The Latest News from the Treasury Recruitment Market and some Salary Survey Highlights

Foreign news and views. So key question I always get asked every time I'll be out there. So I'll answer it now so we don't have to do it again and again. What's the current state of the market? Obviously a little bit up and down. There's this Brexham. No, what is it? Lexit. No, what was it? Okay, no Brexit. That's it. We've got changes in Europe, you know, within political landscape. We've got the US changing. You've got Trump in charge. It was crazy being there last week. The things that they're so divided. It was, it was weird, if I'm honest and all. That does influence recruitment activity, obviously. But as a specialist area, we're actually insulated for it from it in a little way because not like I'm going to get a phone call one day. I wish I dreamer that day when I get a phone call. Mike, we'd like five group treasurers, please. Best. God, that'd be my best Christmas ever. But I get, I get a call and it's just one treasurer. There may be, as we move down, a couple of assistant treasurers in any typical model. And then you've got analyst level people as well. But there is constant turnover. Obviously the as you move up in seniority, there's less junior end of the market has been busy. Dan, my colleague, covers the European markets. Right. So make sure you all talk to Dan afterwards as well. And we have got business cards at the back so you can actually talk to us as well. But it has been pretty busy. Certainly from CFOs is they've said they wanted treasurers that have a real clarity over or getting clarity over the risks they face, particularly with things like Brexit happening and all the external turmoil, if you like, rather than the internal. And they wanted more controls so that they know exactly where they stand. Senior levels. There has been good activity, but very specific skill sets are being requested. Again, I was interviewed the other day and someone said to me, you know, what did I see when people were asking for treasurers? It's quite an interesting one really. I get a CFO or FD will say to me, mike, I want a brand new treasurer. Yes, we want a really new person, new ideas. We want straight through processing, we want blockchain. It's like they've swallowed literally a couple of the conference brochures in some ways regurgitated a bit. And then I said, oh, fantastic. It's great opportunity refresh things. And then we get to the end. I Said got job description? Yeah, no problem. Bottom draw out it comes five years, blows off a bit of the dust, crosses date and hands it back to me. So fills me with dread that sometimes we are seeing a change there. So it is actually helping. And I've been asked as well at the conferences have I seen that your role as treasurers change. And I wouldn't say necessarily it's changed over the past few years because you've always been experts in areas such as risk management, foreign exchange, bank relationships and IT and systems. But what I've noticed is that you're having to balance all those things with all the other stuff that's on your plates. Sometimes you might have been seen as a more specialist area, but you're still being asked to be the solution to your CFO's problems, be the paracetamol if you like for their issues and they want you to take away that headache whilst also spinning all the other plates. It's a challenging role being a modern treasurer. So come and talk to me if you do need more advice on that. But I don't think it's easy. But a good way of looking for all of that is to talk to people like myself to look at LinkedIn to gain all that new knowledge. Now the other way that question I get asked a couple of people ask salaries. So we have for you and I think I mentioned this. Yann Martin, some hot off the press news. We do a salary survey. It's a very little known website called treasurysalary.com yeah, try and remember that bit of controversy. 72% of you lot are happy. So if we look at that. That's right. So 28. Yeah, just that row. So you lot are really happy. Fantastic. I'll be seeing you lot of the bar guys this lot of buying because they're very happy. Currently We've got approaching 600 participants in the salary survey. So we in terms of Austria though we only have not saying just these four gentlemen, it's a confidential survey, but just four Austrians taking part. If we do get enough Austrian participation we'll run a straight ACTA survey as well. So you actually know exactly where to benchmark yourselves. 3 minutes to take part. 200 page report for free as a result. Exclusive results as well. But anyone takes part. Now the funny bit, people say 72% happy. So stable teams, right. Everyone's really happy. They're not moving does it? So you're all looking for new jobs. Calm down, just give me a cast. When you are looking for the new job. More than 80% said yes, they were looking for a role. So what does this mean for you when you're managing teams as well as being an eye opener and a, you know, couple of laughs there. If you think it's because your teams are unhappy and it's because they're not being paid enough, it's crazy. It's a salary survey. It's about the money, right? It's not about the money. Those are some of the reasons. So this was colour, but we brought it down to make it readable again. We'll share it with you. So you need to be focusing on. These are the reasons why people actually, you know, what makes people happy in their roles. But the other bit is what makes them unhappy. It's you as a boss. It's the work itself. The crazy bit is salary. Is there the previous one, competitive salary is actually 2%. It's actually doing something worthwhile, making a difference. That's what's really different, is making varied, enjoyable work. What are the other bits I say about this? Unhappy. Let's go to unhappy. How do you feel about your salary? This is overall 67% comfortable. Don't worry, I'm not doing a Paris moment and just reading off the slides again. This is just to make a couple of points on it. If they're unhappy in their roles, it's not about then throwing them the money. Now, people have said to me in the past, the observation that I've made as I've grown and we've done this salary survey before, people have said do a salary survey. Is it actually. And as people get more senior, they do get happier. So all the treasurers are really happy. Treasury analysts are really unhappy at the bottom of the pile. That's not it. That's not the actual reason. What's happened is when I've interviewed people and spoken to them, it's about empowerment and it's about self actualization within your roles and being directed by yourself. What I mean by that is most group treasurers. I was talking to Nick Taylor, group treasurer Schroders, recently. I talked about this again on the podcast. He generally meets his boss about once a year in a formal setting and they define the goals for the year. And every quarter they have a quick catch up, every coffee. If there's an emergency. Yeah, they get together straight away. But other than that it's like, how you doing? Yeah, I'm on track. Yeah. Great. All right, bye. That's it. Treasurers or treasury managers, sorry. And treasury analysts in particular are being directed every day Please do this, please do this, please do this. And that's what it is. It's about setting them goals and helping them. So it's offering ways that you might be able to give their roles a challenge and recognising their efforts. So we come back to that dreaded. If you do want to take part in the survey, As I say, treasurysalary.com worth taking part in. Now, this next one. Oh, yeah, love it. Brexit and also robots. It's all right. You're going to be taken over by the Daleks soon, is Brexit. I know that's the next. I'm not going to say too much about it because I don't want to do the next next lecture as well. Is it directly affecting treasurers? It's not. And I don't think it will necessarily affect treasury professionals because you guys spend your time coping with all these different issues and challenges. But it does mean the markets you're dealing in have further issues. You, as skilled treasury professionals, need to prove your, you know, your case, to work them. I also get people saying, you know, with Brexit, is it going to affect migration of staff? It already has. There's a net migration loss to the uk where lots of people have left. Who's Left? People below 50k. In general. When you actually look at the salaries, the people in skilled employee aren't leaving. So basically you guys are dealing with it and I think it's less of an issue when we talk about it. Are you all going to be taken over by robots? No, there's always going to be automation, removing some of the mundane tasks and everything. Everyone says, oh, the robots are doing this. But you guys have taken away the low value tasks before anyway. You've either outsourced them to lower cost basis or, you know, you've automated them, you've brought in treasury management systems, you're focusing on future finance. Now, I know that you robots, you know, be great if they could predict the future and you guys are looking at the future as treasurers. Now, if you do know how to predict the future really accurately, I'd like to know next week's lottery numbers, please. Okay. No, don't worry. So, joking aside, you've got to have agility of mind, a thought.