Hays talk us through some of the salary and benefit trends that we may see in the coming months.

The Hays Salary & Recruiting Trends 2022 guide surveyed over 3,000 employers and employees across accountancy and finance sector – the results depicted a positive outlook for professionals in 2022, with 97% of organisations stating that their activity level is set to increase or stay the same within the next year, in comparison to 88% last year.

Moreover, 60% of accountancy and finance employers plan to hire new staff in 2022 – also an increase on last year’s figures (54%).

Additionally, employees have shown a more optimistic outlook – in 2021 it was reported that over three quarters of finance professionals (76%) were concerned about the wider economic climate over the next 2-5 years, this number has drastically decreased to 41% of employees expressing a concern.

Fierce competition for skills

Many industries are currently facing skill shortages, with the accountancy and finance industry not being exempt from this trend. A staggering 80% of employers had faced skill shortages in the last year, which is up 7% from last year.

Therefore, the competition for skills is considerable – 60% of companies expect competition from other employers; a significant increase from last year’s stats of 46%. Hiring challenges also remain, with over two-thirds (67%) anticipating a shortage for suitable applicants over the coming year.

These shortages may be because employers are on the lookout for new skills, particularly those drawing on soft skills. The most in-demand soft skills are:

• Communication and interpersonal skills (needed by 61% of employers)
• The ability to adopt change (57%)
• Problem-solving skills (50%)

Salaries are on the up

With the cost of living increasing due to inflation, understandably many professionals are concerned about their salary covering the extra costs.

The good news for accountancy and finance professionals is that 76% of employers are expecting to increase their salaries over the coming year, which is considerably higher than the UK average (61%).

It’s been stated that salaries have increased by an average of 2.3% over the last year, with highly desired roles (i.e., part qualified accountants) seeing a higher salary increase of 3%.

Hybrid working key to attracting new talent.

Our guide highlighted that aside from salary, work-life balance is key to attracting accountancy and finance professionals. It was revealed that 69% of those surveyed would be tempted to change employer if they were offered the freedom to choose how many days they were in the office. However, it was reported that 26% of employers were prepared to offer this.

Data from the Hays UK Salary Survey