steps hiring managers can take to counter bias in tax and finance recruitment. 

What is unconscious bias?

We all form opinions of people based on first impressions. Those snap judgements are influenced by our background, formative experiences and those around us. It’s the hidden influences, if you like, that can often lead us to unwittingly ‘hire in our own image’.

1. Recognise that everyone has preconceptions 

The first piece of advice for hiring managers is to recognise unconscious bias as a concept. So be aware and adopt an open mindset when recruiting. As recruiters, we’re encouraged by our clients to source as much information on candidates as possible – that’s our job. The way we present that information to hiring managers is incredibly important and needs to be carefully considered to counter bias.

2. Focus on skills

A good recruiter needs to consider all the variables when matching candidates to a hiring managers mandate. Whilst focusing on culture and team fit can be important, it’s more likely to encourage unconscious bias. Consider focusing on skills and abilities before any other aspect of the candidate’s profile.

Putting in technical assessments for candidates at the first stage is gradually becoming more common – before the client even sees a CV. This allows the client to decide which candidate CV’s to review based on their technical competency – resulting in more diverse short lists.

“Certainly, one positive effect we’ve seen from the Covid lockdown is a willingness to do first-round telephone-based interviews. Removing that initial face to face meeting is helping to remove some of the unconscious bias from the decision-making process.”

Rory MacSween, Director, Tax, SRM Recruitment

3. Make the hiring process ‘blind’

– Remove names on CVs
– Remove education
– Remove location-based information that could indicate ethnic background

Names
We’ve seen examples of clients requesting names be removed from CVs. So they’re looking at candidate 1, 2 and 3 and so on. It’s one very simple thing you can do to remove unconscious decision making based on gender or ethnicity and make more skillset based interview decisions. 

Subconsciously, or not, we are less likely to hire someone with a different-sounding name. Ethnic minorities need to send 60% more CVs to get the same number of call-backs as this study from the Centre for Social Investigation at Nuffield College shows. 

Education
In the tax and accountancy worlds, education is important. Whether you went to a state school v a particular private school or whether you have a degree or are educated by experience. Many of us have strong feelings on this one and would deny this is a bias! 

It’s really not common to take institution names off CVs for example. But things are changing. If we think back, we used to routinely put our date of birth and marital status on CVs in the UK. 

It was resisted at the time but seems completely normal to us now.

We think we’ll see more moves to anonymise information on CVs.

It stands to reason that someone from a poorer background, for example, just won’t have had access to the same educational opportunities. Yet we often insist that candidates must have gone to a particular institution which then unwittingly rules out a more diverse short list. 

So, you could miss out on outstanding candidates who don’t fit the ‘norm’ but have exactly the right skills.

Focusing on transferable skills rather than CV gaps allows employers to tap into talent pools of experienced women who often have hard to source qualifications and expertise.

4. Phone interview people in the first round 

Video calls are a great way to build rapport but I think there’s a danger we may start to over-rely on this in the new world to the detriment of diversity. A lot of hiring managers are ‘seeing’ people earlier in the recruitment process than they ever would have done before. For example, some recruitment firms are now relying on ‘video based CVs’ where the candidate introduces themselves over a prerecorded video.  

Our advice is that phone interviews do help focus on skills, not appearance.

Of course, even hearing a candidate’s voice can form strong impressions.

“Change is happening. We are starting to see organisations who won’t consider a shortlist without a 50-50 gender split.”

Rory MacSween, Director, Tax, SRM Recruitment

5. Go back to your graduate / newly qualified intake 

Those working in finance and tax, especially at the senior levels, say that it’s a predominantly white, middle class and male environment. According to the UK Government’s Gender Equality Monitor, just 12% of FTSE 100 Finance Directors are women and only 15% are CFOs. The 2020 Parker Review showed that across the FTSE 350, 7.5% were directors of colour. 

