Texas, especially the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, is now the second-largest financial services hub in the U.S following NYC.
Major financial firms, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, are attracted by lower taxes, affordable housing, and a welcoming business climate.
Finance-related employment has surged across Texas, outpacing growth in traditional financial centres like NYC.

In a dramatic shift that’s redefining the U.S. financial landscape, Texas—particularly the Dallas-Fort Worth area—has rapidly emerged as the second-biggest financial hub in the country.

As more financial firms flock to Texas, Andy Lilliman, our Director of Talent Acquisition, who recruits Senior professionals for Public Accounting and Advisory Firms in Texas commented ‘Whilst NYC remains the undisputed financial capital of the nation, the growth of the Texas financial services sector is undeniable. The state’s central location and major airport also make it an attractive destination for companies looking for a more welcoming and accessible business culture. Texas has won over many executives who have relocated from the East and West coasts, making this a very exciting time for Recruitment.’

From business opportunities to increasingly vibrant cultural offerings, there is a multitude of reasons why so many companies and talented individuals are choosing Dallas, and Texas more broadly. Today, there are 658,600 Texans working in finance compared to New York’s 544,900 workforce. Investment banking and securities employment has skyrocketed 111% in the past two decades. Since the pandemic, that number is 27% trouncing New York’s 16% and 5% respective growth.

Once seen as ‘small’ compared to NYC, the D-FW metro area now hosts some of the country’s largest financial operations, including a $500M Goldman Sachs (GS) tower under construction in downtown Dallas, which will house more than 5K bankers and investors, making it the firm’s second-largest office after NYC.

Dubbed “Y’all Street,” this burgeoning financial centre is attracting major firms drawn by low taxes, affordable housing, and the state’s business-friendly environment.

This boom has helped Dallas shed its old reputation as a financial backwater, as major players like JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Charles Schwab (SCHW), and Deloitte continue to expand their presence.

Simply put, the rise of “Y’all Street” is reshaping the U.S. financial landscape as we know it. As more firms and talent migrate to the state, Texas’ role as a major financial hub is expected to grow, solidifying its place on the national and global stage.

Timing is perfect if you are looking for your next career opportunity or looking to expand your team contact Andy Lilliman, Director of Talent Acquisition at Astute Recruitment on (945) 468-2727 or email [email protected]

We are delighted to be celebrating our fifteenth business anniversary this month.

Astute Recruitment has become the ‘go to’ specialist for all levels of HR, Finance and Back-Office permanent and temporary recruitment for mainly SME businesses across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands region. Longstanding recruitment partnerships span the lifetime of the business, and many pre-date that over 20 years, from the founders – Sarah Stevenson and Mary Maguire who set the business up after redundancy in 2009.

The company’s ambition has been unmistakable from the beginning and have been recognised for its achievements and received many awards. This year has seen further team expansion, the successful launch of a HR Division, and a new website – cemented Astute as the leading specialist recruiter locally.

Andy Lilliman has also recently re-joined the team as Director of Talent Acquisition – CPA Audit, Tax & Advisory for the US Market and is developing our Public Accounting offering in Dallas, Texas.

We have recently secured a magical 270th 5 star google review, complimenting our 100% 5 star google reviews, and we cannot find another recruitment business with this record.
Astute has also recently been retained as one of Three Best Rated website’s Three Best Rated recruitment firms in Derby and the only one to be a specialist!

Sarah said, “It’s amazing to think that with just a couple of laptops and our redundancy money, we are now one of the leading accountancy and finance recruitment businesses across the East Midlands. It’s all down to our brilliant team and I know I speak for Mary when I say I’m really proud of what we have achieved together.”

Team Astute celebrating 15 years!!

Building on the strong foundations of Astute in the UK, the business has branched out into the US specifically serving the Public Accounting & Financial Advisory market.

Based out of Dallas and operating on Central Time, our specialist team partners with myriad Public Accounting & Advisory firms of all sizes, from Big 4 to mid-tier, to regional and boutique, typically with a hub in Texas, and often with offices nationwide.

For further information contact Andy Lilliman (details below) or visit our US website USA – Astute Financial (astuterecruitment.com)

We all had a great time last week at our Easter Social event at Nicco Restaurant on Pride Park!

It was an incredible turn out and great chance to catch up with our friends from local businesses.

The food and drink were excellent and the fantastic service and relaxed social setting made for a wonderful evening.

