As regulatory pressures continue to mount across sectors, demand for skilled compliance professionals has surged. But in 2025, many companies are facing a familiar challenge: a shortage of experienced compliance talent.
Whether you're in aerospace & defence, financial services, fintech, life sciences or ESG-focused industries, the race to hire compliance professionals is more competitive than ever. So how can your organisation stand out and secure the right people in a tight market?
Here are five practical strategies to help you attract and hire top compliance talent, even when candidates are in short supply.
1. Act Fast – Streamline Your Hiring Process
In a candidate-led market, speed is everything. The best compliance professionals are often juggling multiple offers and won’t wait around for slow-moving employers. This is why we adopted the ‘Magic Month’ methodology. We pledge to fill all of our roles within 30 days from instruction.
We also use our own LeonidLive video interview platform, which enables hiring teams to view video shortlists of top candidates, answering 3-5 questions pre-set by the client. This typically reduces the time spent on each hire by 10 hours, on average.
But there is more which hiring companies can do too, to ensure a speedy process. If you find a great candidate, don’t hesitate: delayed offers are one of the top reasons employers lose out on the best people for the job.
2. Reassess Your Job Description
Too many job specs still list “ideal” requirements that are unrealistic in a tight market.
- Focus on ‘must-haves’, rather than ticking every box.
- Be open to candidates from adjacent industries or roles—e.g., someone with risk or audit experience could step into compliance with support.
- Highlight training or progression opportunities to appeal to mid-level talent ready to grow into more senior positions.
Being flexible about what success looks like can help you uncover brilliant candidates who might otherwise be overlooked.
3. Offer More Than Just Salary
While compensation is important, we know from our conversations with candidates that compliance professionals in 2025 are looking at the full package. Consider what else you’re offering:
- Hybrid or remote working – this is now a standard expectation
- Clear progression paths – especially in flat or static compliance teams
- Supportive culture – work-life balance and wellbeing matter
- Purpose-driven work – particularly in ESG or ethics-focused compliance roles
Being able to articulate your culture and values is a big selling point—especially to younger or purpose-driven professionals.
4. Partner with a Specialist Recruiter
Generalist recruiters may not fully understand the complexity of compliance roles or the current market pressures. A specialist recruitment partner can:
- Tap into highly-coveted passive candidates who are not actively job hunting
- Understand the nuances of different regulatory environments
- Help you shape competitive offers and role specs
- Reduce time-to-hire and increase offer acceptance rates
In a candidate-short market, access to niche talent networks is invaluable.
5. Invest in the Long Game
Your hiring need may be immediate—but future-proofing your compliance function is equally important.
- Build talent pipelines through internships or graduate schemes
- Identify internal mobility opportunities—upskill people from risk, audit, or legal
- Develop a strong employer brand in the compliance space through blogs, events, or thought leadership. When you’re known as a place where compliance professionals thrive, recruitment becomes that much easier.
Final Thoughts
Hiring in a compliance candidate shortage isn't impossible—but it does require agility, clarity, and a candidate-first mindset. With regulation becoming more complex and non-compliance more costly, investing in your compliance talent strategy now is a smart business move.
Need help hiring? Our compliance expert, Jamie Browne, understands the market and knows where and how to reach that elusive, hard-to-find passive job-seeking pool.