Mid-tier managers will be a sparse and valued commodity as businesses recover from the global financial crisis, according to Hays Recruiting.

With the insurance broking sector tipped to provide plenty of employment growth over the next three months, Hays said mid-level managers with around three years’ experience will be highly sought after.

Because employers were reticent to hire during the downturn, Hays Director Darren Buchanan says senior staff have progressed to upper management, leaving a mid-tier vacuum.

“As a result, organisations are not only at risk of being top-heavy, but they will soon struggle to find candidates at the mid-level,” he said.

“The recruitment battle for this ‘mid’ band will intensify and companies will find themselves under pressure to promote and up-skill quickly to fill and replace that lost layer of their workforce.”

Mr Buchanan says graduates and entry-level staff could also suffer due to a lack of mentors.

“With a whole layer of staff gone, they will look one more level up for guidance, but the job function and experience of employees at that level is usually very different from their own,” he said.

Hays has predicted a “flurry” of hiring activity in insurance, citing the July to September period as “a fresh chapter for the job market”.