Covid-19 epidemic may have led to the loss of some jobs in the whole financial services industry, but the data show that hedge fund managers continue to look for the best talents and always pay attention to taking care of their existing employees.
57% of managers said that they had hired or were recruiting new talents since the outbreak. Companies headquartered in North America and companies with asset management of more than $1 billion are most likely to hire new employees after the outbreak begins.
A famous hedge fund lawyer in New York pointed out, "we have witnessed the flow of a large number of talents. Hedge funds booming in the current market turmoil and chaotic environment are actively recruiting, and some of them are job hopping from companies that have experienced crisis."
A fund manager in North America said that the company has been looking for "front office professionals who can bring income because they can really change the company's business". In particular, the one-on-one dialogue with managers during this period shows that the company is eager to find strong fund managers, investor relations professionals and researchers.
Although the data show a general trend in recruitment, our interviews with fund managers and fund service providers show that many of them are equally concerned about how to retain existing talents. Hedge fund managers seem to be taking steps to ensure that their talent is stable and actively involved.
KPMG's recent survey of global CEOs shows that after the outbreak, talent risk has become the biggest risk faced by organizational development in the next three years. At first, talent risk ranked only 11th among CEOs, but only a few months later, it soared to No. 1.
In this study, about 30% of fund managers also recognized this. They expressed their willingness to "train" existing internal talents, or find and train new talents from outside the industry. The decentralized nature of the current business model also creates opportunities for managers to go out of their regular circle and look for new talents from the outside world.
In an interview, a hedge fund manager in the northeast of the United States admitted that the relative success of remote work prompted them to recruit key investment professionals no longer limited to the vicinity of the company's office. At the same time, however, they also want to pay attention to the importance of corporate culture and collaboration.
