Wanted: people to make people redundant
Redundancies don't just happen on their own you know - someone has to work very hard to make sure everything goes to plan. And while everyone else is losing jobs, those particular people are busier than ever.
Joanna McDowell, a consultant dealing with HR recruitment at Huxley Associates, says jobs for employee relations (ER) professionals are up around 33% on last year and are likely to rise further in the near future.
ER is quite remunerative. McDowell says a head of ER at a US bank can expect a base of 85k-95k, plus a 25% bonus.
If you're an ER victim, working for the dark side may suddenly seem quite appealing. But sympathy and banking experience alone are insufficient to penetrate the ER cabal: you also need to know about employment law. Most ER types are apparently lawyers.
While redundancy specialists are hot, recruiters at investment banks are understandably not. Despite this, Goldman, Credit Suisse and RBS have all hired senior-level recruitment people in London in the past few months. Could this be indicative of recruitment intentions for the future?