This was our second social event at Nicco and it was once again the perfect setting! Thank you to Niccos, our wonderful team at Astute and of course all of our fantastic guests! 👏

Below are some photos taken at our event. We are already looking forward to the next one!

70% of UK staff looking for a new job in 2024

One fifth of UK workers are feeling burned out, leading 70% of workers to seek a new job in 2024, according to new research.

HiBob, the company behind Bob, the HR platform transforming how organisations operate in the modern work of work, recently released research exposing the mental state of workers in the UK, what motivates them in the modern workplace and the biggest factors that will contribute to resignations in 2024.

State of employee mental & financial wellness driving resignations

With 2024 now in full swing, the research from HiBob uncovers a miserable state of employee mental wellness, as one fifth (20%) of Brits feel burned out at work and more than a quarter (29%) are stressed. Shockingly, only one in seven (16%) would describe their mental state at work as supported.

As a result, the majority of UK workers (70%) are planning on finding a new job in 2024; with over a quarter (28%) planning on finding one in the next six months. Given workers’ current feelings, driving this new wave of resignations is a desire to level out work life balance (17%).

New year, new priorities: ‘Work to rule’

Almost a third (30%) of UK workers say that what motivates them the most while at work is proper support for a work life balance, followed by working towards a salary increase or promotion (29%).

Taking their work life balance and workplace culture into their own hands, this year a fifth (22%) of British workers plan to set boundaries at work and say ‘no’ more often to requests that would make them work late, extend their working hours, or increase their workload beyond what was originally agreed.

Working remotely vs in the office

Post-pandemic, one of the biggest conversations concerning the workplace has been around working from home vs in the office. Although many Brits are seeking out a better work life balance this year, only one in ten (11%) are planning on working from home more frequently, as 88% plan on maintaining an office based or hybrid working pattern.

The data also reveals that the core factors compelling people into the office are separating work from home (20%), collaboration and teamwork (19%), access to resources (14%) and free heating in the winter (13%).

However, two fifths (40%) of UK workers are worried about the increase travel costs associated with a return to the office being mandated.

Ronni Zehavi, CEO and Co-Founder, HiBob commented: “Our research shows that employees across the UK are feeling stressed and burnt out, which is leading them to reassess what they want from their workplace and employer.

“While pay increases aren’t always possible during times of economic headwinds, these insights make it clear, at a time when there is a war raging for attracting and retaining top talent, supporting employees’ work life balance is going to be a key differentiator for businesses in 2024.”

Nearly half (46%) of UK & Irish employees think their employer lags behind when it comes to adopting the latest technology, such as workplace experience or process automation tools.

New research from Ricoh Europe has revealed that there is a significant gap between employee expectations of technology in the workplace and what is currently provided by employers.

The poll of 1,000 workers across the UK and Ireland*, conducted by Opinium, found that nearly half of UK and Irish employees (46%) believe that their employer lags behind when it comes to adopting technology that would benefit them in the workplace.

More than a quarter (28%) report that their remote work set-up hinders their productivity, and over half (58%) are bogged down by high administrative burdens. What’s more, only 68% of UK and Irish employees believe their employers provide the necessary technology to do their jobs well – highlighting a significant missed opportunity.

Businesses should look to process automation and workplace experience tools to improve collaboration and streamline repetitive workflows and tasks, ensuring workers are equipped to do their best work. Implementing the latest technology, such as Workplace Experience Platforms, AV solutions and enterprise content management enables employees to focus less on admin, and more on value added activities.

Dennis Scannell, Director of Digital Service Consultancy at Ricoh UK, says: “What we’re noticing in the market is that more and more organisations are looking to re-imagine their workplaces to bridge the gap between employee expectations and the available technology.”

Without addressing these discrepancies in 2024, employers risk losing workers, who may seek alternate employment where their needs are better met. Almost one in three (30%) workers cited working conditions and their employee experience as a reason they would look for another job, while just under a fifth (18%) of employees noted the quality of technology software and technological devices as a leading contributor to them seeking alternate employment.

7 improvement tools to integrate into your organisation

Dennis continues: ‘We work with many UK businesses to transform their physical and digital workspace to be more collaborative and productive. For one of our customers, we were able to increase their office occupancy from 35% to 50% and deliver employee satisfaction rating of 4.8 out of 5, following a successful office transformation project. Ultimately, we create workplaces where people feel fulfilled and are happy to work.” He added: “Employee experience should be at the centre of any workplace transformation project.”

With over half (65%) of employees believing they would deliver more value to their company if they had the right tools and technologies in place, the benefits of getting this right extend beyond talent attraction and retention.