As we don’t always have the most diverse talent pool to draw from, it’s important to give minority voices the best chance in the recruitment process.

Going back a step it’s also about actively sourcing broader intakes at entry-level. We need to consider the talent pools from schools feeding the accounting firms, who then feed into industry. 


“There are nearly half a million women with professional and managerial qualifications who aren’t currently working but who would like to return to work. They too often face bias when they try to return because hiring managers are wary of applicants when their work experience isn’t current or they have an employment gap. 

Focusing on transferable skills rather than the gap means hiring managers will tap into this valuable talent pool of experienced women, who often have hard-to-source qualifications and expertise.”

Emma Waltham, Careers After Maternity Expert www.emmawaltham.com/organisations

6. Work in partnership with a good recruiter 

A good recruiter should be actively consulting and shaping the hiring managers wish list, educating you on the talent pool and helping you consider alternative options. 

In the past, we have had clients with requirements as specific as “we only want a Phd from Oxford.”  We’d encourage hiring managers to widen their thinking so they do find the best possible candidates, not just the typical profile or indeed hiring in their own likeness. 

For example by looking at international talent pools.

7. Consider international talent 

As more finance and tax work is offshored or near shored and more centres of excellence grow outside the UK there is a diverse pool of candidates with UK relevant experience to draw from. 

These candidates may never have visited the UK but they understand our regimes and businesses. Considering someone who’s trained overseas can give those outstanding academic credentials and technical skills that clients are looking for. 

Of course, these days it’s a little harder to sponsor people but it’s all possible.

Get in touch if you’re looking to hire

If you’re looking to hire the very best talent in finance and accounting and across the tax market get in touch with me, Rory MacSween today on +44 (0) 20 3637 7808 or connect with me on Linkedin. We are real recruiters who actively headhunt the best talent, rather than rely on the same set of candidates from a database.

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Business Continuity During The COVID-19 Outbreak

recruiting during the covid-19 outbreak
Canary Wharf station business continuity During The COVID-19 Outbreak

With the recent shift in government policy in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, many of us are feeling shock as we adapt not only our working behaviour but our home lives in accordance with the guidelines. But as the workforce in China, so heavily impacted by coronavirus, starts to return to the office, we need to remind ourselves that life will continue. Businesses must look forward in order to survive through to the other side of this unprecedented upheaval, but how should they approach business continuity and hiring during the COVID-19 outbreak? We ask Andrew Setchell, Co-Founder of SRM Recruitment, what firms can do to keep moving forward.

How are hiring managers reacting to the latest response from the government to COVID-19?

Undoubtedly most businesses are urgently assessing their ability to do business during the outbreak, and many will be very concerned about the outlook. However, many of the clients we are speaking to are keen to keep their hiring process moving. The reason for that is they have their eye on the other end of this crisis and want to ensure they are in the best position possible to recover. If they completely pause recruitment, even for one or two months, when they come back and have to commence hiring they will have at least four or five months to wait before they can appoint new talent, given the time to recruit and the candidate serving their notice. 

What precedence is there for this kind of behaviour?

People are comparing the coronavirus impact to the global financial crisis of 2007-2008. In many respects, I can understand that. That too was a shock, but in that instance, we were eased in more slowly. This will be a sharper shock to the system, but the end is also possibly much closer in sight, and businesses should be planning for that accordingly. 

I think the fundamental difference here is that this crisis is much more of a  humanitarian one. People are concerned about their businesses and their job, of course. But even more than that, they are worried about their loved ones, their health and the lives they lead. Through all of this, it is the people who are at the heart of our businesses and their health has to come first.

Where do you expect the greatest pressure will be felt?

In light of the delayed IR35 legislation, the contract market, which is already struggling, could encounter a perfect storm. However, the vacancies are still there. The need is still there, because we will always have personnel out on maternity leave, and people still need to get their year-end accounting done. The demand for temporary staff will reduce less than that for permanent hires. 

