Hopes of 600 jobs with firm’s expansion plans
DELOITTE could see its workforce in Cardiff increase by about 600 during the next five years, in a major boost to the city’s growing reputation as a leading location outside London for financial and professional services.
Between its local practice and its delivery centre – which provides centralised business administration services to support client-facing staff in areas like tax and due diligence – the firm currently employs 870 at three locations in the city centre.
But that number will increase to 1,000 over the next 18 months.
And while not finalised, up to 120 further new roles could also be created over the same period.
And the growing Cardiff operation will learn in the summer whether it has been chosen as the location to provide expertise to the global Deloitte network of offices, in an investment that would see a further 300 new jobs created – taking the firm’s total headcount in the capital up towards the 1,500 mark by 2023.
The firm currently operates from three sites in the centre of Cardiff, at Park Street (its main delivery centre), Callaghan Square and Fusion Point.
Wayne Harvey, senior partner for Deloitte in Wales, said of the confirmed recruitment phase: “Over the next 18 months or so, but probably slightly less, we will get to a total of about 1,000.”
He added: “And over the same time period a further 80 to 120 new jobs might be established here. And all of these would be new roles and not people transferring from other locations.
“So with known plans and a fair wind we could potentially get to around the 1,100 to 1,200 over that period.
“But there are also big plans, which possibly might focus on Cardiff, for a further a 300 new jobs, so you could see that we might get up to the 1,400 to the 1,500 mark by around 2023.”
A decision of where the 300 new jobs will be based is expected in the summer, with Mr Harvey confident that Cardiff – which is on a shortlist of locations – can deliver on what would be a new global resource for the firm, as well as being able to find suitable recruits from the Cardiff and wider south Wales labour market.
Mr Harvey said: “We believe that we can [deliver] and we are finding it relatively straightforward to recruit, as there is a good supply of quality individuals in the Cardiff and south Wales market. It is a mix of people from a broad range of backgrounds. And they are not all necessarily from the traditional graduate route.
“But we are not immune from the vagaries of the recruitment market and we know that others [in the city’s financial and professional services sector] are pursuing a similar sort of cohort. However, at the moment we don’t see any particular problems.
“And the partnership we have with Cardiff and Vale College [which is providing for new recruits] is fantastic, as well as the support of Cardiff Council and the Welsh Government.
He said the issue of Brexit wouldn’t be a defining factor as the 300-job project would support Deloitte’s network of offices globally. And he said while Deloitte in Cardiff employs non-British EU nationals, it wasn’t a higher percentage.
One of the strengths of the Cardiff operation is that it currently has the highest language skill capacity of any Deloitte office in the world – with around 40 to business-standard languages spoken.
Mr Harvey said: “For the factors that we have control over, we are doing our very level best [to win] an investment that would be great not just for us, but for the wider regional economy as it would lead to more quality jobs with excellent training and clear career structures.”
If the 300 new roles are secured for Cardiff, Mr Harvey said it wouldn’t necessarily require moving its existing three-building operation into a new single HQ.
He said: “We wouldn’t rule anything out, but at this stage there are no plans to amalgamate into one office, as our three location estate works very well. But we are constantly reviewing it and part of the attraction of Cardiff is that it offers value for money. In London our central office space costs us around £100 a sq ft and in Cardiff they are at least a fifth of that, and sometimes even lower.”
Mr Harvey said that technology will be at the heart of further expansion in Cardiff.
He added: “We are developing robotic technology in Cardiff. And if that comes good, that will place us at the leading edge.”
Cardiff currently employs more than 8,000 in the financial and professional services sector, which provides a gross valued added for the Welsh economy of £292m.