Nicola Downing, CEO, Ricoh Europe, says: “Looking ahead, it is imperative that businesses align their technology offerings with employee needs, particularly around process automation and workplace experience, which can help employees be more productive and focus on tasks where they can add more value.

“As our research has revealed, any business which overlooks employee experience around workplace technology, risks losing valued team members who will simply look elsewhere for a workplace that meets their needs”.

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK 2022

Mental Health Awareness Week is a yearly event, this year running from the 9th to 15th May focussing on improving positive mental health for everyone. It is hosted by the Mental Health Foundation.

For 2022, the theme is all around exploring the impacts of loneliness and how we can tackle this.

The Mental Health Foundation conducted recent research which discovered many people have increasingly been suffering from feelings of isolation and loneliness which has led to harmful outcomes.

The research they uncovered, showed an increasing need from people everywhere to see loneliness being addressed as a serious topic requiring urgent action.

Given the theme of loneliness, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in partnership with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities will continue to encourage people to ‘Lift someone out of loneliness’ as part of the Better Health – Every Mind Matters campaign.

The campaign will continue to point people towards the Every Mind Matters Loneliness webpage, where there is advice for ways to help yourself or others who may be feeling lonely and suggested support routes Loneliness – Every Mind Matters – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

As a call to action, this week the Mental Health Foundation are asking everyone – companies, organisations and individuals – to support their campaign and to help spread this important message across their social channels and beyond.

Campaign assets can be downloaded from the Campaign Resource Centre

You can watch a powerful short film on the following link:

https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/lifes-challenges/loneliness/

Any one of us can feel lonely. Occasional thoughts and feelings of lonliness are normal.

But when these feelings progress into deeper, long-standing thoughts of isolation and being truly alone – thats when loneliness can make a huge impact on our mental and physical wellbeing.

Above all, it is important to know that these feelings can pass, and that there are lots of ways we can help each other too.

Just 3 little words can make a HUGE difference!

Fancy a cuppa? Fancy a walk? Sometimes reaching out to each other with as little as three words can make a huge difference.

As part of the Better Health: Every Mind Matters campaign, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport are encouraging people to ‘Lift Someone Out of Loneliness’ by taking a simple action to help someone who may be feeling lonely. If we do this regularly, we can all help to lift each other up.

Find out how you can help to lift someone out of loneliness

So, this week, if you see someone struggling, someone who doesn’t seem to be their usual self, give them a warm smile, ask how they are doing. Offer to make a drink.

Whether in the office, at home, at school or college, a random act of kindness this week could make all the difference to someone struggling with feelings of loneliness.

Here at Astute, we are working in partnership with Kate Woods of MHPP, working in partnership with the University of Derby, providing all of our team with the tools to look after each other’s mental health and to spot the signs of loneliness and other feelings which can impact our wellbeing.

Kate’s service is available free to all organisations and SME businesses.

You can reach out to Kate on LinkedIn and by email to [email protected]

You can also check out our article on the 6 top tips to avoid loneliness in work HERE.

#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek #Ivebeenthere

#MHPPMAY22

Sarah Stevenson, (far right) Astute Recruitment’s MD with all the other winners at the Leadership Awards

All of us were thrilled to watch Sarah go up on stage with all the other winners at TheBusinessDesk.com’s East Midland’s Leadership awards!

Sarah has tirelessly led her team from start up through the most difficult of times. Through every crisis, she has managed to lead from the front through grit, determination and inspiration.

Sarah has also managed to enable her team to adapt to every problem, rise to every challenge with support, help and passion.

Its fair to say that all of us, from the bottom of our hearts, could not be happier for her or think of a more deserving winner for this category.

You can watch Sarah’s speech after collecting her award on the link below.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UTTqm3ZjKeWX9vTL9

A huge thumbs up also goes to Sam Metcalfe and everyone at The Business Desk.com for putting together a brilliant evening.

Thanks to the sponsors too for their support.

The biggest thanks goes

to all the winners and

finalists at the evening.

Everyone of them showed that

hard work,

inspiration and successful leadership

can achieve wonderful business success

for their staff, families,

and teams!

Everyone getting settled for a great evening at the BusinessDesk.com’s East Midlands Leadership Awards

Here at Astute, we love to celebrate success, so tonight we are keeping our fingers crossed for one of our founders, and MD, Sarah Stevenson who is one of the finalists at The Business Desk.com’s prestigious East Midlands Leadership Awards.

