From AI-driven trading to rapidly-aging workforces, the metals trading workforce faces new talent gaps amid a complex business environment. Firms must adapt fast to attract and retain top professionals.
HC Group Portfolio Director Alex Coghlan outlines how tech integration, transparent compensation, and strategic recruitment can help firms close the hiring gap in a rapidly transforming market.
Dive deeper with our Metals Talent whitepaper, including:
- Practical steps to solve retention and hiring challenges
- 4 new talent charts, including companies losing talent and regional recruitment trends
- 40+ notable metals talent moves
View the whitepaper
What Are the Biggest Recruitment Challenges in Metals Trading?
- Ageing workforce: Many experienced metals traders are retiring, creating a gap in market intuition and industry knowledge.
- Inexperienced new talent: While younger recruits bring strong data and analytical skills, they often lack hands-on trading experience.
- Need for mentorship: Firms must implement structured training and mentorship programs to pass on institutional knowledge and develop well-rounded future leaders.
- Competition from tech-savvy sectors: Young professionals are often more drawn to dynamic, tech-driven industries such as power or gas trading.
- Perception problem: Metals trading firms need to market themselves as innovative and technologically advanced to attract top-tier digital talent.
By positioning metals as a tech-forward industry, firms can attract top-tier talent with strong digital and quantitative skills.
How Can Metals Trading Firms Overcome Recruitment Challenges?
Formal mentorship is crucial to bridging the experience gap. Veteran traders should guide junior professionals through market realities, sharing strategies for navigating volatility and building trust-based relationships. These programs must cover more than just technical skills—they should focus on the soft skills essential to long-term success in the metals market. Cultivating a culture of mentorship helps firms retain institutional knowledge while preparing young professionals to lead in a dynamic trading environment.
Enhance employer branding to attract younger talent by emphasising the integration of AI, data analytics, and advanced trading models. Highlight how technological innovation is reshaping trading desks and driving the growth of metals markets, particularly those linked to the energy transition.
Broaden recruitment efforts to attract talent from adjacent sectors such as tech, energy, or finance, where professionals possess transferable quantitative and execution skills. By seeking professionals with backgrounds in data science, risk management, and finance, firms can infuse new perspectives and innovative solutions into their trading operations.
Implement clear, performance-based bonus structures that tie directly to individual and desk performance. This will attract top-tier traders who are motivated by measurable outcomes. Transparent compensation models also promote a culture of meritocracy, where traders feel their contributions are directly recognised and rewarded.
Metals-trading participants face wide-ranging recruitment pressures - including a generational shift as veteran traders retire, and the attraction of tech-driven markets like LNG and power trading.
Already under pressure from geopolitical uncertainty, firms should adapt on a range of fronts to future-proof their talent strategies.
Read our full metals talent whitepaper to explore our full analysis.
HC Group is a global search firm dedicated to the energy and commodities markets.
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