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It’s an exciting time for recruitment. Regardless of existing economic and political uncertainties surrounding Brexit, our Lime Street office is buzzing as we continue to manage a plentiful job flow. The volume of candidates looking for opportunities remains good, and we haven’t had any instances of our clients delaying or stopping their recruitment needs due to Brexit. It’s all systems go as we continue to support our loyal clients, along with growing many new and exciting relationships and ventures.
As we look back over the last ten years, it is undeniable that recruitment has changed dramatically. One of the most significant differences being the shift from having an unlimited, plentiful supply of high-quality candidates and not enough positions, to the reverse with many positions and not enough excellent candidates to fill them. The fight for high quality talent has never been as fierce as it is right now.
We have also experienced a real surge in the senior, qualified interim space. Our clients are looking for interims at a much more senior level – with 40% of our 2019 interim placements being at a senior, qualified level. We’ve never seen business transformation occur so rapidly in such a short space of time, whether it’s out-sourcing/in-sourcing finance departments, moving offices or restructuring. We spend a great deal of time working with our clients on their long-term finance and accounting talent strategy in order to help them achieve their business goals.
Our bespoke, specialised consultancy service differentiates Halliday Marx from other recruitment consultancies, and it is a key reason for our clients wanting to stay with us long-term. We see ourselves as part of their team. We remove all the noise from the recruitment process, allowing our clients to save time and resource to focus on their core business activities.
To hire intelligently, a specialist consultancy is paramount. The market is so fast flowing, this is why clients are moving to Halliday Marx. In-house recruitment is too resource intensive and time consuming. With such tough competition for top talent, clients need to move quickly. We insist on only ever having two consultants on a client account, one recruiting interims and one recruiting permanent staff. This ensures we always know exactly what our clients want. Whilst our opposition may send 20 CV’s in the hope that one of them will work, we will only send our clients a maximum of 3-4 candidates that we have met, briefed and are a very good match. No time wasting – pure service.
Halliday Marx remain fairly unique in that we meet all of our candidates face to face. We are well aware that the market has shifted with telephone and skype interviews becoming popular, and this works for many sectors – but we don’t believe it is the best way to find the perfect fit in the finance and accounting space. We strongly recommend that this is only used in exceptional circumstances where the logistics make a face to face meeting impossible. The personalised approach is far more successful in establishing rapport, building trust and understanding which organisations will enable our candidates to thrive.
We are also aware that it can feel overwhelming for our candidates. There is an ocean of information out there at the touch of a button – an online search can return 400 jobs that may or may not be relevant. While the internet is an incredible tool, it only tells half the story when searching for your perfect position. Technology is searching for 3 words that match a CV, this is not a good partnership! If you are a candidate of ours and we contact you for a role, you are already a strong match. We don’t waste anyone’s time.
In recruitment, moving fast is imperative or we will lose excellent candidates to other roles. There are quite simply very few outstanding candidates on the market at any one time, meaning clients often struggle to access top talent. Partnering with the right recruitment company is crucial. Our network is huge, allowing us to open the door to London’s top finance and accounting professionals. We can approach candidates who may not have considered the role, but as they trust us and based on our recommendation, are 50% more likely to request being put forward for interview.
Every element of recruitment is unique. One job title can mean ten different things to ten different clients and the emphasis on company culture is vital in ensuring long-term success. A CV is only a small part of the story. At Halliday Marx we do the full 360-degree review and fit. In terms of our candidates we know why they are leaving, what their aspirations are, their drivers and ambitions. We know if they will thrive in our client’s organisation. We spend a great deal of time discussing the role with our candidates; the commute, the culture, the likelihood of promotion, the challenges and the benefits…….
At Halliday Marx we strive for perfection.
John Marx has been a leading recruiter in London’s finance and accounting recruitment market since 1997. John has a proven history of performing as a top-level consultant, as well as developing and growing recruitment teams. He has a hugely loyal client base.
Andy Halliday has over 20 years of recruitment experience specialising within the accounting and finance sector. He is one of London’s most successful financial recruitment professionals of all time.
In 2010, John and Andy created Halliday Marx, a leading European financial recruitment business. They have posted record individual billings and masterminded their team to record breaking revenue growth.
