Paradox – Why Hiring In Debt & Capital Solutions Is Harder Than It Should Be – report
This report, The Quiet Market Paradox, explains why hiring across asset finance, specialist lending, and debt advisory has become harder rather than easier as the market has cooled, and sets out what firms can do about it. It draws on Fram Search's ten years working across debt and capital solutions, covering candidate behaviour, hiring process design, job description quality, recruiter strategy, and employer brand.
Fram Search is a UK specialist recruitment firm with a dedicated Debt & Capital Solutions practice, covering asset finance, specialist lending, mortgages, debt advisory, and the compliance and finance functions that support them.
Key themes
- A quieter market does not release talent - it locks it in place, as economic uncertainty makes moving feel too risky for professionals with hard-won broker networks and institutional credibility.
- 57% of workers now identify as "job huggers," up from 45% six months earlier, with most staying out of necessity rather than genuine commitment.
- Firms release the skills they no longer need during downturns while retaining the people they value through targeted pay and deferred compensation — meaning the professionals available in the market are rarely the ones hiring managers actually want.
- Around a quarter of candidates decline offers following a poor hiring experience, even when the role itself was attractive.
- Spreading a brief across multiple recruiters in a tightly networked market like debt and capital solutions is more likely to damage a firm's ability to hire than improve it.
- Senior candidates are assessing firms as much as firms are assessing them, asking pointed questions about funding lines, risk appetite, and resilience through the credit cycle.
Market overview
Job Hugging: The People You Want Are Not Looking
The term "job hugging" describes employees who stay in current roles not because they're thriving, but because economic uncertainty makes a move feel too risky. In debt and capital solutions, this is intensified by how relationship-driven the market is; senior originators and credit professionals have spent years building broker networks and institutional credibility that would need rebuilding elsewhere.
The Skills Gap: Your Competitors Have the Same Problem
It's tempting to assume slower deal flow increases the supply of strong candidates. In practice, the opposite is true. Firms that expanded into new asset classes and geographies during 2020-2023 have been slow to retreat even where those markets have quietened, and the shortage of experienced talent in specialist markets is structural, not cyclical.
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Hiring Process: Process is a Competitive Weapon
Firms that pride themselves on rapid credit decisions often run hiring processes that take three months to reach an offer. The most attractive candidates - those with market relationships and credit expertise firms actually want - are also the ones most likely to disengage from a process that doesn't respect their time.
The Job Description is a Signal, Not a List
Job descriptions in debt and capital solutions frequently overspecify product or geography while underspecifying culture, growth trajectory, and what a successful hire would achieve in year one. A well-constructed job description sets realistic expectations and answers a candidate's real question: is this somewhere I could build something?
Recruiter Relationships: Work With One Trusted Specialist
The debt and capital solutions market is tightly networked - brokers, lenders and advisers know each other, and a brief circulated across multiple agencies quickly becomes common knowledge. A discreet, focused approach through one specialist who understands the sector is significantly more likely to produce the right outcome.
Employer Brand: Your Recruitment Process is Your Brand
Employer brand is formed at every candidate interaction, not just what a firm communicates formally. Lenders and advisers with a reputation for dealing fairly with candidates - honest feedback, reasonable pace, care with process - consistently attract better people, and that reputation travels fast through small, long-memoried professional networks.
Strong Candidates Are Assessing You Too
Senior candidates bring specific questions about funding lines, risk appetite, and whether a firm has navigated previous credit cycles without forcing people to rebuild their careers. Firms that can answer these with clarity and confidence consistently attract better candidates than those that cannot.
Hiring Well in a Difficult Market
The debt and capital solutions market is in consolidation, not decline - deal flow will recover, and the firms with the strongest teams will move fastest when it does. Hiring decisions made during the quiet period shape a firm's ability to perform once conditions improve.
Notable statistics and quotes
A subdued market does not release talent. In most cases, it locks it in place.
57% of workers now identify as "job huggers," up from 45% just six months earlier.
1 in 4 candidates have declined offers following a poor hiring experience, even when the role was attractive.
The best candidates are not choosing between jobs. They are choosing between futures.
Contact
Report prepared by Simon Roderick, Managing Director, Fram Search. Fram Search has supported Debt & Capital Solutions firms across the UK with talent strategy for ten years, working across asset finance, specialist lending, mortgages, and debt advisory. He has a personal LinkedIn following of over 25,000 industry contacts.
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01525 864 372
About Fram Search
Established in 2010, Fram Search is a specialist financial services recruitment consultancy. We support asset finance providers, specialist lenders, challenger banks, debt advisory firms and wider debt & capital solutions businesses across the UK and internationally.
Our Asset Finance & Specialist Lending practice recruits across sales, origination, underwriting, credit, risk, collections, operations and executive leadership functions. We work across asset finance, leasing, bridging finance, development finance, invoice finance and specialist lending, helping clients secure high-performing talent in revenue-generating and credit-critical roles. We provide both contingent recruitment and executive search services, combining deep market knowledge with extensive candidate networks.
Please contact us on 01525 864 372 / [email protected] to learn more.