Jessica Timelin at Michael Page Treasury, Fiona Wallace at Pure Search and Eliot Bates at Brewer Morris, said treasury skills were in high demand with flexibility a key factor when moving roles.
Their comments were made in a session hosted by the Future Leaders in Treasury group at the ACT Annual Conference in May, with Tom Gilliam from Haleon providing the corporates’ view and facilitated by Hastings group treasurer Louise Woodroffe.
Flexible working environments
Flexibility can take the form of hybrid working, salary or location. The market trend is that candidates are slowly being encouraged to go back into the office more with most teams leaning towards a 60:40 or even 80:20 split between remote and office working. There is a slight regional split on this, with roles outside of London generally having a bit more flexibility.
There is a noticeable trend that candidates are looking for flexibility and career progression, even before salaries. Key considerations around the support provided by the company, including training and development opportunities, come before salary considerations.
Salary trends
Pay rises are now more in line with inflation and have calmed down from the 20-30% raises following the COVID pandemic. Most candidates are now looking for a 10% uplift and this is more in line with pre-pandemic salary expectations. Flexibility and professional development opportunities factor heavily in a candidate’s decision making.
Recruiters are also seeing candidates looking to make lateral moves in order to gain different experiences. These help to build out your CV, giving you experience in different areas of treasury or within a different sector.
Career pathway
Treasury careers are not linear. Treasury teams even in big companies are relatively small. As a result, direct career progression is often very difficult as there is simply no opportunity to move up - that is just the nature of the team.
Career pathways can therefore focus on developing new skills and undertaking new projects. These provide a chance to expand your skills so that when an opportunity comes along to move to a more senior role you can show how you match the skills needed.
And when it comes to whether to specialise or generalise, the key factors are your own preferences, what you enjoy and where you see yourself in five to 10 year’s time. Find out what you love doing – it’s important to enjoy your job and you may find that you prefer being an expert in a specific field within treasury or that you prefer to be a generalist.
Business and behavioural skills
Treasury skills are seen as highly transferrable and there is demand for high-quality treasury professionals, at all levels.
As you progress in your treasury career additional skills such as negotiation, persuasion and relationship management become more important. Treasury teams are increasingly engaging at the board level so being able to have strategic conversations is essential.
In addition, demonstrating leadership in the post-COVID hybrid working environment can be a key factor for selection. This is particularly important for more senior roles, where evidence of relationship management, both internally and externally, is essential.
And when it comes to using technology and AI, there is a feeling that candidates need to be open to learn and adapt due to an increasingly automated treasury. More junior roles may expect a degree of treasury management system experience, but the key factor is around the candidate’s mindset. Employers are looking for people who were willing to adapt to change and take on new processes and procedures and this mindset can be more important than hands-on experience.
Qualifications support your career development
Qualifications will help you stand you out in a crowd, giving you exposure and an understanding of the breadth of a treasury role. Most treasury roles, especially at the junior end, will focus on a specific area and a qualification will provide you with an understanding of other areas, which is invaluable should you move. Hiring managers are increasingly asking for qualifications, but the type of qualification will depend on the role – for example, some companies look for dual qualifications with accounting and treasury but this tends to be for treasury accounting roles.
Final thoughts
It’s important to enjoy your job and to be open to taking lateral moves and working on projects that will help you to both develop and grow your experiences.
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Thank you to Jessica Timelin, senior operating director, corporate services & finance, Michael Page Treasury, Fiona Wallace, associate director – head of treasury, Pure Search, Eliot Bates, head of practice - treasury UK, Brewer Morris, and Tom Gilliam, VP - Corporate Finance at Haleon for their insight.