Across all industries,  the more we can focus on what can be done, the more likely it is we can keep businesses going. If organisations can embrace technology, look after their people and focus beyond the next three months, they will be in a far better position than those who can’t. If you can picture a future where we recover back to normality and see beyond the current situation, you will see that your roles still need recruiting. 

What advice do you have for managers trying to achieve business continuity during the COVID-19 outbreak?

  1. Embrace technology. Collaboration tools such as Workplace from Facebook are helping companies to communicate,  engage with their staff and get work done. Companies embracing collaboration technology will be better able to create a virtual community than those who don’t. Video conferencing platforms like Blue Jeans are helping employees to communicate and businesses to  ‘meet’ candidates virtually so that the recruitment process doesn’t have to stall entirely.
  2. Be flexible, and patient. To adapt to the current situation, organisations must be open-minded to try a new approach, particularly around hiring, and should appreciate that it may take longer than usual. Interviews may have to be online, rather than in person, which may mean more rounds are required to ensure you have the right candidate. Make time and allow room for experimentation. By being flexible and agile, companies are far better positioned to respond to the market need. 
  3. Assess your values. At the end of this incredible challenge, companies will be judged on how they responded to it, by their employees, their job candidates and by the public alike. Look after your people and be clear about how you can help them. If you offer fantastic health cover and life insurance, emphasise that. What people value is changing and you need to keep up with that. 
  4. Most importantly, look to the future. This difficult period will pass, and you need to be ready to hit the market when it does. Don’t lose sight of the hiring needs you have and make a start on addressing those now. There are candidates willing to speak to employers that we can connect you to today. Better to start what could be a slow process now, than to wait and potentially lose great talent to your competitor. 

If you need advice on your recruiting during the COVID-19 outbreak, we can help. Get in touch, and we’ll arrange a chat to learn about your business needs.

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Moving from a large recruiter to a boutique firm

Luke Higgs large recruiter to boutique firm

Luke Higgs joined SRM Recruitment in the summer of 2019 to establish and grow our Northern Home Counties office. Before coming to SRM, Luke worked at some of the world’s largest recruitment consultancies. We want to know, what are the benefits of moving from a large recruiter to a boutique firm?

Luke Higgs large recruiter to boutique firm
Luke Higgs is Business Director of our Welwyn Garden City office

Can you tell us a little about your career path up to this point?
I went straight into a career in sales – my first job after university was at HSBC, selling mortgages, loans, etc, both in a call centre and online, which in 2005 was quite a new area. Around that time, I spoke to some friends who worked in recruitment and it seemed to me that with the commercial acumen I’d gained I might do quite well in the industry. I joined Martin Ward Anderson, which is part of Randstad, a huge global organisation, and built up my professional knowledge there.

When I met my wife, who is from Welwyn Garden City, I decided to move there, and transferred with Martin Ward Anderson. Then, Robert Walters, another leading global recruitment firm, called me to ask if I would come and work for them to set up their St Albans office. It was an incredible experience – I helped grow the team to 12 people, and in year one we made more revenue than any of their other start-up offices.

With a young family, I knew I wanted to work for a company where there would be more flexibility. I considered starting up my own consultancy. Then about a year ago, I met with Andrew Setchell, the founder of SRM Recruitment, who I knew from my early days at Robert Walters. Andrew is someone I trust and respect, and it seemed like the perfect balance – to have the freedom to grow a business but with the support of an experienced team.

What appealed to you about SRM?
When I first considered joining, the main appeal was the opportunity to work with Andrew again. He’s a very talented recruiter, and the network, processes and support he offered at SRM were a combination for success. As an experienced recruiter myself, I was drawn to the culture at SRM, where I would be given the tools I needed, but then would be trusted to do the job. Andrew trusts and values everyone who works for him, from director to consultant level. Sometimes you find that at a senior level in larger firms, but it’s rare for consultants to be given that freedom to manage yourself.

