Tom Pain, Manager, Digital and Marketing, discusses the most in-demand skillsets within the digital arena for 2016.

During 2015, a staggering 78% of Oliver James Associates’ clients increased their digital budgets. As digital teams grow, the surge in hiring has put pressure on companies to find the best talent out there whilst retaining their own staff.

What Skillsets Have Been in High Demand in 2015?

Retaining top digital talent is becoming a genuine issue for the vast majority of businesses due to the need to have people capable of performing very specific roles alongside the fact that this lack of variety may prompt their departures. This is especially the case given the number of readily available alternative roles, often offering higher salaries.

As digital has evolved, we have recently seen an increase in demand for specialist digital candidates with technical skills such as mobile, SEO, PPC, analytics, optimisation, user experience. There has also been a rise in demand for product experience in niche emerging technologies such as in-car apps for an insurance telematics client and wearable tech. This is increasingly the case as more companies choose to hire external expertise over upskilling current staff.

The Anticipated Skillsets in Demand for 2016:

The high demand for mobile specific candidates will persist as mobile phone usage continues to surpass desktop usage and as it becomes less about communications and more about consumer experience. The demand will be particularly high for mobile secure access candidates and mobile advertising candidates as the global mobile advertising market will hit two significant milestones in 2016; surpassing $100 billion in spending (up from $68BN in 2015) and accounting for more than 50% of all digital ad expenditure for the first time.

As “data-driven thinking” proliferates across board rooms, the adoption rates of targeted, programmatic advertising are on the up, even if they are still lagging behind the US market. Large companies such as American Express have now announced that they aim to buy at least 75% of their digital media in this way and there are a number of large businesses now looking to bring this in-house. As such, we are likely to see increased demand for candidates with experience in executing programmatic campaigns.

Finally, as start-ups and challengers continue to compete with established businesses, not just in banking but across most established sectors, the focus on the customer will intensify and will result in a surge in hiring across insight and analytics.

Hiring Plans for 2016:

Most large banks and building societies are currently amidst a hiring freeze for non-essential staff. However, other areas of the Financial Services sector are continuing to hire digital talent. Particularly retail insurance as they aim to further develop direct acquisition models and reduce reliance on expensive aggregators and increasingly asset management / wealth management, which is seeing a large move towards automated, digital “robo-advice”.

The major consultancy businesses are all significantly bolstering their digital teams across UX and strategy/transformation. They offer very competitive packages but will typically require the candidates to travel much of the time and their speed to hire is still too slow for the competitive digital & UX markets, which they are trying to address.

A large amount of the digital hiring that is currently happening within the tier-1 banks is within product as it continues to be a key differentiator. The largest trend that we are seeing within financial services is the move towards separate, less formal, digital offices in a bid to attract more innovative digital talent such as Aviva’s “Digital Garage”.

Salary Guide & Contractor Rates:

Please see a copy of our most recent salary survey below. This brief salary survey aggregates data from our own records and relationships with digital employers within the UK Financial Services sector. It draws information from thousands of digital candidates registered on our database working across industries such as retail insurance, retail banking, asset management, aggregator sites and consultancy businesses.

We have split the data by seniority and by focus at the mid-level where there is typically an emphasis on a single specialism or channel:

If you’re seeking a new opportunity within Digital, contact Tom Pain for an open and confidential conversation; 0203 675 6821 / Tom.Pain@ojassociates.com

You can view current positions within Digital and apply here http://www.ojassociates.com/disciplines/digital