Financial: Salary analysis
| Level | Average range | Median | Average bonus | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Managing director | £131,000 | - | £230,000 | £176,000 | 30% |
| Director | £78,500 | - | £120,500 | £108,500 | 28% |
| Associate director | £49,500 | - | £71,500 | £60,500 | 25% |
| Senior exec | £33,500 | - | £45,500 | £36,500 | 20% |
| Consultant | £23,000 | - | £34,000 | £28,500 | 19% |
The view from here
2007 saw almost frantic levels of recruitment by and between both financial consultancies and in-house employers and, for us, proved to be a record year for this part of our business.
This level of activity was driven by a variety of factors. The larger consultancies in preparation for succession plans, the newer consultancies building their teams to form more traditional agency structures and the small to mid-sized consultancies, requesting replacements. The most in-house hires were in the financial services sector, many of which were restructuring and expanding their teams in 2007.
Inevitably, finding sufficient high quality candidates to satisfy demand in this market was challenging, especially at more senior levels. Although we had a record number of briefs at all levels, the most common requests from consultancies were for candidates at senior consultant or associate director level to manage existing accounts, while we also saw a high number of assignments to find directors with a track record of winning new business. The most common brief from in-house clients, meanwhile, was to find candidates able to work at PR manager level and, to a lesser extent, to lead their own teams.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, almost all consultancies and a sizeable minority of in-house employers were willing to consider people from a wide range of other backgrounds - bankers, analysts, accountants and lawyers as well as journalists and investor relations (IR) consultants - to fill PR roles, especially if they were able to bring specialist knowledge, contacts and experience with them. There proved to be a healthy level of demand from candidates from other disciplines, who saw PR as a way of shortening their hours (bankers and analysts), seeing the bigger picture (IR consultants) and increasing their income (journalists).
Around 40% of the candidates we placed in financial PR came from non-PR roles, the highest level for many years, as the demand for sector-specific skills and knowledge continued to grow. Many of these candidates had a fairly clear idea of their market value and many agencies were forced to meet their demands or miss out. In turn, those already in the financial PR industry were also demanding - and often getting - between a 10% and 20% uplift on moving between employers.