Brian O’Connor ACA is an Associate with Barden’s Accounting & Tax practice, and an expert in recently qualified accounting careers.

Brian qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2017, completing his training with Deloitte. He is a graduate of UCD and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business/Commerce and a Master’s Degree in Accounting.

Following his training in Deloitte he spent some time travelling and working in Australia gaining experience within industry, working in financial accounting roles with Vocus Group Limited, Toll Group and Independent Cement & Lime Group.

We chatted to him recently to find out a bit more about him…

Where are you from?

Dublin born and raised.

Where did you study?

I studied Commerce in UCD and went on to do a Masters in Accounting in Smurfit Business School before finally joining Deloitte and getting my ACA qualification.

What did you enjoy most about your time studying?  

Meeting new friends along the way. I met some great people at each stage of my education and wouldn’t change a thing. 

How old were you when you had your first paying job? And what was it?

16, I was a “Chicken Fillet Roll Technician” in my local Centra. I think my sandwich making skills are still top notch!

Where did you work before joining Barden?

My most recent role before Barden was as a Financial Accountant in a cement distribution company in Melbourne, this was my first time working in an SME and I really enjoyed being exposed to all elements of the business. It was a big change from my previous roles in larger MNCs.

Is there an achievement that you are most proud of?

I organised and participated in a charity cycle from Dublin to Dingle a couple of years ago. We managed to raise over €5,000 to help fund a primary school in Lebanon for Syrian refugees. The weather was amazing and it was great craic, I’d love to do it again some time.

What made you decide to move into the world of recruitment?

I’ve always loved working with different people and the opportunity to work with new people every day while still keeping in tune with the accounting industry was something that really appealed to me.

Why did you choose to work with Barden?

The team and culture here at Barden really stood out for me, I was instantly drawn to the values and ethos at the core of the business.

What’s the best thing about working here?

Again, the people. The broad range of people I meet and get to help on a daily basis is something that’s hard to find elsewhere.

What does your role in Barden involve?

My role focusses on recently qualified accounting professionals and helping them in their careers. I try to use my own experiences to help understand each person’s needs and preferences, and support them in making the best decision for them.

Have you a favourite saying or quote?

“Bíonn siúlach scéalach”, the well-travelled tell a good tale.

Glass half full or half empty?

Definitely half full. I try to find the good in every situation, even in the midst of this pandemic I keep thinking – at least I can wear sliders to work.

What’s your favourite sport?

I’ve always been a big football fan and try go to the Ireland games when I can. I went to the Euros in France 4 years ago and it was the funniest couple of weeks I’ve ever had! COYBIG

Where in the world would you most like to visit?

A big trip around South America is next on my list. I spent a month in Colombia a few years ago but I’m yet to explore the rest of the continent. It seems like a distant dream at the moment but we’ll get there one day!

And finally, who would win a fight between Spiderman, Batman or Wonder Woman?

That’s a tricky one, but Spiderman gets my vote.

Need help achieving your ambitions?

Are you a recently qualified accounting professional looking for help in achieving your ambitions?  If so, get in touch with Brian O’Connor ACA  today at brian.oconnor@barden.ie  who would be more than happy to chat and help you navigate your professional future.

In a recent Accountancy Ireland article, Ed Heffernan, Managing Partner, Barden, shared some insights on the supply and demand of accounting talent in 2021. Have a read below to find out more…

By now many companies have both implemented and become comfortable with virtual hiring processes. The enormous impact on demand seen during the first lockdown has not manifested in either the second nor third lock down to quite the same extent.  Companies that are hiring are getting on with business.

Demand for talent has now begun to follow a predictable pattern of mirroring restrictions:  dampening during the initial phases of tightened restrictions and surging as restrictions begin to lift. Spikes in demand for accounting talent occurred in September 2020 and December 2020. Should restrictions begin to ease somewhat in March, we predict another such spike in April. In the meantime, demand remains at approximately 70% of pre-pandemic levels.

