Reflecting on 2024

A Year of Change and Challenge

As we close out 2024, it is clear that FRUSTRATION, FATIGUE and BURNOUT are common themes and the strain on leaders and their teams is clearly evident.

Cost-cutting initiatives, redundancies, restructures, leadership shake-ups and regulatory pressures have shaped the year.

The year started off as a continuation of 2023 with redundancies and restructures taking effect and businesses adjusting to the new norm. More candidates poured into the market as "Cost Cutting" was the name of the game.

As we progressed through the year, we soon started to notice the effects of lean and stretched risk and compliance teams taking stock of their "capability" and "capacity". There was increased demand for consultants and contractors as the fastest way to help with closing the capability and capacity gap.

For financial services businesses, CPS230 and increased regulatory scrutiny over risk governance and maturity have been the key drivers for recruitment activity in the market.

Many organisations faced scrutiny from boards and executive teams for falling behind on compliance, triggering a wave of leadership transitions and we saw an uptick in activity at the senior end of the market particularly in the second half of the year.

The majority of change and challenge has come from regulatory pressures and organisations shining the spotlight on CAPABILITY, CAPACITY & LIMITATIONS within their risk and compliance teams.

There is a genuine sense of tiredness, fatigue and burnout in the risk and compliance profession with candidates reaching for the finish line. The key contributors are a lack of clarity and direction from leaders, working in a lean and reactive environment.

WORK = Work (No Play!)

Volatility in the macro-climate has been a consistent theme. There has been a general sense of instability amongst risk and compliance candidates with a noticeable increase in candidates passive in the market.

We have noticed the sense of "team, culture and comradery" deteriorate over the year with leaders extremely busy, teams overworked, time poor and too burnt out to step away and regroup.

2025 - What to Expect Moving Forward

Leadership changes driving activity - New Chiefs often bring in their preferred leaders, reshaping senior teams. We expect these changes to flow downstream.

Regulatory Pressures - Ongoing regulatory pressures will place increased pressure on organisations to meet regulatory obligations and bolster their risk and compliance capabilities.

Risk maturity and governance - Inadequate risk maturity assessments are a recurring issue, driving the need for experienced professionals to bridge these gaps. We expect that this to continue as a theme for 2025.

Contractors and Consultants - We should continue to see demand for fixed-term contract hires as well as consultants to support lean teams and enhance capacity.

Ongoing restructuring - We anticipate continued restructuring efforts as companies strive to achieve the right balance of capability, capacity and cost efficiency to ensure risk and compliance obligations are in hand.

Demand and Supply - The increased demand for candidates (particularly at the $130K through to $180K levels) will result in a lack of supply with organisations fighting for talent.

There will be a stronger market for experienced candidates (Senior Manager/Executive Manager levels) that bring deeper risk and compliance experience (CPS230, Privacy, Incident Management, etc).

Overall, we should still expect a volatile market, albeit less so than 2024.

Increased demand driven by previous years' cost cutting initiatives will drive activity and in turn create a sense of normality in the market for risk and compliance professionals.

Our Final Thought - The HOW vs The WHY?

As leaders and businesses consider HOW to navigate these ongoing business and regulatory pressures, candidates at all levels are increasingly looking at the WHY - Why they doing what they are doing and if they have the right balance of reward, job satisfaction, culture and value alignment, or...

...is there something out there that is better aligned?

It's time for a well-deserved BREAK!

Time to recharge, reset and re-prioritise for 2025.

PX Resources is a specialist in governance, risk management, audit and compliance recruitment and executive search. We take an advisory based approach to recruitment and sourcing talent and we work closely with clients and hiring managers to provide "fit for purpose" recruitment solutions.

Contact Us for a confidential discussion.