Thought Leadership

Motor Finance is a Truly Niche Marketplace

Motor Finance is a truly niche marketplace, and that can lead to several challenges for recruiting – a lack of diversity, preconceptions from candidates about organisations from third party conversations, a very close-knit community can lead to lack of confidentiality and a demand exceeds supply candidate pool. This cuts across all areas of the sector – from brokers to funders and the tech platform providers.

Coming out of the last pandemic, every business needs both a tactical and a strategic approach. In this candidate driven market hiring becomes a real issue and we are already seeing that our clients need tactical hiring to deliver not only the skills and aptitude needed today but also to plan strategically in this fast-moving market and factor future plans and hire to that plan. For innovative companies to grow it is essential, that every shortlist is a true representation not only of diversity but also mindset and skillset.

That requires an experienced recruitment partner who not only knows the Motor Finance marketplace but also understands your business challenges and can advise you on the best approach which may not be the one you have always used and may need you to think differently about how you collaborate with that recruiter.

We are seeing an increase in demand of roles, mainly within Credit Risk, Audit Recoveries, Legal and Compliance, both in first and second line of defence and business development across the board. There isa high level demand for experienced fields sales hires as you would imagine but also and increasing trend to recruit hybrid/remote home based staff not only for support roles but also telephone based sales positions.

The key to hiring strategically now is to plan where you can but also to look at different ways of attracting the best people in the market.

We are now in a candidate driven market for a lot of roles. Companies are looking for the same skillsets and in a niche marketplace the good candidate knows their worth and will be very specific about their requirements. These top candidates are not actively looking for a new role, they are what we call the ‘passive’ candidate – happy in their role, challenged, well remunerated but if the right opportunity came along then they would consider a career move. The usual process of advertising, colleague referrals, and going to many agencies to hire these people is unlikely to succeed. It may happen but the timeframes could be long, and the hiring company loses control of the process. The only way to make sure you have access to this talent pool ahead of your competitors is to run it as a project – take control of it, approach the individuals through a confidential third party who can represent you, your brand, and the opportunity in the best light. Someone who knows the industry but who has the capability to be impartial and thorough. You will secure your diverse candidates within your timeframes and a committed business partner focused on delivery.

Candidates are naturally wary and hesitant as you would imagine, they need to feel confident that confidentiality is maintained and that there is a consistency of message.

The key to hiring strategically now is to plan where you can but also to look at different ways of attracting the best people in the market. The headhunting methodology is not the domain of executive search – it is fundamentally necessary where demand exceeds supply, and your talent pool is narrow, and your hiring needs are business critical.

Added value from your recruitment partner

Interim Specialists – not just to transform a back-office function but also to help you pull together your new strategic plans, build a collections and recoveries team, strengthen your HR and People plans, look at new potential Partnership opportunities… and more.

Talent Mapping – researching a particular market/skillset on your behalf, providing a comprehensive outline of the talent pool, salaries, geographies, motivations, and drivers. Enabling you to build the right costs into your strategic hiring plans and move quickly to approach the individuals when the time is right.

Team builds – hiring several key people quickly and efficiently, remote on-boarded, compliance screened and checked – particularly within collections and recoveries.

Diversity – shortlists that represent the communities you partner with, looking outside your previous ‘go to’ markets, thinking laterally about where the skillsets and mindsets of good people could come from.

It is our role as your consultant in the talent marketplace to help you address these challenges, but we need your support to do so, partner with us, give us the commitment to deliver a quality service.

Please contact Julie Ramsay or Vicky Maynard to discuss your requirements.