After a couple of difficult years, it is brilliant for us to have most of our team together and celebrate an evening toasting the most talented leaders in our East Midlands business community!

Our table is booked at Nottingham’s Crowne Plaza.

TheBusinessDesk.com wanted to create the East Midlands Leadership Awards to celebrate the leaders in business who are role models within their organisations. The bar is set high this year with a great selection of business owners and leaders who have done so much for their organisations and teams.

The winners will show the qualities of extraordinary leadership and be able to demonstrate the positive impact this has had.

The Leadership awards offer a great opportunity to recognise and showcase the achievements and success of businesses in the region.

There are ten categories at this year’s awards evening, which will see the winners acknowledged in front of the cream of the East Midlands business community.

The judging panel for this year’s awards was: Amanda Fletcher of the Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club; Reshma Sheikh of Octavian Security UK; Richard Blackmore of the CBI and Jude Weston of NG Chartered Surveyors.

TheBusinessDesk.com’s Midlands editor Sam Metcalf, who chaired the panel, said:

“The standard of this year’s entrants was higher than ever, displaying the depth and breadth of the leadership talent in the East Midlands.

“I’d like to thank our judging panel for their time and expertise and wish all the shortlisted individuals all the best for our awards evening in March.”

We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for Sarah, but we wish the best of luck to all the finalists this year. You have all done brilliantly to be shortlisted and all deserve to celebrate!

The Categories and Shortlists for this year’s business awards are: –

Young Leader of the Year

Adam Horton, Hortons Estate Agents
Louisa Hackford-Gentle, Autistic Nottingham
Roheel Ahmed, Forsyth Barnes
Samantha Wilde, Retail Assist
Stephen Mair, Andrew Granger & Co

Transformational Leader

Adrian Buttress, PermaGroup
Alan Forsyth, Hockley Developments
Bev Wakefield, Vibrant Accountancy
Roland Kendall, Retail Assist
Sarah Stevenson, Astute Recruitment

Public and Third

Sector Leader

Amo Raju, Disability Direct
Ann Bhatti, Connect Derby
Ian Cooper, Speakers for Schools
Marysia Zipser, Art Culture Tourism
Naomi Watkins-Ligudzinska, NW Counselling Hub CIC

Mentor of the Year

Adam Rhodes, Rhodes Wealth Management
Justin Donne, Art Culture Tourism
Kirin Abbas, Paragon Law
Laura-Jane Turner, Jigsaw24
Richard Fairey, Rushton Hickman

Emerging Entrepreneur Leader

Amad Tababa, Autify Digital
Daniel Connor, DC Personnel
Luke Draper, IDT
Rob Spence, Paragon Sales Solutions

Diversity & Inclusion Leader

Amo Raju, Disability Direct
Barjis Chohan, Art Culture Tourism
Kul Mahay, Ignite Your Inner Potential
Mark Esho, Easy Internet Services
Thalej Vasishta, Paragon Law

Professional Services Leader

Amit Sonpal, Barclays Corporate Banking
Andrew Robinson, Andrew Granger & Co
Carl Hilton, BSP Consulting
David Ryley, Ryley Wealth Management
Tony Sherwin, Retail Assist

Green Leader

Becky Valentine, Spenbeck
Gary Styles, Zellar
Lance Hill, Eight Days a Week Print Solutions
Roger Whittle, Jigsaw24

Non-Executive Leader

Jade Martin, Rushton Hickman
Justin Donne, Autistic Nottingham
Rita Carta Manias, Art Culture Tourism

Company Leader

(up to 100 employees)

Adrian Buttress, PermaGroup
Alan Forsyth, Hockley Developments
Arran Bailey, ALB Group
Edward Acres, Acres Group
Lance Hill, Eight Days a Week Print Solutions

Company Leader (100+ employees)

Ian Williamson, ITP Aero UK
Rob Darby, 200 Degrees Coffee
Stewart Vandermark, Nelsons

Leader of the Year?

To be announced on the night !

We wish everyone the best of luck!

International Women’s Day is a global, annual opportunity to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements and rally together for women’s equality.

Marked annually on March 8th, International Women’s Day (IWD) is one of the most important days of the year to:

Celebrate women’s achievements

Raise awareness about women’s equality

Lobby for accelerated gender parity

Fundraise for female-focused charities

This #IWD2022, our thoughts turn towards the women in Ukraine.

Mothers, daughters, women of all ages fighting for survival against aggression by Russian forces.

