The risks of incomplete human due diligence in M&A are steep. They do not need to be.

Announcements of mergers and acquisitions are ritually accompanied by rhetorical nods to the human elements of a deal, nearly always in the most glowing terms. What every veteran of M&A knows is how often the human elements are underappreciated in the process of getting a deal done.

Although investment banking compensation will likely be down again this year as revenues continue to drag, this is good news for banks looking to hire.

In the last few years, we’ve seen unprecedented disruptions in how, when, and even why we work. It has become increasingly important to understand what drives ourselves and our employees. Studying and understanding these dynamics embedded in the broader macro environment is at the center of what we do.

Despite economic instability and an impending global recession, the talent market in global real estate remains highly competitive. Employers need help hiring and retaining top talent in a market that arguably continues to skew in the employees’ favor. Employees continue to be more demanding and discerning, and employers must continue to adapt accordingly.

This is the first issue of a new series assessing the critical trends in the global real estate market and their likely impact on talent acquisition and retention for private equity real estate funds. This report includes our thematic predictions for the real estate talent market in 2023. Future topics will include a deep-dive in how we think about attracting and retaining talent, diversity, ESG, among other topics.

Talented people want different things from the firms they work for today, and the old leadership models are looking increasingly unstable. To thrive, leaders must rethink their approach and put equity, collaboration, and listening at the core of everything they do.The pandemic accelerated trends that threw both the way we work and what’s expected of our leaders up in the air. Until then, the professional services sector had been dominated by traditional models of leadership, with women still a minority in top positions in partnerships. Ahead of International Women’s Day 2023, we interviewed six senior leaders to get their take on what’s changed, what’s stuck, and what still needs to happen.

How do you compare with your peers on gender diversity?

Benchmark the gender diversity of your organisation against the broader insurance market, compare your statistics against your peers, and get a picture of what good looks like currently.

You can view the market averages by top, upper middle, lower middle, and lower quartile taken from the UK insurance firms that report their gender stats. Or you can search by company name and company type– carrier or intermediary. You can also track progress year-on-year.

This data is sourced from the Gender Pay Gap Reports issued by UK insurance firms. We validate and run through our data tools to present in an easy-to-read format in the dashboards below. We are applying the terminology used in Gender Pay Gap Reports to categorise and present the data.

Read the full article here.

The world was stuck in recession when Sheffield Haworth was established in 1993. Unemployment was at record levels and expected to get worse. (It did.) The Internet had yet to arrive as the widespread social phenomenon that it would quickly become.

Thirty years later we may be entering another period of global recession—with two big differences from 1993. The first is that talent shortages are widespread in developed economies. The second is the power that digital tools give us to extract a richer kind of understanding about talent—what it is, where it is, how to engage it and how to hold it.

If it is true that organizations are only as good as the people in them then the way through this uncertain moment is talent intelligence, the emerging science of tracking where the best are going, what motivates them and how they fit into an organization’s strategic plan.

In the next several years the booming demand for ‘fractional executives’ is going to accelerate around the world. Sheffield Haworth is positioned to lead the way for clients. 

Oli Templeton explains why…

ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) is one of the biggest priorities in the corporate world today. Certainly, as a talent and recruitment consultancy, Sheffield Haworth has seen a huge increase in ESG-related roles – and the demand for talent with ESG experience or qualifications.

ESG is so all-encompassing as a term that we could almost see it as unhelpful – especially when it comes to defining job roles and the corresponding skills required for them. After all, is a Head of ESG primarily responsible for increasing diversity and inclusion in the workforce? Or do they oversee reporting on the environmental impact of the supply chain? Or are they driving through a series of processes that will make their organisation a net zero carbon dioxide emitter by 2030?

We interviewed five ESG specialists from across the insurance market to get a deeper understanding of the ESG trends and opportunities and what this might mean for the future of the ESG talent market in insurance.

Part 1 of a two-part Sheffield Haworth special report on ESG

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become a significant priority for the insurance industry in recent years. Despite this fact – and the fact that ESG is not a new phenomenon – many within the industry seem to be struggling to get to grips with it. Many firms are largely focused on the challenges and implicit negatives of ESG rather than the potential opportunities for competitive advantage, brand reputation, and increased customer loyalty.

That’s why my team and I set out to better understand the industry’s attitudes towards ESG. We began with this survey of industry experts to get a range of expert opinion on ESG challenges. This is part one of a two-part study. Part two will be a deep dive with selected experts from InsurTechs, carriers, and brokers to look at the potential opportunities and emerging market opportunities within ESG.

This survey is very much geared towards regulatory challenges, both in terms of compliance and reporting. Some of the trends highlighted in this report are likely to have a major impact on hiring trends for ESG talent in the years to come. I hope you find this report both useful and thought-provoking.