Tesco on a hiring spree? Every little helps...

While employees at Scotland's largest banks have been anxiously awaiting news of possible redundancies after government bailouts and rival takeovers, another organisation has been quietly expanding north of the border - Tesco Personal Finance.

Tesco bought out Royal Bank of Scotland's 50% shareholding in its banking arm back in July for 950m, and the firm has been bolstering its team since - mainly in Edinburgh.

Former RBS and HBOS man Benny Higgins joined Tesco Personal Finance soon after the acquisition. He has since managed to lure two ex-HBOS colleagues across for senior positions - Julie McClelland and Shaun Doherty.

Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy reckons areas like financial services, telecoms and internet/home shopping are a fast-growing market and believes now is a good time to expand its presence. Tesco Personal Finance is expecting to make a 240m profit in 2008 and hopes to increase that to 1bn a year over the next few years.

On the banking side, Tesco is on something of a hiring spree.

Risk is a particular area of focus and the bank is on the lookout for a head of risk, head of operational risk and a change risk manager. It wants candidates with a deep experience of enterprise, regulatory and credit risk.

Colin Grieve, managing consultant at Head Resourcing in Edinburgh, reckons recruitment in the risk space has held up well this year north of the border.

"Recent events have only spurred hiring in this area," he says. "Traditionally, there's been a skills shortage in Scotland, but a lot more people are moving into the risk management sector and the pool of specialists is increasing."

Grieve reckons a head of risk in Scotland can earn around 75k, while lower down the ranks risk analysts bring in around 25k-30k.

Tesco Personal Finance is also hiring seven people for senior positions within its treasury department: some of these roles will be based in Edinburgh (the others will be in Cheshunt in Herfordshire).