Supply of accounting talent has followed a similar pattern to demand but has not perhaps recovered to the same extent. In the initial lockdown period, people were hesitant to consider moving jobs, resulting in a very real dip in supply. Some companies that were hiring in June were surprised that it was harder to get good people at the time. As restrictions eased, people became more confident but the supply of accounting talent at many levels just did not recover in the same way as demand. People had settled into new work from home routines, had other issues taking up their time outside of work and many had neither the capacity nor the inclination to start looking for a new job. Not much has changed in that regard through successive lockdowns, with supply in Q1 2021 continuing to lag demand.

What do we in Barden predict over the coming quarters? Here are a couple of things we think will happen:

1. Demand will surge again once restrictions begin to ease: Following a possible surge in April (and assuming no further lockdowns), demand will settle back to a higher level than before (perhaps about 80-85% of pre-pandemic levels). We expect that to continue to be the case until the end of the year. Only when industries decimated by the pandemic (and frustrated by Brexit) begin to rebuild both their businesses and their finance teams, will we see a return to 2019 levels of demand.
2. Supply will continue to lag behind demand over the coming months: Supply will be unlikely to catch up with demand, however, we do see a potential surge in supply occurring towards the middle of the year. Those who have been thinking about moving will finally begin to get market curious, who were due to come home in 2020 but did not will begin to trickle back, and who have been looking after dependents are more certain of the schools/other supports being back will finally put themselves back on the market.
3. Contract roles will continue to lead permanent roles on volume: As companies rebuild, they will do so tentatively. A commitment to a new person for a fixed-term contract is just less risky than hiring someone on a permanent basis right now.

In summary, H1 will be more a candidate-driven market, as hiring managers having less choice and having to pay/compete more, and H2 will be a more hiring manager driven market, as demand stabilises and supply of talent increases, candidates will have less choice and will need to be more flexible.

It will be 2022 before we’ll see a return to more normalised supply and demand patterns. That’ our hunch at least.

For more information, or if you’ve got something you’d like us to share, please drop a note to Ed Heffernan, Managing Partner, Barden, at ed.heffernan@barden.ie.

Source: Accountancy Ireland – see original article here.

Aoibhín Byrne is an Associate with Barden, and an expert in part qualified accounting, operational finance and newly qualified tax careers.

A Cork cailín, and UCC grad, she joined Barden in October 2019. We chatted to Aoibhín recently to find out a bit more about her…

Where are you from?

I’m a little bit of a proud Cork woman…. once you spend some time in Cork you’ll understand!

Where did you study? 

I studied Commerce with French in University College Cork (UCC)

How did you find the process of choosing to go to college and what to study after school?

College for me after the Leaving Certificate was always a no-brainer, I really enjoyed learning in school and it made sense for me to go to UCC, as it was close to home and both my parents studied there too.

Choosing my course was definitely a challenge – I didn’t have a clear and defined career path like my sister, who knew she always wanted to be a doctor, which definitely made choosing a course very difficult. I enjoyed accounting in school but was scared to commit to this in college and wanted a course that would offer me plenty of opportunities when I graduated – hence the choice of Commerce with French. This route still allowed me to pursue accounting modules but also allowed me to gain broader business experience.

I think the best advice I could give when choosing a college course is to keep it broad if you’re still not certain what you want to specialise in – there will always be an option down the line to complete a postgraduate course or a masters course if you do want to specialise your educational knowledge.

Where did you work before joining Barden?

I worked in the tax department of KPMG and was mainly involved in corporate tax advisory and compliance.

Is there an achievement or contribution that you are most proud of? 

I suppose for me the last two years have been a lot about making big changes and being quite resilient, after some knockbacks. One of the biggest changes has probably been making the move into a different career and totally changing my career path…and let’s not talk about adapting to pandemic life (but that’s an achievement we can all be proud of!).

What made you decide to move into the world of recruitment?

When I finished college, I joined KPMG. I had a great experience and really enjoyed the job, but I also felt there was something missing for me. I really enjoyed the technical work but I  wanted my career to be more in line with my values and with who I was. And when I met the team from Barden there was no question that it, and the people who worked there, were the ones for me. The joke in the office is that we all “fell” into recruitment but a lot of us genuinely did, and Barden is the reason for that!