The other big draw was the commission scheme, which is market-leading in terms of what they offer financially. It’s also the work-life balance, which with a young family is really important to me.

How have your first few months been?
It’s been great, though quite an adjustment! I went from an office in St Albans managing twelve people and turning over a million pounds a year, to working on my own. It can be a bit lonely, but you get into your stride, and I recently recruited Liz Hawkins as a Principal, so there are two of us now! It’s a completely different way of working here. Robert Walters was such a big firm, you wanted to register at least five candidates a week, to ‘stock your shelves’. Here, we are much more targeted in our approach and we headhunt for each role. It’s a different pace – you’re doing less but of a higher quality. It took me until Christmas to adapt, but it’s a much better way to go about your business.

I now spend far less time on KPIs and managing other people, and I can invest that time in building relationships with my candidates and clients. It also means I have a lot more flexibility in my working day because I’m so much more productive. I used to work from 7.30am – 6.30pm at the earliest, whereas now it’s more like 8.30am – 5.30pm. That work-life balance is much appreciated as it means I can spend more time with my family.

What sort of people do well here?
This isn’t a classroom environment – we’re all experienced recruiters, so it’s not a training school. People who are motivated and proactive will do well. You’ll be given tools and support, but you’ll have mentors, rather than trainers.

With the maturity in our approach, I think there’s a lot less ego and arrogance you see in some bigger firms. Everyone here is good at their job and there are some great opportunities for all of us as SRM grows.

One of the big opportunities is for people here to really do recruitment. So often, in larger firms, the more experienced recruiters and top billers get promoted to management roles that they may not enjoy, and that takes them away from the actual business of recruitment. Here, regardless of your level, you’re going to be on the front line, recruiting, for most your day.

What advice would you give to someone looking to further their recruitment career?
Try to decide what it is that you really enjoy doing. In a larger firm, you’re likely going to need to choose whether to focus on recruiting and be comfortable staying at a Principal level. Alternatively, if you want to go into management, you’ll spend less time recruiting, but instead you’ll be passing on the knowledge you’ve gained and you’ll further your career through others.

That’s the main difference when choosing between a large recruiter or a boutique firm – at a small firm like SRM, you don’t need to sacrifice one or the other because by necessity you’ll be doing some of both.

Can you sum up how SRM is different?
SRM really headhunt for every role. A big thing for us is meeting candidates even if we’re not going to place them straight away. A lot of those people get jobs and use us to fill their teams. There’s a real emphasis on building relationships.

The culture is so unique, and it’s a great environment to work in. I’m earning money and I’m happy at work – there isn’t a compromise.

You can have a work-life balance here. You don’t have to choose between growing your career and building your family.

If you’d like to know more about working at SRM Recruitment, visit our work for us page and discover what makes us different. If you’d like to have a chat about the opportunities we can offer you, we’d love for you to get in touch.

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SRM Recruitment: A Client Review

David Kingston, Business Director, Finance at SRM Recruitment

Since working with SRM Recruitment as a candidate when we placed him in his current role three years ago, this Head of Group Reporting has partnered successfully with us on multiple roles. We asked him for his review of our service, and what keeps bringing him back to SRM Recruitment.

David Kingston SRM Recruitment review
David Kingston is our client’s primary contact at SRM Recruitment and offers a unique service that has helped forge a long-lasting partnership with them.


Why did you choose to work with SRM Recruitment?
When I was a candidate looking for a new role, SRM stood out from the other recruiters straight away. Stewart Robertson and David Kingston really treated me with respect, they were professional, straightforward and honest. I remember Stewart called me at 10pm to tell me I’d got the job. That was a good call! They’re clearly people who care. When I joined my company and started to hire, I knew I wanted to work with them. It’s fantastic in itself that they believe in their candidates, but it also benefits me as a hiring manager because I think they surprise their clients with people who may not be the obvious choice.

