03. Salary and Trends

Salary and Trends.

A change in the way we work.

COVID-19 has changed the way we work. The expectations of employees and candidates have shifted; flexible, remote working is not only possible – it’s a priority for many.

We are seeing this translate into market extremes. Some businesses have reverted to a traditional pre-COVID-19 ‘officebased, 8am - 5pm, five days’ work-week. Other organisations are still working entirely remotely, and surrendering their office leases.

Another trend is the concept of an ‘anchor day’ - where an entire team is expected to be in the office together one day a week. However, this impacts the hiring of remote talent as it requires employees to be within travelling distance of the office once a week.

In-between the extremes, many businesses are adopting varying degrees of flexible working arrangements, and creative working options to accommodate and reflect the changing expectations of top Accounting and Finance talent.

The challenges of remote working.

Remote working poses challenges for businesses. The ability to create and foster a workplace culture is diminished with a remote team, and we expect that this alone is likely to see a resurgence in working from the office.

Effective IT infrastructure and systems are needed to support and facilitate flexible working. Larger corporates are generally in a position to do this better.

Another challenge is talent development. With remote working, emerging talent has limited access and exposure to leaders to develop from. Productivity is also difficult to monitor when a team is not in the office. However, high performers will be high performers - whether in the office or not. Conversely low performers are unlikely to benefit from being watched-over in an office environment constantly.

Despite these challenges, at Hunter Campbell we believe in the importance of being agile. Businesses who move and respond faster to changed candidate expectations will have the power to connect with the best Accounting and Finance talent on offer.