What’s the best thing about working in Barden?

The people obviously – I am so proud to work closely with the people I do on a daily basis. It’s extremely rare to find such a genuine strong bond in a company!

But also, the way we work in Barden. The most important thing for us is to get to know clients (i.e., their business structure, how they generate revenue, business culture etc..) and candidates alike (their interests, their preferred way of working, their career aspirations etc..).

This means initially sitting down with clients / candidates over a cup of coffee (a virtual one these days!) and spending the time to get to know them before getting to work on the task at hand.

Something I really enjoy, especially having an interest in the broader business world – I love understanding how businesses work and hearing about a candidate’s career. And in turn this really helps us work a lot more efficiently to ensure we are addressing candidates and client’s needs to the highest standard. We aren’t ones for wasting time in Barden and this is a motto everyone in the company definitely lives by!

What was most surprising to you about Barden?

I had never worked in recruitment before, so I didn’t have a clear understanding of what it was like. I suppose most surprising is that Barden actually live and breathe what they talk about…which I feel is quite unique across businesses in general (not just recruitment!). 

What does your role in Barden involve?

I am based in the Dublin office and work across Part Qualified Accounting, Operational Finance (Accounts Payable, Payroll and Accounts Assistant at all levels) and Newly Qualified Tax roles (I like to be kept on my toes…!).

My role involves bridging the gap between the clients and the candidate’s needs…and ultimately matching the right person to the right role.

A lot of my role is about understanding people. Listening to their wants and their career aspirations, and ultimately supporting them to achieve their career goals. When it comes down to it it’s about making a difference to a person’s life.

What three words best describe you?

Caring, positive, friendly.

Who is your role model, and why?

My parents, they’ve always supported me no matter what and they have always been there for me. I’ll never forget telling them I was thinking of leaving tax to join recruitment – a  career change is probably not the most ideal thing for any parent to hear! But they both went out of their way to help me with the change in career and couldn’t have been more understanding or supportive.

Have you a favourite saying or quote? What is it? 

I have a few but two of my top ones are…

“Everything happens for a reason.”

“Live in the present.”

Glass half full or half empty?

Half full for sure, it’s definitely important to remember we always have our ups and downs but trying to put a positive spin on things will help shift your perspective and focus on what you can control 🙂

Where in the world would you most like to visit right now? 

I am dreaming of the snowy Alps – as soon as we can all safely travel again both my legal bestie and I will be jetting off to Austria, renting a car and hitting the slopes 🙂

And finally, who would win a fight between Spiderman, Batman or Wonder Woman?

Wonder Woman of course – it’s all about the girl power here in the Barden Dublin office ☺️  Ah I’m only messing .. we do let the lads have a fair shot!

In Barden we only work with the best.  Chartered Accountants do too.  That’s why we’ve decided to work together.  It just makes sense.

Over the next 3 years Barden will be working closely with Chartered Accountants Student Society of Ireland (CASSI) to make sure their members get access to the right information, at the right time so when they qualify they can make the right decisions about their professional future.

Why does that matter?

Every year our team in Barden will be working with over 1,000 newly qualified chartered accountants as they make their first move post-training contract.  Some will stay in their firm, some will move to another firm; some will travel, some will stay at home;  some will move out of practice to take on their first industry role; some will even become recruiters in Barden.

If you’re hiring a newly qualified accountant at any stage over the next 3 years you should probably talk with Barden.

Newly qualified Chartered Accountants are talking with Barden first.  You should too…

For more information please contact our Managing Partner, Ed Heffernan.

Hire smarter, be stronger

As a recruiter, one trend I always find baffling is the tendency to under-hire, rather than over-hire.

Of course, different roles and companies have different requirements – and sometimes that may mean that you need to hire someone with room to grow into the role (for instance if it’s a flat structure with no clear career path). But when there is no clear reason for hiring someone ‘better’ than the required criteria of the role, if there is room to add value, it just doesn’t make sense.