From your perspective as a hiring manager, how else would you review SRM Recruitment?
David and the team at SRM Recruitment work harder. With other recruiters, they’ll send you two CVs, three at a push, insisting that ‘these are the best people we know in the market, they’re perfect’, and if you don’t like them, they can be reluctant to present alternatives. With SRM, it’s totally different. They share five or six profiles, and if you feel as though an avenue hasn’t been explored, they’re very open to trying – it’s an iterative process. When you’re trying to find the perfect match for your company, that’s important.

I can also see that David’s approach to looking after his candidates hasn’t changed since he placed me three years ago. Some of the candidates I see may have been out of work for some time, yet I can see David has supported them to ensure their CV is presentable and their interview skills are sharp. He has invested time in people with potential, rather than blacklisting them.

I don’t mind if people are young or old, what they look like or where they come from, I just want someone who will work hard, have the right competencies and skills, and fit well with the company. David sees people for who they really are, which means he presents me with some fantastic candidates. I remember one appointment was handled by SRM and another recruiter, and I chose David’s candidate. The other agency asked who the successful candidate was, and they were disappointed to learn it was someone they knew, but that they’d overlooked for the role.

David is very hardworking on all the assignments I give him. I remember one search where the salary wasn’t huge – it was a junior role, and the fee to SRM was relatively small. David presented us with the same wide range of profiles as he would on a larger search. We interviewed a range of candidates, and gave a lot of feedback on them all but were not 100% sure about any of them. Instead of just pushing these candidates, David kept working, he didn’t give up, and in the end, he found us someone who fitted in really well.

Would you recommend their services to other hiring managers?
Yes, I do, very often. David is very responsive and he sends over good profiles. He tends to know great people, and I think that’s partly because he’s proactive and meets with good candidates even when there might not be something for them straight away.

What advice do you have for other hiring managers?
Take your time with your recruitment. It is a very difficult situation when you hire someone that turns out to be wrong for the job to the extent that you need to replace them, or even that you need to spend a long time training to meet the task. Finding the perfect match takes longer, but it’s worth the wait. This is their life, and it’s also yours – if they fail, so will you. Don’t worry about missing out on a candidate by taking too long – the right person will be someone who wants the job enough to wait.

If you do choose to partner with a recruiter to help you source the right talent, look for someone like SRM Recruitment who are persistent and who will go the extra mile, not only for you and your company but for their candidates too.

To read other SRM Recruitment reviews with our clients, please visit our insights page. If you have a role that you would like us to help with, or for a more general discussion about your hiring strategy, please get in touch.

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From The Forces To Finance

forces to finance

When Alastair Horrocks left the British Army in 2009, he knew it would be a challenging transition. Learn how he went on to forge a successful career in finance, discover which transferable skills he brings to his role and the advice he has for anyone seeking to follow in his footsteps.

Tell us about your current role
I’m a Director in the Mergers & Acquisitions team at a Big Four firm, advising shareholders on selling their business. My job is to maximise the value they receive for their business when it is sold. Less frequently I also work on the buyer side, advising clients on how best to buy a company and supporting them through that complex process.

What attracted you to corporate finance?
I think it’s because to sell something you need to understand it, and I have a strong understanding of the sector I specialise in. Industry knowledge allows you to offer real insights – you understand how best to position it. You need to get to know the business, be able to forecast, be critical of the business and its strategy and help your client get the business ready for sale so that it attracts the right buyer pool. There’s some science behind it, but what I enjoy most is working with the client and making sure the message they send to buyers strikes the right chord.

What would you say is the most rewarding part of your job?
The most rewarding part is when you get a good result for an entrepreneur or private shareholder who has invested a large part of their professional career, and probably quite a lot of their personal life and savings, in a business and then you see them rewarded for that effort. The other is building relationships with clients over a period of time so that you become a trusted advisor. I enjoy it when clients turn to me on an informal basis to get my advice on aspects of their business – it’s all part of the relationship I’m building with them.

