Newly qualified London roles drive public practice recruitment

Big Four and Top 20 accountancy firms have been recruiting as the sector remains resilient against external influences, finds Morgan McKinley’s Kathryn Swan.

December 2019

At a time when resilience is of utmost importance to success, it is pleasing to see that public practice hiring has fared well amid all the uncertainty, with job flow not really dipping during the generally slow summer months. This can partly be attributed to the Big Four opening up a wide range of newly qualified roles, as well as opportunities at different levels.

And as we are entering a busy audit season for many firms that will last until early-to-mid 2020, firms are ramping up their efforts to hire seniors to assist with the hectic period.

For the remainder of the year, due to the uncertainty around Brexit, the volume of active job seekers may drop off slightly but historically, this time of year is dynamic for the recruitment of public practice professionals - we anticipate that to be the case again for the last quarter of 2019.

Our one key piece of advice to those who want to move positions would be to consider staying in practice. Roles are diverse, both salaries and benefit packages are competitive, and the market as a whole is relatively immune to external factors: roles in the profession remain a safe bet for job security with firms actively hiring. Further to this, it’s important to maintain close relationships with your recruiters and make sure your professional social media presence is as current and relevant as it can be.

A final comment on workplace wellness: the vast majority of firms are conscious about the standard benefits available across the sector. They want to ensure their offerings of maternity cover, flexible working and pension contributions meet industry standards. Being behind the curve could mean missing out on some of the top candidates.

The sector as a whole is aware of workplace wellbeing: there is a general awareness surrounding mental health in the office and the promotion of wellbeing as well as its positive impact across the workforce.

Kathryn Swan is head of professional services at Morgan McKinley

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