Great leaders are the result of the sum of their parts

There is no doubt, some people feel threatened by people who they deem to be, in some way, better than them. Even subconsciously. Taking this point aside, there is also the fear that there may not be enough room for the ‘smarter’ hire to grow and feel satisfied in their role – and that they may destabilise, rather than stabilise the team.

However, in all jobs, there are always ways to create value. A great leader recognises that hiring people who have ‘more’, rather than ‘less’ to bring to the table can actually contribute significantly to pushing a team’s vision and agenda forward. And the better the team performs, the better the leader looks, too!

Difference brings questions – don’t fall into the trap of hiring someone ‘just like you’

It’s just natural to hire people who have a similar background to you, or that you have a natural synergy with. It makes sense – same value set, same work product. We all know “fit” can be critically important, especially in small team environments, as can education and skills gained in similar work environments. So very often, looking for similar characteristics and qualities in potential candidates is an important part of any hiring process.

One of the biggest strengths of any team is in its diversity. If you hire a high percentage of people that share similar strengths and weaknesses to you, or to the rest of the team, these strengths and weaknesses become the team’s strengths and weaknesses.

Without this diversity of skills, and differences of opinion, you can’t have balance, which in itself is a risk to performance. Moreover, hiring people that think alike will inhibit positive challenge, discussion and debate in a team, which will slow down the necessary course of innovation and evolution.

So, be bold. Hire for smarts, and hire for difference.

Helping candidates feel at ease during the interview process is the single most important task for hiring managers. In this article, we explain why candidates never forget how you make them feel.

The following article is from our latest “Hiring Guide”, brought to you by Accountancy Ireland, in association with Barden (Ireland).

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou, the American civil rights activist, might not be the first person who springs to mind when thinking about the interview process, but this quote goes to the heart of excellent candidate management.

How you make a candidate feel has everything to do with the little things. Do you make yourself available for interview at a suitable time for the candidate? Is your reception area warm, clean and comfortable? Is the receptionist pleasant and polite?

Beyond that, hiring managers need to consider how they make candidates feel during the interview process. Interviews should challenge candidates in a positive way; they should be more about seeking out candidates’ assets and less about their shortcomings. Let’s face it, most quality candidates will be seeking jobs that will stretch their capabilities so you’re always going to have a gap to contend with.

Expectation Management

When a candidate is invited for interview, it becomes their sole focus. The course of their career, and ultimately their future, hangs in the balance. The hiring manager, on the other hand, could have several people to interview; the day job could be hectic if the team is down a person; and the HR department may have dozens, if not hundreds, of such candidates to deal with at any given time.

If you interview someone on Tuesday, it’s very tempting to say “We’ll be back to you by Friday”. But what if that doesn’t happen? The candidate will likely spend the weekend ruminating resentfully and, come Monday morning, will have convinced him or herself that they didn’t really want the job anyway. It’s a classic case of the psyche protecting itself from disappointment. So what should the hiring manager do instead?

Control the Process

First, add a week. If you think you can get back to a candidate this Friday, say Friday week instead. It’s much better to under-promise and over-deliver, and an early phone call will be a very pleasant surprise for the chosen candidate.

Second, own the entire process. See yourself as an air traffic controller who knows the status of every aspect of the hiring process at all times. Yes, that involves a lot of time and effort on your part as the hiring manager – but nothing is more important than hiring the best person for your team because, at the end of the day, your team is your own route to success.

If you outsource the entire recruitment process to your colleagues in HR, your vacancy will be one of many and may fall between the cracks. Instead, view HR as a service provider and follow up with your colleagues as relevant deadlines loom to ensure that offers are made and contracts dispatched at the earliest opportunity.

The Finishing Touch

And finally, follow up with the candidate once the offer has been accepted. A quick phone call to congratulate them and reiterate your belief that they are the right person for the job will minimise the risk of the candidate having a change of heart before the contract is signed.

Offer to meet them for lunch with a few fellow managers to help break the ice before they join the firm. Your relationship with your new hire has already started, so make them feel welcome before they set foot in your office.

