Q3 Market Update
By Warren Madlin, Director
Going into the final three months of the year, we can take stock of Q3 and see what lies ahead. For MadlinHanna Consulting, Q3 2023 was our busiest yet. These are some of the key trends we have identified.
Sectors
The biggest demand has been for those with financial and professional services sector knowledge and digital communications skills. Financial PR has had a resurgence as many agencies have switched to focus on private equity clients and debt markets expertise, to compensate for the dearth in UK transactions. Across policy and public affairs, most of our searches have come from trade associations and membership bodies. Our UK property comms desk has also seen a breadth of briefs from residential marketing to corporate reputation management for mixed-use developers.
Going global
An increasing number of clients are expressing interest in candidates with experience on the global stage. This is not about past work in specific markets around the world, but instead an understanding of the global interactions of international corporates and NGOs – coupled with the knowledge of how to navigate numerous and differing governments and regulatory landscapes.
Demand for specific know-how
Each discipline we search across currently has one main knowledge base that is most in demand. With policy roles, the march continues for those with an understanding of crypto. Across corporate communications, it’s ESG (advice on strategy, not simply communications). Within public affairs, as Mia alluded to in an article earlier this year, those with a Labour network are in extremely high demand, for obvious reasons. For candidates, whilst being generalist is hugely common, there is no doubt that the money is in these distinctive areas.
Remuneration
Brussels continues to be the Wild West when it comes salaries. It’s hard for clients to budget for hires. There can be huge disparities in pay between two people with the same experience. Clients need to approach searches with an open mind and, as much as possible, with an open budget. Across our work in London, Paris and Brussels, we have seen a levelling out of the field between agency and in-house salaries and an overall reduction in cash being splashed. In 2022, the average salary increase that a candidate would see in a move to an agency was 21%, and 8% for in-house. This year so far, those increases are 17% for agency and 16% for in-house. The huge financial benefit of moving agency-side last year has not continued into this year. We put this down to a combination of agencies being more cautious and in-house teams realising they need to pay better for the best talent.
Client sentiment
We have seen some cautious hiring attitudes at the big marketing groups over Q3. They often need to look further into the distance than our independent clients, who can sometimes take a more fluid approach, stopping and starting recruitment monthly, rather than undertaking long-term hiring sprees or freezes. Across the team, we are seeing numerous speculative and opportunistic offers at a very senior level, which gives us hope for continued optimism in the industry. We have also seen a few cases of the sports team mentality of “if we don’t hire them, a competitor will” – even when the gap doesn’t necessarily exist.
Candidate sentiment
Whilst caution has creeped in amongst the big, networked agency groups, it simply hasn’t with candidates. Potential job-movers got burnt during the pandemic – they stayed put in roles they were unhappy in because it “wasn’t a good time to move”. Two years later they were kicking themselves as Covid was still around and they were still in the same place. Hesitation in the economy is no longer enough of a reason to make candidates nervous – confidence in moves is as high as ever.
Summary
It's been a busy quarter for the team. The demand from clients across the UK and Europe continues to climb – business is up 65% from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023. The communications, PR and public affairs industries are, in certain corners, firing on all cylinders. There’s a lot to be excited about for those who have made it their career. Do get in touch if you need our help securing talent or your next role.
MadlinHanna Consulting is a recruitment consultancy specialising in public affairs, corporate communications and financial PR. Contact us in London on +44 (0) 20 8088 4102 or in Brussels on +32 (0) 2 586 38 98 for more information or a confidential conversation about these services and more.