How did you come to work where you are now? Tell us a little about the path that brought you here.
I joined the Army after university in the Green Jackets regiment. My last role was with the infantry, doing a staff job in HQ, focused on intelligence. When I left the Army I wasn’t sure what to do, and decided to do an MBA at INSEAD to better understand which area of business interested me, and what I was good at. I enjoyed the corporate finance modules, but it was 2009 and the financial markets were not the best place to find a job. Instead, I went into a well-known global corporation in their business development team. There, I made sure I became involved in M&A work so I could gain some experience, which I then decided I wanted to do in an advisory firm.

What skills and knowledge are you still using from your military experience?
Having transitioned from the forces to finance I can see that in both it fundamentally comes down to relationships and communication. In the Army you are taught to address issues head on, and you spend a lot of time in your formative years about how to communicate those issues properly. The experience served me well in M&A, where I have to give powerful messages, and the way I deliver them is important. I also find that in my current role I’m dealing with a constant input of new information which I must use to make decisions. It was a similar situation in my military role, and you have to accept the decision you make might not be perfect, but you have to think of the best outcome based on the information you have. It’s really all about communication, agility and being able to step back from problems and frame them in context.

How was the transition from army to civilian life for you?
Coming out of the Army is tricky. I think I mitigated some of the challenges by doing structured learning – I had a goal to aim for, which was really helpful, but it was still hard going. After eight years with the Army I had friends and colleagues I’d grown close to and the sense of what I was doing there was very clear.

The downside of having spent all that time after university in the Army is that I wasn’t forging the long-term career path that I wanted to pursue, I wasn’t taking a professional qualification. That meant when I came out, and I wanted to work in a company where a certain level of education and experience was needed, I had to work hard. The Army stands you in very good stead, but you still need to learn the new business or sector you’re in. It’s unnerving in three ways:

  1. You’re not quite sure what you want to do, or if you do, you’re not sure how to get there
  2. You have to learn very quickly. You’re being thrust into an environment where your colleagues may be much younger than you but they have more experience, and you have to show what you can offer.
  3. You miss the structure and support that the Army can offer

What additional training have you pursued to help you with that move?
I did the MBA through INSEAD, and I also did the first two parts of the CIMA qualification to get up to speed with a basic level of understanding of accountancy. Once in work, I’ve taken on whatever training courses the firm had to offer that I thought I could benefit from, such as modelling and evaluations. I’ve also done some training in business development. I think BD probably comes very naturally to many people moving from the forces to finance, because they’re used to engaging with people they don’t know, but there’s a knack to selling in a non obtrusive, non aggressive way that has to be learned.

How does working for a Big 4 company compare to working for the British Army?
In many respects they’re more similar than you’d think, because they are fundamentally people businesses – the key assets in both are people. This is in stark contrast to the engineering company where I worked before, where the focus was much more on the products and the IP in them.

They are also similar in that they are very large organisations, but within each there are smaller teams. My immediate team in M&A has ten of us, then there are 60 more across the wider business. In that respect, I can relate to the platoon and company structure in the Army – it’s just lots of small teams working within one bigger one.

One of the key differences you see when moving from the forces to finance, or likely most civilian organisations, is the management culture. The military is a lot more hierarchical than my company, which is a partnership and has a lot flatter structure. Decision making is very different too – you get a lot more communal input here, which has obvious upsides and downsides.

What advice would you give to someone considering a move from the forces to finance?
The key thing is to work out what technical qualification is going to get you through the door and enhance your capability as well as your credibility. The military serves you well and the things you learn will be useful, but you need to demonstrate your technical understanding of the sector to make yourself credible to the company hiring you.

You also need to understand what part of finance you want to go into and how you can best serve that area. It’s a broad church, and some sectors will be more challenging than others to transition from the forces to finance. M&A is actually probably not a very sensible choice for someone a little older with family commitments, because your peers will be 23 year old qualified accountants who can work 15 hour days!