The Right Way to Make a Job Offer

Too often, the offer process descends into anarchy. Use these tips to make the right offer to the right person at the right time.

1. Make Your Best Offer

If you’re trying to under-offer a candidate, you aren’t serious about attracting the best talent. Make your best offer following an analysis of various factors, including the candidate’s current salary, market rates and the degree of learning involved.

2. Use the Sandwich Technique

The offer should be book-ended with feeling. Open with why you’ve chosen the candidate and outline what you believe they will bring to the table. Then, make the offer and close with a re-affirmation of your belief that the candidate is the right person for the role and that you look forward to working with them. Remember, it’s about how you make them feel.

3. Follow up With HR

Without demonising the HR department, it is possible for contracts to be delayed for a variety of reasons. Make sure your candidate receives a contract as soon as possible after verbally accepting the offer. Time kills all deals and this is particularly true in recruitment.

4. Be Willing to Walk Away

The offer process should not be like horse trading. If you have gone in with your best offer, and believe it to be reasonable given market rates and so forth, you ought to be ready to walk away if the offer isn’t accepted. There should only ever be one offer, one that is a fair representation of the value the role creates within the business.

This article is part of the new Hiring Guide, brought to you by Accountancy Ireland and Barden (Ireland).
Click here to download your copy of the Hiring Guide.

Master these five steps to create an outrageously good employer brand.

The digital age and our newfound capacity to share our views means employer branding is an “always on” thing, not just a “when I need to hire someone” thing. Put simply, your employer brand is what people say about you as a hiring manager when you’re not in the room and luckily, there’s a number of ways to influence how people perceive you.

LinkedIn

Half of prospective candidates will view your LinkedIn profile before applying for a role and 99% will check it out before an interview. Ensure that your profile is up-to-date and conveys the right image.

Recruiter Brief

Your recruiters should be able to speak with clarity about your own background and leadership style. Better recruiters talk more about the hiring manager than the company. They’ll be telling your story, so make sure they have the right one.

Interview Style
 
At interview, it isn’t about what you say – it’s about how you make your candidates feel. Some of your greatest ambassadors will be the candidates you regret, rather than the candidates you hire. So, how are you going to make sure they will recommend you to a friend?

Profile in the Profession

The more you participate with your Institute, the stronger your brand will be. Keep those networking events in your diary, look for opportunities to write the occasional article and even present at an event. Today, it isn’t just about what you know and who you know – it’s about who knows you.

Who you are in Work

Your team and those who worked with you before will know you best. What do they say when you’re not in the room? How did you handle it when the last person resigned from your team? How do you make them feel? What will they say to others about you at the next Institute dinner? Take time to consider these questions carefully as the answers will give you a good indication of the task ahead. Your employer brand is created by whispers at the water-cooler, so never underestimate your power to improve your standing in the eyes of others.

For Hiring Managers, Patience is a Virtue

Jane Colgan, Property Controller at Kennedy Wilson Europe, explains why patience is a virtue when searching for the right candidate.

“Hiring and retaining the best talent is the most important management skill in any organisation. Hiring managers should invest time and energy in designing their team and be patient in their search for the right candidate. The reason is simple: a small team of exceptional people will achieve greater success than a large team of average players.

I often hear experience being heralded as the most important trait when it comes to building a strong team. While it is important, I would always prioritise intelligence and passion over experience when choosing a new member for my team.

Retention is equally crucial and can be achieved by going the extra mile to nurture employees’ development. This will help organisations build stronger, longer-lasting teams. Hiring managers should also establish strong on-boarding procedures from the get-go, including regular employee engagement.”

Conclusion

Your personal employer brand is your reputation. Good people want to work and learn from other good people. If you want to become a talent magnet and hire the best, you need to be perceived as the best.

This article is part of the new Hiring Guide, brought to you by Accountancy Ireland and Barden.

Click here to download your copy of the Hiring Guide.

Determining the best candidates from the rest requires patience, intelligence and commitment.

The key to attracting the right calibre of candidate is based in the concept of ‘effective recruiting’ (i.e. the process of finding and/or attracting applicants for vacant positions).

