HR work is both people and process-driven. In HR jobs in banks, on one hand, you have to make sure you're adhering to the laws governing recruitment and layoffs in the country you're operating in while on the other hand you are dealing with all the foibles of individuals. For example, HR staff are responsibile for ensuring there is no discrimination on the basis of gender or race in the recruitment process. And they have responsibility for ensuring redundancies result from a fair selection process.

Another responsibility held by the HR team is administering annual performance appraisals. The results of appraisals are particularly significant within financial services as they are an important factor in determining the size of employees' annual bonuses.

Although HR staff can be generalists, many HR jobs are divided into specialist categories. These include: employee relations, graduate recruitment, lateral recruitment, recruitment marketing, compensation and benefits professionals and jobs for people with training and development expertise.

Banks and financial services firms generally employ their own in-house recruitment professionals; however this sector also contains all our external recruitment jobs in financial firms, search firms and headhunters and so-called RPO or recruitment process outsourcing organisations.

These external recruitment organisations facilitate the recruitment process for the financial services firms they work for. For example, they will place advertisements, sort through applications, draw up short lists and conduct initial interviews. External recruitment consultants are typically divided into two categories: contingency recruitment firms and search firms or headhunters. Contingency recruitment firms are paid a fee only when they find an individual who is actually hired by a client. Search firms and headhunters are paid a 'retainer' or an upfront fee while they identify a pool of potential candidates that might be suitable for a vacancy. While contingency recruitment firms typically advertise positions and wait for candidates to respond, headhunters and search firms proactively approach potential candidates and make individuals aware that they might be suitable for 'an exciting role.'