Luxembourg has typically had few problems attracting high-calibre candidates to its thriving financial services sector. However, post-covid and post-Brexit, demand for 2022 is very much outstripping supply. “Everyone is looking for accounting, compliance, regulatory and legal candidates, ideally with local regulatory expertise,” said Sinead O’Donnell, director of DO Recruitment Advisors. Financial services recruitment makes up 95% of her business. Given that candidates with Luxembourg regulatory knowledge are of a finite number, an interesting new trend emerges--one where junior staff are increasingly being hired into managerial positions.
“Candidates with between three to eight years’ experience are currently occupying a recruitment sweet spot,” said O’Donnell. “These people are operational, qualified, and taking the top jobs.”
O’Donnell’s view is echoed by a recent Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce report, which highlights the need for junior staffers. According to the “” survey, published 28 October, around two-thirds of companies plan to hire in 2022. High demand means that HR is willing to consider fewer years’ experience in order to fill the top roles.
“Positions that previously would have required six years’ experience are being filled by applicants with three years’,” said O’Donnell. “Looking at our placements over the first three quarters of 2021, the average salary increase offered to prospective candidates was 23% above their existing salary, compared to 11% two years ago. The successful candidates’ average years of professional experience has decreased as well.”
Petra Silber, who works in house as head of HR at EFG Bank, agrees. “We are seeing [candidates with relatively fewer years’ experience to before] in the control functions, especially compliance, risk, documentation.”
The pandemic backlog
Recruitment demand is high after more than 18 months of pandemic conditions, explains Maxime Durant, director at Michael Page. “During covid-19, companies got by on a skeleton staff while also growing their operations.” Growth in assets under management in Luxembourg continues to flourish in line with previous years’, swelling 19.28% to €5.6trn in the 12 months to September 2021, according to Luxembourg asset management industry body ALFI, while holding companies and funds from abroad are still setting up in the Luxembourg market.
“The pressure on the capacity to produce and deliver is extremely high, giving rise to a glut of operational roles,” he added.
Maxime Durant, director, Michael Page Luxembourg, believes companies need to be flexible. Photo credit: Michael Page
Durant has also seen more junior staff than planned hired to senior positions, and believes it’s out of hiring necessity, not budget. “It’s never the plan for the company to hire less experienced staff. However, they are having to become flexible in their expectations of number of years’ experience because of the strict candidate shortage.”
Slim pickings for experienced candidates
The outlook is less positive for senior hires--those with over ten years’ experience. In some instances, these senior positions are not being recruited, but rather, seconded from abroad, with executives temporarily moving internally to take on the expensive roles with higher responsibility, said both O’Donnell and Silber.
“We’re seeing [senior candidates seconded rather than hired] across the board and in every sector,” said O’Donnell.
This trend is replicated outside of financial services. Unemployment for those aged under 30 has fallen by almost a quarter (-24%) year on year, according to the Luxembourg unemployment agency Adem’s most recent figures, published in August, compared to that for the 30-44 year age bracket (-14.4%) and the over 45s (-5.8%).
Yet some recruiters disagree. “I see secondments happening in the commercial space but not so much financial services, where the demand still is very much focused on local candidates. In fact I’d go further, to say that not enough secondments are happening, that Luxembourg needs to renew and grow its number of professionals by attracting people from abroad,” said Durant.
Getting with the times
A degree of flexibility will help employers surf this new tide of recruitment. Luxembourg financial services are now forced to get comfortable with a different type of prospective employee. Those that were previously considered less attractive, because they changed role frequently, are now winning the same consideration as those that have spent their career within the same company.
Meanwhile, companies that offer remote working have the edge over those offering only the traditional office set-up. “We did a survey of our candidates and we found people ideally wanted two to three days a week working from home,” said O’Donnell.
“Working from home has become a very important part of the employer value proposition,” said Sibler.
Companies have had some time to get used to remote working thanks to 18 months of lockdowns. However other areas of corporate culture still need to change if employers are to find the right candidate, said Durant. “Unfortunately, financial services companies still value experience and knowledge of Luxembourg regulation, which limits their capacity to attract and train new staff from abroad.”
Nathalie de Lira, director, Select HR, points to internal opportunities. Photo: Luc Deflorenne
Yet those wishing to stay put are finding their opportunities for internal mobility turbocharged, according to Nathalie de Lira, director at Luxembourg-based recruiter Select HR. “It’s an excellent opportunity for candidates to evolve within the company. Companies are willing to train people on the jobs because of the shortage of candidates.”
Nonetheless, O’Donnell remains on the lookout for one in a million candidate. “Someone in alternative private equity investments or a real estate account with five years’ experience and several languages. They would have twenty interviews,” she stated.