Everything you have read up to now will put you, the hiring manager, in a very strong position in this regard – but now, you need to move fast to secure the right candidate for the role before the competition snaps them up.

When the CVs start to arrive, it can be tempting to “weed out” the weaker or less suitable candidates with rudimentary and rigid criteria. You might exclude anyone who isn’t Big 4 trained, for example, or those who do not work in an identical role in the same industry. This will certainly minimise the number of CVs for review, but it will very likely exclude some of the best prospective talent in the market.

Look at the examples above in a different light. A candidate in a Top 10 firm as it is generally considered may work in a division within that firm that, due to the size of its client base, is in fact one of the dominant players in that space. And you might be looking for a candidate with FMCG experience only, but there’s a lot of cross-over between the FMCG industry and telco organisations, for example. In both industries, candidates will have experience operating in a high-volume, low-margin, business-to-consumer environment. If you look beyond the headline terminology, you therefore have access to a significantly larger talent pool. People often talk about ‘A players’ but as Patty McCord wrote recently in Harvard Business Review, “one company’s A player may be a B player from another firm”.

Once you set the screening parameters, you need to be reactive. As we’ve already mentioned, it’s a competitive candidate-driven market, so don’t wait until a set date to filter applications. Do it in real-time as they arrive and arrange to meet high-potential candidates as quickly as possible.

On this point, if you’re delegating the interview preparations to your colleagues in HR, tell them who you want to meet; the days and times when you can meet them; who you would like to join the interview panel; and a deadline for completing the task.

This might sound ‘bossy’ but it’s nothing more than taking control of the process. Nine times out of ten, your colleagues in HR will thank you for giving them clarity.

And finally, don’t restrict your comparisons to candidates. Benchmark your high-potential candidates against existing team members and previous hires, rather than their fellow applicants who simply happen to be available in the market at this point in time.

We’ve all heard how costly a poor hire can be, so take the time to attract the right talent in the first instance, and shortlist intelligently. Recruitment can be a messy business, but the best hiring managers will be able to find that diamond in the rough.

What a best-in-class shortlisting process looks like…

In the frenzy to filter dozens of applications, be wary of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

In recruitment, there’s an age-old practice that’s often cited. A hiring manager needs to fill a position. The position is advertised, and CVs start pouring in. To save time, the hiring manager asks the office administrator to bin any CVs with spelling mistakes. Versions of this very rudimentary approach to shortlisting continues today, but at what cost?

To get the most of out of a hiring process, the hiring manager has two obvious options. First, work with an extremely conscientious HR professional who knows your industry inside out and can navigate the ‘fuzziness’ in people’s career experience to find the right person for the role. Second, act as your own gatekeeper and use HR exclusively as the facilitator for the flow of information between candidate and hiring manager.

In the best-case scenario, however, the hiring manager would deal with one or two highly-regarded recruitment companies. Each would search the market and present the hiring manager with their two best candidates within a pre-agreed time frame.

The hiring manager can then decide who he or she wishes to interview and when, before instructing the HR department on the requirements for the interview. This gives each person in the process a defined role, with the hiring manager setting clear parameters and goals for their recruitment consultants and colleagues in HR.

This article is part of the Hiring Guide, brought to you by Accountancy Ireland and Barden (Ireland).

Click here to download your copy of the Hiring Guide.

Google ‘Why is company culture important?’ and you get about 1,990,000,000 results. It’s a hot topic especially these days, with some massive recent shifts in how and where we work.

So, it’s good to see it being discussed amongst some of Ireland’s leading financial services professionals.

In the recent Women in Finance Virtual Summit Ireland edition, Fionnán O’Sullivan, Managing Partner at Barden’s Financial Services Practice, hosted a panel entitled “Redefined company cultures – the pandoras box of opportunities”.

The panel featured:

Joann Hosey, Provincial Director, Bank of Ireland Dublin

Sara Savidge, Managing Director, Wholesale Payments, JP Morgan Chase & Co

Alison Manley, Director, Goodbody Fund Management

…and zoned in on culture exploring what it means for companies, especially those operating in financials services. Through a series of blogs we’ll take a closer look at what was discussed on the day and will share some of the kay insights with you.

