This weekend Matthijs Bouman of Het Financieele Dagblad wrote about the increasing number of robots deployed in industry. He mentioned briefly the protest of the Labour Unions and left wing political parties, being afraid about loss of jobs. I share his opinion that this is, to say the least, short sighted. China buys most robots in order to tackle the huge demographic shift resulting in an increasing shortage of labour. And that is not a Chinese development, in our local labour market we are also facing problems finding staff.

Something that is not easily visible, is that Treasurer Search always manages a portfolio of interim treasurers. Experts work, through our matching services, on projects or bring temporary qualified capacity. As projects are always closed relatively quickly, we only briefly communicate or do not publicly mention the search at all. In almost all cases we know the interim treasurer before we find his or her assignment.

Now why mention these separate messages? Because I think part of the solution to a tightening labour market can be found in deploying interim treasurers. Old style interim management, working with contractor (ZZP) or pay-roll contracts will remain but will, I expect, become more expensive. As the traditional interim managers are becoming more scarce and inflation rises, prices per hour for clients will go up for that type of service.

In my perception room lies in labour markets that, until recently, was not tapped into. There are three obvious ones. First we see a continuous flow of very experienced, knowledgeable and energetic treasurers retire because company rules dictate so. Often they are ready to slow down but totally happy to work part-time and flexible. Of course retired does not mean dumb or burned out! We completed projects with semi-retired people, also in cooperation with treasuryXL through the Rent a Treasurer concept.

Second, there is an increasing number of people who make more conscious choices in life events that fifty years ago: children or not? Work, part-time work, entrepreneurship? Taking care of sick or elderly. Not too long ago, choosing something over work meant not working at all. These days are over. By now people can increasingly choose for part-time, entrepreneurship and all variations. Of course working remotely and during not-business-hours has further facilitated this. Currently a young mother with a coaching activity is working on interim basis for a bank through our services.

Third and finally I of course want to mention migration. The EU facilitates people moving for jobs who make a conscious choice. We, for example, brought a candidate from Portugal into the Dutch labour market. Furthermore we see people coming via educational programs and also as a refugee, bringing expertise and a lot of ambition. Our experiences in this are very positive. In these cases permanent employment makes more sense but sometimes interim can also be the right solution.

The ”never waste a good crisis” statement has been, regretfully, used to often over the last years. But I think it applies here very well: ambitions about an inclusive society and labour market are getting realized. Not from an ethical starting point but more from a practical. Is that such a bad thing?

Pieter

As treasury recruiters we should know enough about corporate treasury to do intakes and screen candidates. Also, we should know about the latest about what’s happening in the field of recruitment and so we read the publications of Geert-Jan Waasdorp of The Intelligence Group. I would like to share his latest, very interesting article and build the treasury connection.

I left a link if you want to read the full article but this is roughly what he says. There is a huge growth in people working since before covid. In parallel there is a huge decline in active applicants. This pressure in the labour market is not evenly distributed over alle employers. The ones that can find new employees can do so because of a strong employer brand and increased investments in own or external recruitment. Also they are willing to decide quick and offer a better package.

So what does this mean if we project these findings on the corporate treasury labour market? My personal observation is that treasury staff is, on average, less driven by the company brand and more by the job content than candidates from other job types. We learned this working for clients like Tesla and Nike. Employer branding specifically towards treasurers would also be hard, I cannot envision a corporate recruiter promoting his manufacturing company at Eurofinance.

The obvious low hanging fruit is that the hiring manager, already at the start of the process, has to organise and choose a mindset in the following: being able to decide quickly, from less candidates than before, offering more than the old standard. Even highly skilled recruiters sometimes underestimate these aspects over time.

The judgement if the internal recruitment team is equipped to tackle the search or that an external one should do the job – we, Treasurer Search – I will not elaborate on here. What I do want to mention is another obvious source that can be opened. For some of us that is considered a paradigm shift: bringing treasury talent in from abroad, from within the EU or even sponsor a work permit. I am aware that some of us consider this topic highly political. What I can tell, both from our own organisation, as well as from successful placements with our clients, that this can be a very successful solution. In the Dutch labour market already the majority of candidates placed by us is non-Dutch. This is not a plea to open the borders and not be critical. Regretfully we have examples where this solution did not lead to success as coming to The Netherlands can be hard for the new employee. But also locally found candidates can fail in their new job.

My conclusion is that indeed, the world is different, as is the labour market. And given current demographic developments I do not expect a shift back. Luckily there are solutions but we will have to accept the consequences and cannot lean back. Those that do will shrink and go extinct.

Good luck in your search,

Pieter

On a regular basis we write about your career planning in treasury, our opinions and observations. Two articles that are relatively well-read about this on our site are:

•    Let’s have a career calibration call or meeting
•    Help in every stage of your job search

Also, you might have noticed that we are big fans of the Treasurer Test. The original thought behind this on-line assessment comes purely from selection, based upon two thoughts. First, under 15% of the people working in treasury did not complete a dedicated treasury education. Second, many people hiring a treasurer do not have treasury knowledge. So how do you know if the candidate you hire is the right one?

Over time applications of the Test have been expanded. Full team assessments have been done and consultants designed treasury departments based upon skills and personality traits shown in the report: Treasurer Test example report. In all these cases, Tests have been bought by employers.

Increasingly, we notice employees coming to us, also in career calibration meetings with various questions like:
•    How do I do in comparison to others in the treasury labour market?
•    I am considering investing in a treasury education, which one suits me best?
•    Do I have a personality type that matches people management tasks?

With objective measurement through the Treasurer Test, combined with an extensive (telephone) meeting these types of questions can be addressed even better than with a normal career calibration meeting. Both Kim and I are trained in the interpretation of the results, the technical as well as the Big5 personality part. Together we can discuss your path forward.

We know that the price of the Test for personal use is considered relatively high. For employers that makes sense: hiring the wrong candidate causes substantially higher costs. Together with the people of treasuryXL we decided that in many career calibration situations, we can work with a substantial discount. Team Treasurer Search will also receive the Test results, discuss them with you, and will try to find you your next position: we are search consultants first, not career counsellors. If you want to know more, just let me know. We are happy to inform you further.

Pieter de Kiewit
pdk@treasurersearch.com