London, 13 May 2010

Investment banks could face brain drain says recruiter: Energy trading activities, until recently the bastion of the financial services sector, has become big business for the mainstream energy sector.  And with a limited technology talent pool, the investment banks may finds themselves victims of a steady brain drain as the energy sector competes to find people who have not only an understanding of the processes and terminology of energy trading but also the technical ability to install, integrate and support complex commodity trading systems. That’s according to Oliver Gibbons Director of the technology division of Twenty Recruitment Group.

“The deregulation of the market, large acquisitions and the creation of a number of joint ventures means that there is currently a huge amount of integration and systems migration work to do”, says Gibbons.  “These are massive projects requiring business analysis and project management skills and people who can manage the analysis and integration of utility merger activity and joint venture projects.  Outside energy and banking, there is little hope of finding anyone who has had exposure to what are very specialist energy trading platforms.  And with contract  business analysts now being able to command around £700 per day – a 40% rise on 2008 rates, the energy trading floors of the investment banks may soon be looking at a talent shortage of their own”.

According to Gibbons, there is a real upward pressure on both permanent salaries and contractor rates and what may an additional worry for the banks is that the skills sets are completely transferable making the transition from financial institution to industry very easy. And from the contractors’ point of view, the shortage of skills and the small talent pool means that a move back into banking at some point would be just as simple.

“While the energy sector knows that it has to compete in hard figures to tempt technology talent away from the financial services arena, what it can also offer is a completely different lifestyle”, adds Gibbons, “something that can be a very attractive proposition for an IT contractor – or even for someone who is looking to move away from the possible constraints of permanent employment into career contracting.  The energy sector is international and it is not unusual for contractors to move from company to company and from country to country.  There are large scale projects taking place in Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland and Holland and with English being the lingua franca of many of the energy organisations it is not difficult for contractors to move overseas for defined periods of time. Often their flights and accommodation will be paid for – and they may even be able to work from home a couple of days a week”.

The banks may well respond aggressively in terms of rates and salaries, but a completely different cultural experience is a pretty powerful proposition. For the energy trading technology market the war for talent is well and truly on!

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