First up we dive into…

“Why is company culture so important these days, and why is there such a focus on it?” 

With company culture being defined as “as a set of shared values, goals, attitudes and practices that characterise an organisation” Fionnán asked the panellists to share their take on culture and what it means for their organisations. Here’s what they had to say.

Joann Hosey, Provincial Director, Bank of Ireland Dublin

“Culture is essentially how we do things, how we get things done in an organisation. There are two aspects to it looking both internally and externally.”

“Externally customers will want to understand a business and an org so they can build trust in an organisation. And obviously as we build trust with our customers they’re likely to do more business with us so I think really positive commercial outcomes are possible through that.”

“From an internal perspective, and when you put the colleague lens on it, colleagues want to enjoy their job. Colleagues want to make a difference. Colleagues want to contribute and be part of the ultimate vision of the organisation.”

“So we’re hearing quite a bit at the moment about purpose-led organisations, organisations essentially who have a clearly defined purpose, they’re very clear in what they want to stand for. And if I look at Bank of Ireland for example we’re very clear, we’ve a very strong purpose we want to enable customers, colleagues and communities to thrive. And across our organisation with 10,000 people every single person is aware in terms of what our ultimate ambition is. And really as a colleague that purpose gives me clarity. It makes me know what I stand for, what I want to achieve and I think what it really does is it helps an organisation to rebuild engagement among its people.”

 “It will also attract and help us to attract new talent and we know that better engagement will deliver better customer outcomes but equally better commercial outcomes for the organisation. So I think it’s a win-win situation for both customer, colleague and the organisation.” 

Sara Savidge, Managing Director, Wholesale Payments, JP Morgan Chase & Co

“It’s a difficult one to manage, it’s less tangible. Performance can often be measured by numbers by success by feedback, whereas culture is very intangible.”

“When I look at culture in terms of the impact it has it is the most significant deciding factor in terms of a company’s performance or perhaps how colleagues feel about the organisation and the clients that they serve. When we engage with our clients here in JP Morgan our clients want to know, they want to experience and fell that culture come through too, and I think it’s so very important.”

“It’s also around loyalty, I think Joanne hit on a really good point earlier, colleagues want to feel part of something. And if you feel part of something you’re more inclined to go the extra mile or perhaps think outside the box and that inclusive environment where the culture is really positive, people can be themselves, their full authentic self, in a positive environment that is centred around culture I think also the company can expect more from their colleagues and clients as well, in terms of experience. That end to end experience that clients have touches so many different parts of our organisation. Therefore there needs to be cohesive that inclusive culture to make sure the customer experience is consistent at every touch point.”  

Alison Manley, Director, Goodbody Fund Management  

“I think it’s very interesting in financial services because we have similar approaches to culture. We need to be very stable, we need to follow the rules but we also need to be very caring and portray a caring culture to our clients and our staff.”

“But outside of financial services it’s really interesting there are very different kinds of culture. If you think of a company like Tesla, it’s all about innovation and what’s the next great thing and how can we be better and better, and how can we reimagine.”

“Or you can have a culture like Disney  which is much more about caring and bringing families together. I think it’s great that companies and organisations can create their own culture and envisage their own culture that is both appropriate to their business goals and to the goals of their people. It’s important for the company to come together around what our culture should be.”

In the next edition of this series we’ll take a look at “How do we keep the culture in tact during the pandemic, and ensure it doesn’t slide.”

About Fionnán O’Sullivan

As an expert in financial services recruitment Fionnán O’Sullivan takes his job seriously. With the support of Partners across Accounting, Tax and Legal, Fionnán leads an expert team that are trained in Insurance, Asset Management or Banking and share the same experience as the hiring managers they work with. His reputation, personal network, knowledge and the calibre of his people is why financial services companies trust Fionnán and his team in Barden. Get in touch with Fionnán via LinkedIn or email fionnán.osullivan@barden.ie.