Article

As we bid farewell to last year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on the milestones, achievements, and exciting developments that made 2023 another eventful year for our team and business.

Commercials

We’re delighted to have partnered 498 candidates with brilliant new roles across 178 businesses in 2023. Our team of recruitment experts provided contingency, interim, executive, and volume hiring solutions across financial services, including banking, payments, asset management, and insurance, as well as wider sectors such as utilities, healthcare, retail, and more.

Our Executive Talent solution continued to deliver success for businesses hiring critical senior, executive, and c-suite roles, with 18% of our placements being at this level. This included:

An average accepted salary of £64,663 in 2023 demonstrates our unwavering expertise in the mid-senior market across each of our disciplines.

With a 53% repeat business rate from 2022 and 83% of the companies we worked with in 2023 hiring 2 or more individuals using our services, our commitment to long-standing, valuable partnerships is clear.

In fact, 30% of our 2023 clients hired 5 or more candidates through MERJE, and 15% recruited 10 or more. This is thanks to our focus on strategic growth in complementary business areas, meaning we can deliver expertise across most business functions, removing the need for organisations to engage with multiple agencies.

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Team News

Our team experienced a wave of changes and celebrations in 2023, underlining the dynamic and vibrant culture at MERJE. Jake's well-deserved promotion to Principal Consultant marked a significant achievement, showcasing the talent and dedication within our ranks. We also celebrated Andrew Varty's remarkable 10-year anniversary, acknowledging his invaluable contributions to the success of MERJE.

Adding fresh perspectives to our team, we welcomed Lauren, Tom, Elisha, Lisa, and Millie. These new additions bring diverse skills and experiences, further strengthening our ability to meet the evolving needs of our clients and candidates across sales, audit, risk, and contact centre recruitment.

Last year also saw Kirstie Burn add another string to her bow as she took on an additional role at MERJE - client services. Alongside providing expert hiring solutions to her clients in their risk and compliance functions, Kirstie is focusing on strengthening client relationships across the whole MERJE team.

This additional purpose aims to ensure our clients are getting everything they can out of our services and solutions as we strive to develop wide-reaching partnerships that benefit the whole firm's goals. With our solutions now covering contingency, interim, senior and executive, and volume hiring across more than 10 business areas, we can be the number one go-to for many organisations' recruitment needs.

In 2023, MERJE actively participated in key industry events, including Credit Strategy’s Credit Summit, Women in Credit Awards, and Credit Awards, where we were honoured to win Recruitment Partner of the Year again.

Pritesh continued his tradition of hosting engaging Financial Crime networking drinks, and our Summer and Christmas socials were not just events; they were moments of joy, camaraderie, and celebration, featuring delectable food, refreshing drinks, and plenty of dancing.

Also in 2023, the London office underwent a complete makeover, transforming the space into a fresh and vibrant environment. This revitalisation aligns with our commitment to providing an inspiring workplace that fosters creativity and collaboration.

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Good Business

Dedicated to continuous improvement in our Good Business efforts, we made menopause awareness one of our top priorities in 2023. Taking concrete steps, we appointed Ellie as the workplace representative, formulated a new policy, signed the Wellbeing of Women pledge, and ensured that our team is well-informed on this crucial topic. This commitment reflects our dedication to creating a supportive and inclusive workplace for all.

Our partnership with City of Trees and membership in their 100 Trees Club remained strong. Beth and Jo exemplified our commitment by getting hands-on, planting trees at Pear Mill, Stockport. Through our "Every Review Plants a Tree" pledge, we donated 108 trees; a testament to the positive impact achievable through collaboration with our candidates and clients.

Continuing our efforts to promote diversity and inclusion within our clients' businesses as well as our own, as set out in our MERJE Together pledge, we have implemented a more detail D&I reporting process which is taking shape. This means we can more accurately report on the Equal Opportunities information shared with us as we strive to improve representation across the industries we work in.

We can report that, in 2023, 38% of the candidates we engaged with were female, and 13% consider themselves to be from under-represented ethnic groups. Furthermore, 6% consider themselves as having a disability, and 28% are in the 50+ age bracket.

These stats help us to identify representation gaps in the workforce and industries we specialise in so we can work to better these numbers, including sharing and implementing D&I focused initiatives such as these we spoke about last year.

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And the rest…

The MERJE Meets series continued to provide valuable insights from industry leaders. Experts such as Matt Tavener, Lou Tipping, and Sheraz Afzal shared their knowledge, contributing to the ongoing dialogue within our community.

We also delivered major insights into the financial crime market with our 2023/24 Financial Crime & Fraud Salary Report, compiling data from our database of professionals to showcase the key trends in the market at the moment.

In a major tech advancement, we migrated to Bullhorn and implemented related technologies, enhancing our ability to deliver top-notch solutions to our clients. Our spotlight on the Executive Talent solution resulted in exceptional senior hires, reinforcing our position as a go-to partner for executive recruitment.

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What’s next?

As we reflect on the successes of 2023, MERJE remains committed to excellence, innovation, and creating positive impacts in the recruitment landscape. Thank you to our incredible team, clients, and candidates for being a part of our journey. Here's to a prosperous and fulfilling 2024!