How will the predicted downturn impact business’s growth and hiring plans in the coming months?
A recent survey of U.S CFOs seems to indicate that preparations for a recession won’t necessarily be characterised by the industry wide redundancies and long term recruitment freezes of previous downturns. While 100% of those taking part in the Q2 CNBC CFO Council Survey published earlier this month unsurprisingly predicted a recession, 36% plan to increase spending and over 50% of those surveyed said that headcount would increase across their businesses.
It will be interesting to see the results of Deloitte’s upcoming UK CFO survey for Q2 but given that majority of CFOs in both the U.S and UK have been flagging up recruitment and retention of talent as one of their biggest concerns for a while now, it seems unlikely that there will be a sudden and total reversal in hiring plans.
It’s true that some large tech companies such as Klarna, who hit the headlines recently when they announced a 10% cut in staffing, are now seeking to reduce headcount, most businesses have been struggling to hire the volume of talent they need right now let alone the level they would need to meet future growth targets.
At TalentEdge we are still seeing a strong upward trend in demand from clients looking to hire for finance and many of these opportunities are newly created roles. The shortage of talent that’s been escalating since before the pandemic accompanied by a huge surge in growth post Covid mean that many of the CFOs we work with across Tech, Media and Consumer are still focused on increasing headcount in finance to meet the current and future needs of their businesses. This is most noticeable in areas such as FP&A and commercial finance where demand is particularly strong.
If you would like to find out more about some of the many exciting opportunities we are currently recruiting for or discuss your future hiring plans please do get in touch with Lucy Davison at lucy.davison@talentedge.co.uk.
