Financial Services Career Market Update – Q4 2018/2019

Kaizen Recruitment was kept very busy during the last quarter of the financial year and we have provided a summary of key trends which we observed during this time. There are a number of interesting observations including the continued rise in opportunities for females and many candidates willingness to take a pay cut, which shows that salary, while important is not the main driver for many. We also observed a strong correlation  between higher levels of academic achievement and higher salaries and regrettably we observed hiring bias against experienced / mature aged professionals on numerous occasions.

We would like to thank our clients IFM Investors, HESTA, Telstra Super, Legg Mason, Generation Life, CCI Insurance, Equity Trustees, L1 Capital, DPM Wealth Management, BDH Sterling, Bell Asset Management, Invesco, Vanguard, Strata Community Insurance, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Zenith Investment Partners, and Victoria Funds Management Corporation for giving us the opportunity to partner with their businesses on a range of talent acquisition assignments.

50% of the recruitment assignments we completed were within the funds management sector with the remaining split across insurance, superannuation and wealth management.

The positions we successfully completed included business development managers, marketing managers, performance analysts, investment operations, risk and compliance, client and investor services, business analyst (funds management, superannuation and insurance), superannuation advisors, financial advisors, paraplanners and underwriters.

KEY MARKET OBSERVATIONS DURING THE LAST QUARTER 2018/2019

• The average salary of all positions we delivered on was again $110,000, with the highest salary at $200,000 and the lowest at $65,000.
• 84% of all placements had post graduate qualification which had a direct correlation to higher salaries.
• 65% of placements were female which was in response to our clients wanting to see equal gender representation on our shortlists.
• 40% of placements were contracting assignments across projects, performance and attribution analysis, investment operations and fund administration.
• 15% of placements were executive search assignments on a retained and exclusive basis which enabled us to complete a comprehensive search process (market mapping), adding significant value to our clients.
• 50% of all placements came from candidates which we had previously interviewed or from our existing network (talent pools), and 30% of placements came via active market searching (head hunting) in relation to executive search processes we completed.
• 20% of all candidates we placed were willing to take a pay cut, which shows that salary, while important is not the main driver for many.
• One applicant took a 20% pay cut. Her main consideration was alignment of professional and personal values with the organisation’s culture.
• As we approached financial year-end, investment / fund accountants were in very high demand for both year-end contracting assignments and newly created permanent opportunities.
• Performance analysts again proved to be in high demand with Factset systems skills been the main system skills our clients wanted to acquire.
• Recruitment timeframes reflected our clients’ efficiency with their internal recruitment process, one process taking nine months to complete.
• The highlight for the team at Kaizen recruitment was the opportunity to work with HESTA for the first time to recruit a senior project manager and an investment analyst in their investment management team.
• The most pleasing event personally was assisting two mature aged and long-term unemployed professionals return to work.
• Age bias remains evident with several client’s refusing to hire experienced and capable professional due to concerns around age.

We hope you liked this summary of our activity during the April to June 2018 quarter.

Kind Regards,

Matt McGilton – Director

Kaizen Recruitment specialises financial services recruitment across funds management, wealth management, superannuation, investment consulting and insurance. We are based in Melbourne and Sydney. For assistance or further information please telephone our office at +61 3 9095 7157 or submit an online form.

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