Women reporting from Ukraine war zones to ensure the world knows the truth.

Women forced to flee their homes with their children.

Women forced to give birth in bunkers.

We send our support to all the women of Ukraine.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women issued the following statement ahead of International Women’s Day: –

“On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the power and potential of women and girls. We recognise their courage, resilience and leadership. We mark the ways in which we are making progress towards a more gender-equal world.“

Sima goes onto say;

“At the same time, we see how that progress is being undermined by multiple, interlocking and compounding generational crises.

Currently, we are witnessing the horrifying situation in Ukraine where the impacts on women and girls, including the hundreds of thousands displaced, remind us: all conflicts, from Ukraine to Myanmar to Afghanistan, from the Sahel to Yemen, exact their highest price from women and girls. The Secretary- General has been clear, War Must Stop.”

Watch a video of Sima Bahous: https://youtu.be/HvBUwrIp9k0

This year’s campaign is represented by the #BreakTheBias hashtag and calls on people to work towards a world that is equitable, inclusive, and free from bias and discrimination so the playing field is levelled for women moving forward.

Back to Sima:-

“The impacts of COVID-19 have increased inequalities, driving poverty and violence against women and girls; and rolling back their progress in employment, health and education. The accelerating crises of climate change and environmental degradation are disproportionately undermining the rights and wellbeing of women and girls. They are multiplying insecurity at all levels, from individual and household to national. Rising temperatures, extended droughts, violent storms and floods are resulting in loss of livelihoods, they are depleting resources and fuelling migration and displacement. The latest major IPCC report on climate change, and our Secretary-General, have warned us that ‘nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone – now, ’and that ‘many ecosystems are at the point of no return – now’.

Climate change is a threat multiplier. But women, and especially young women, are solution multipliers.

We have today the opportunity to put women and girls at the centre of our planning and action and to integrate gender perspectives into global and national laws and policies. We have the opportunity to re-think, re-frame and re-allocate resources. We have the opportunity to benefit from the leadership of women and girls environmental defenders and climate activists to guide our planet’s conservation. We need Indigenous women’s inter-generational knowledge, practices and skills.

It will take unprecedented levels of global cooperation and solidarity to succeed, but there is no alternative to success. We must protect our hard-won gains on human rights and women’s rights and lead decisively to leave no woman or girl behind.

We have a blueprint to follow. It involves women’s full and equal participation and leadership in decision-making; their access to green jobs and the blue economy; and their equal access to finance and resources.

We need to ensure universal social protection and a care economy that protects us all. We have to scale up financing for gender-responsive climate, environmental and disaster risk initiatives; including for COVID-19 recovery and to increase resilience to future shocks. The solution is there. We resolve to pursue it.

Let us make this International Women’s Day a moment to recall that we have the answers not just for SDG 5 but, through the advancement of gender equality, for all 17 Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030. I look forward to working with every one of you to that end.”

Wise words which all of us here at Astute thoroughly support.

And our thoughts and prayers go to all in the Ukraine.

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Mike

3 years ago

Highly recommended! Josh and Sarah have been fantastic at Astute. They've found and placed me in 2 jobs now between them, both really responsive and excellent at keeping you up to speed with things. Very knowledgable about the roles and happy to talk to companies with any queries you have.

C R.

Great agency one of the best ones I've worked with! Liz has been a great help and support in helping me towards a new direction in my career life. She is very attentive and keeps me in the loop at all times! She makes the extra effort to work with my preferred requirements for work and even if it isn't completely attainable she meets me in the middle and does as much as she can to help! Also Liz is very funny might I add 😂 and I'm happy that I can now put a face to the name after all these years! Thank you again Liz for all your help and support! 😊

Christine

Josh and the Astute team was very swift to help me to find roles that matched my profile. They are really reliable and will help through every step of the recruitment process going out of their way to assist and follow up when needed. Could not find a better recruitment agency!

Helen Pinegar

Fantastic recruitment agency.. Josh was extremely enthusiastic, encouraging and clearly knowledgeable about what was needed from both the employee and the employers point of view. Extremely supportive especially in regards to interview preparation and endeavoured to procure feedback promptly. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Astute in the future to both candidates and recruiting businesses particularly for the right fit for the role!!!

Lisa Leigh

4 years ago

I have worked as a candidate for Astute and they have been excellent. Super friendly service and professional agents keen to fit the right person to the right job. It has been a pleasure dealing with them and I would happily work for them again in the future. Highly recommend this agency.