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Over half of the top Accountancy firms in the UK halt recruitment!

Over half of the top Accountancy firms in the UK halt recruitment!

OVER HALF OF THE TOP ACCOUNTANCY FIRMS IN THE UK HALT RECRUITMENT!

Over half (57%) of the UK’s Top 100 accountancy firms say they are going to decrease or keep staff levels the same next year reveals research conducted by cvmail, which is part of Thomson Reuters. Whilst the percentage of accountancy firms that said they actually intend to cut headcount is small, at only five per cent, the results of the survey do indicate the first significant pause in the dramatic growth in accountancy firms since 9/11. 

Andy Eddleston, commercial manager at cvmail, said: “The effect of the credit crunch on top accountancy firms has been felt in a slowdown in corporate finance work and may feed through into consultancy work. However, their core audit & assurance and tax work should be largely unaffected. It is hoped that the vacuum created by the slowdown in areas like IPOs will be filled with rescue and recovery work.” 

Despite this year’s slowdown in recruitment, accountancy firms say that one of the biggest issues they face in the year ahead is attracting a higher quality of candidates with 91% of respondents saying that it is a high priority in the year ahead.   

The research also showed that controlling recruitment agency costs was rated as a high priority by 47.6% of respondents. The average percentage of a hire’s salary going to a recruitment agency in fees is 21%. The highest percentage paid by the respondents was 30% and the lowest was 12%.  

At the same time, when asked how important recruitment agencies are for communicating their vacancies, 29% of respondents said that they are very important today and 28% said that it will still be very important in two years time. In fact, 62% of respondents said that they get their best quality candidates through recruitment agencies. 

In particular, 34% of respondents said that in two years time advertising vacancies on their own website will be a very important medium of recruitment as opposed to 25% rating it as a very important today, while 15% of respondents said that Internet banner advertising will be a very important means of recruitment in two years time versus nine per cent now.

The research also found that:  

  • For every job vacancy, top accountancy firms receive on average 44 CVs. They conduct an average of seven first stage interviews and three second stage interviews.
  • 17% of respondents said they rate recruitment through personal networks of current staff as an important or very important recruitment medium. Ten per cent said that it will be an important recruitment medium in two years time.
  • The average attrition rate at the UK’s top accountancy firms is 15%.
  • 16% of respondents say that print advertising is an important medium of recruitment today versus 11% saying it will be an important means of recruitment in two years time.

Accountancy Firm Recruitment Priorities over the next year: 

  1. Ensuring compliance with employment law (95.2%)
  2. Attracting a higher quality of candidates (90.5%)
  3. Achieving headcount targets (76.2%)
  4. Controlling recruitment agency costs (47.6%)
  5. Recruiting candidates within agreed wage band (47.6%)
  6. Reducing time to hire3 (3.3%)
  7. Controlling advertising costs (9.5%).  

Eddleston concluded: “Despite the fact that half of the respondents rated controlling recruitment agency costs as a high priority, it appears that it will maintain a central role in recruiting at accountancy firms.

“We can also see, however, a trend towards the use of more online vehicles for their recruitment in an attempt to take more control of their recruitment and to control costs.”    

 

 

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