Whitehead Mann tops jobs table
Three global search firms have taken the top places in a survey of UK banking recruitment, but others have been beaten by smaller London-based rivals.
Whitehead Mann heads the list of companies dealing largely with salaries of 100,000 (€144,000) or more, with a 6.8% market share of fee income, according to the report by Executive Grapevine International.
Spencer Stuart is in second place with 5.2% and Heidrick & Struggles third with 4.7%, in the report for the year to April. The survey covered financial services and professional services, mainly law.
Korn/Ferry and Egon Zehnder, two other large global firms, were beaten by several London-based companies, including Longbridge in fourth place, with a 4.4% share, and Sainty Hird in sixth place with 3.9%.
Longbridge benefited from its focus on law and financial services, a combination not shared by some of its rivals. Even so, Frank Varela, chief executive, said he was initially surprised by its strong showing.
He said: "It's no secret that our revenues have fallen, but I suppose other firms' may have fallen further."
Helen Barrett, chief executive of Executive Grapevine, which publishes information about the recruitment industry, said she believes search fees for front-office investment banking dropped by 40% compared with the year before.
She said: "They've fallen off a cliff. Some consultants have not done a search for a year."
The fall had been less severe in areas such as fund management.
Other London-based search firms in the top 15 in the survey include Hogarth Davies Lloyd and Napier Scott.
Other sectors, such as industry and healthcare, are dominated by global search firms to a greater extent, with UK firms struggling to compete.
The survey said the executive search landscape has altered dramatically in recent years:
"Concepts such as retainers, minimum fees and putting all the risk on the client have been quietly pushed to one side."
Across all sectors, Whitehead Mann retained the first place it achieved in last year's survey.