Other areas of finance have a better work life balance and might not require you to have such a deep technical knowledge in the early years. Be realistic about what you want and what the employer wants from you, and frame that in the context of you, your age and situation, your experience and your background.

If you are considering a career transition such as a move from the forces to finance, please do get in touch to have a chat about your options.

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Helping a couple move from South Africa to the UK

Emma and Ryan slanders move from South Africa to the uk

Moving across the world is not a transition for the faint-hearted. We caught up with a couple from South Africa who took the leap last year to find out more about their move, and how SRM Recruitment was able to ensure the move from South Africa to the UK was a smooth one.

Emma and Ryan Sclanders found help from SRM Recruitment with their move from South Africa to the UK

“There were a number of things that drew us to move from South Africa to the UK. At the risk of sounding negative about a country we both love, I think a big reason for our move was that we were both desperate for a taste of adventure beyond the small town we have always called home.

At the same time, we also wanted to find somewhere to put roots down and to be able to build a life for our family. I am lucky enough to have an Irish passport and due to the fact that Ryan’s gran was born in England, he was eligible for a British ancestral visa. We literally had passports to an opportunity that would shape the rest of our lives and so we took the leap.

Once the decision was made, things moved quickly and before we knew it, we were knee-high in bubble wrap and living out of a suitcase with my parents. It was rather chaotic, but exhilarating at the same time. However, we did not anticipate the emotions we would face once we arrived in the UK. Aside from the fact that the exchange rate was not in our favour and the taxi ride we had to take from the airport to our Airbnb totalled more than my monthly groceries in SA, we had never been homeless or unemployed before.

It’s a very strange and daunting experience, starting off from scratch in a new country, so we were very grateful when my husband Ryan applied for a job and his CV caught the attention of SRM’s recruiter, Paul Craggs. After a phone call, Paul and another recruiter, Tom, met Ryan for coffee. Ryan came home filled with enthusiasm, he knew that he was in good hands.

Paul gave Ryan loads of advice and guidance for each potential role he had in mind for him; discussing what to research, giving background information on the companies and what to expect in the interview process. He found a specific role that really appealed to Ryan and facilitated the process seamlessly until Ryan was totally comfortable and satisfied. The role required four interview stages – all of which Paul was there to support and advise Ryan through.

On chatting further to Paul about our situation, Ryan explained that I was also looking for a job. His SRM Recruitment colleague Tom then started looking at options for me. He rang me up on a Thursday, kindly fetched me from the station to prep me for the interview that afternoon and by Monday morning the following week, I had signed my contract and officially started in my new role. He was very perceptive and accurate when it came to finding the right role for me after discussing what I was hoping for.

The best part about our experience with SRM, through Paul and Tom, was the fact that they didn’t just reassure us, they actively sought to make sure we were looked after and happy in our roles. My brother recently moved over to the UK from South Africa and I didn’t think twice about immediately sending him to SRM for assistance with his job hunting. Tom was fantastic once again and found him a graduate role within a few weeks of his arrival here.

We are so very grateful to Paul and Tom and would absolutely recommend them to others. With all the information and assistance they gave us about the roles and how to deal with the interview processes we both felt so calm and reassured during a period that would have otherwise been stressful and daunting without their guidance and knowledge.”

If you are considering a move to the UK, or have recently moved and need some support looking for a role in finance, tax or wealth management, we’d love to speak to you. Drop us a line and one of our consultants will be in touch as soon as possible.

About Emma and Ryan
My husband Ryan and I were both born and raised in South Africa, in a small town near Durban, on the East Coast. We are both dog-crazy and have two gorgeous hounds (who will be joining us in the UK in March). Ryan is also an avid sportsman who is passionate about cricket, golf and hockey, while I, on the other hand, was not gifted with much hand-eye coordination and prefer reading and the arts!