Kaizen Recruitment Financial Services Salaries And Market Information – YTD 2017

Our latest infographic illustrates a snapshot of work we have undertaken across financial services in Australia. We have completed a number of executive search assignments across funds management, superannuation and asset consulting sectors and are kept busy with a number of year-end contract requirements. The annual average salary for Financial Year 2016/2017 of all placements equated to $128,958.

A notable and ongoing theme is the increasing demand for investment professionals in industry superannuation funds. Performance analysts and client reporting analyst positions were in particular demand with many of our clients hiring both permanent and contract staff. It is fair to say that demand exceeded supply of appropriately qualified and skilled candidates.

As we complete another financial year-end, we saw the annual spike in demand for financial and investment accountants. This happens every year and it is interesting to observe that forward thinking and organised hiring managers lock in their contracting resources early, usually around April. If hiring managers act later than April, there is a squeeze on hiring options because the best people have already been taken.

We also experienced high demand for investment analysts (superannuation, asset consulting, funds management, investment research) with strong interest from candidates in the Sydney market who were prepared to relocate to Melbourne. Most candidates indicated they wanted to work with a large super fund or buy-side fund manager. It is pleasing to note that we did not experience any hiring bias with Australian based candidates, where as, overseas candidates are viewed upon as a last resort.

While the talent pool for investment professionals has never been so large, competition for the best has also increased with superannuation funds paying above market salaries for junior and mid-level investment analysts. Almost all of our clients now have some formal graduate ‘investment analyst’ program in place to develop future leaders.

A number of our super clients have focussed on the implementation and delivery of regulatory requirements and developing greater operational efficiencies in the business. From that end, we experienced high demand for process improvement analysts, business analysts and project managers, mostly on a contractual basis, in order to complement existing internal resources.

Demand for business development professionals across funds management was also very strong with numerous global funds managers taking many months to find the right talent. Timing of bonus payments for business development professionals always has an impact on when candidates are prepared to move.

Finally, a theme that underlined the majority of hiring assignments was the ongoing request for equal gender representation on our shortlists. We are very pleased to work with our clients’ request to achieve greater diversity, through increased female representation, when it comes to creating better business outcomes.

Best regards

Matt

Matt McGilton – Director