More than half, 58 per cent, of human resources executives and line managers expect hiring across the financial services job market to rise in the first half of 2011 compared with the second half of 2010, according to the Morgan McKinley 2011 Hiring Market Survey, which polled 200 managers in London in December 2010.

“Last year we were just seeing the beginning of a period of recovery, now with that behind us, it’s clear that organisations are committed to continuing to hire with 85 per cent expecting recruitment to rise (58 per cent) or stay the same (27 per cent) in the next six months compared to H2 2010 levels,” said Andrew Evans, managing director at Morgan McKinley Financial Services.

One third of managers, 34 per cent, expect their organisations to focus on replacement hiring while another third, 36 per cent, anticipate equal focus on new headcount and replacement hiring, says the report.

In terms of the difference between permanent and temporary recruitment, 54 per cent managers anticipate a rise in permanent hiring in the first six months of 2011 compared to 29 per cent of managers planning to hire temporary staff.

In addition, fewer managers (37 per cent) find it more difficult than a year ago (52 per cent) to find the right staff.

However, it is now competitors poaching employees that is the main personnel challenge for over a third of managers (37 per cent) compared to 12 months ago, when respondents saw remuneration as the most significant challenge, says the report.

“Managers’ concerns over competitors poaching their staff supports anecdotal evidence that there are pockets of the market such as risk, compliance, finance, asset management and more recently HR where talent at certain levels is in strong demand and financial institutions in some cases are offering very competitive packages to secure the best professionals,” said Evans.