Recruitment in sales and marketing set to be buoyant in H2 2011

And salary expectations for candidates who switched jobs are high, ranging between 25 to 30%.

According to Robert Walters, the first half of the year started off slowly due to fewer available roles as candidates held out for the attractive bonuses they were expecting to receive based on last year’s phenomenal organisational performance. In addition, most roles were already filled last year and most financial institutions did not have additional headcount budget for sales & marketing professionals. However, companies were still hiring for more critical roles in marketing analytics, CRM, portfolio management and usage.

To take advantage of the improved economy, organisations had more aggressive targets for 2011 and started to evaluate their current talent pool to decide if they should upscale or expand their teams to achieve these targets.

Sales roles at the middle level are expected to be highly sought-after in line with the need for organisations to hit their sales targets. As the market shifted in favour of employees, salary expectations for candidates who switched jobs were particularly high and ranged between 25 to 30%, especially for those with niche skill sets. Candidates with marketing analytics, CRM, portfolio management and usage experience will continue to be in demand.

We anticipate that recruitment activity across the board for the second half of the year will be buoyant. We expect to see healthy hiring activity in quarter three as employers are likely to fill roles quickly before tapering off to the bonus payout period in the last quarter. As a result of steady recruitment levels, salaries are likely to remain constant throughout 2011.