Financial Services PR and Comms Recruitment

While the head office for our recruiting and executive search firm is in London, our financial and professional services recruiters provide business support across the UK, across Europe, North America and APAC.

We have experience supporting clients across the UK from the South-East, up to Scotland, North America, from California to New York via Austin and Toronto.

We have worked with businesses in mainland Europe including Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Milan and Zurich.

We have also partnered with firms across Asia Pacific including in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore to provide global recruitment.

It’s hard to offer definitives around exact timelines without understanding more information specific to your search as there are a number of factors we can’t control (people’s diaries being one of them!).

However, 6 weeks is a good rule of thumb to allow for the whole process of placing people in the right roles.

This allows 1 week for us to do a good search to find and assess candidates for the role as we are always actively searching against the brief to ensure the best fit for your next hire versus those CVs we just have to hand. 

Typically, an interview process will then run over 3-4 weeks depending on number of stages – we would advise keeping this as compact and efficient as possible and so are happy to work to tighter time frames.

Finally, around a week from job offer to acceptance with a buffer for salary negotiation, contracts and referencing to complete the talent acquisition.

We are able to and are experienced in working across all levels from entry level to senior positions like C-Suite, across all PR and Communications disciplines, but we find we are able to deliver the most value to our partners when we hire candidates with experience.

We do work with graduates and passionate entry level candidates trying to get into the sector to progress their careers and are always happy to give them job opportunities and the time to help, given we feel we have an important role to play within the PR and Communications industry. 

However, we find it better to open up our networks on a case by case basis in this endeavour, versus charging our partners a fee as a successful placement is harder to guarantee at this level. 

We want to focus on helping a diverse talent pool of entry level candidates access opportunities instead of our fee being a barrier. 

We are always happy to discuss how we can best help, so get in touch and if it’s not a solution we can provide in house we’ll be sure to point you in the right direction. 

Simply put our process is Scope, Search, Engage, Interview and Offer but a little more detail on each of these aspects of our service can be found on OUR PROCESS page.

Beyond this, a number of our clients rely on our support for onboarding and beyond, which we are always happy to assist with throughout the process and afterwards, however we also understand some businesses have fairly tried and tested processes here. 

Like most recruiters, our fees are charged as a percentage of the first years’ compensation of the successful hire; however, the exact structure depends on several factors.

Given we work across a swathe of clients of differing sizes and shapes, industries and locations as well as distinct volume requirements, we understand that there isn’t one size fits all.

As talent specialists, we endeavour to be solutions orientated and design partnership terms based on each individual client for the best recruitment experience.

Our MO is to establish long lasting partnerships with the businesses we work with and be seen as their trusted PR and Comms recruitment experts, so charging the highest fee possible at every juncture is not in our nature. 

We work with our partners to ensure that our services are value-add rather than painful expenses and provide a long-term solution to talent challenges.

The fact is we offer all of the above; Contingent search (success based fee model); Retained search services (strategic tailored search with an upfront commitment fee); and Retained executive search services (specific to senior and strategic hires for very narrow talent pools).

All have merits, but the truth is that without information as to your specific needs and requirements, and therefore the talent pool in question, it is hard to say which approach may be best for your business.

What we can say however, being MarComms specialists and industry experts, is that in our experience an iterative or contingent search model tends to be effective in around 70% of cases, particularly where exclusivity is agreed.

As ever, there isn’t one size fits all and so we endeavour to be adaptive to each client’s needs and priorities, and work closely with you and the challenges you face, to provide a strategy most likely to secure an efficient and successful outcome. 

What sets us apart from the typical recruitment agency is our experienced team of PR and communications specialist recruitment consultants have deep knowledge of the industries we specialise in, venture capital and the wider financial services market, with clients included in PE, banking, fintech, asset management, investment management etc.

We keep on top of the latest innovative trends, requirements, competitive salary guides, qualifications and qualities required so you can make the perfect hire that is ready to hit the ground running and help your business achieve the growth it deserves.

This makes us a leading partner and recruiting firm for your company to find talent across the venture capital industry. Thanks to our expertise and diligence, we’re efficient and tirelessly seek the best candidate to fill your roles across senior management hires such as c-level and other leadership roles down to venture capital executives. We won’t stop until we bring you success in your choice of candidate.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is a topic that has consistently been discussed and pontificated around, but is still seen by some as a tick box exercise and has made little progress despite the noise.

At Sapio, we realise we have a key role to play in changing that and we actively work to increase DE&I in our sector by influencing some key areas.

Please see our DE&I page to find out how we’re helping to foster inclusive cultures that facilitate the success of ALL employees and businesses.