Financial Services Job Market Update – June 2020

It was a privilege to recently present to the CFA Society of Australia on the current state of the employment market in financial services.

In preparation for this presentation, Kaizen surveyed over 50 financial services organisations regarding the impacts of COVID-19 on hiring. Respondents were senior executives including CEO, COO, CIO, human resources and talent acquisition professionals.

Our survey investigated:

• What happened with recruitment during the past three months?
• What will happen with recruitment plans for the next three months?
• What skills are currently in demand?
• How will their business, work conditions and recruitment processes evolve as we phase back to a new normal?

OVERVIEW OF SURVEY RESULTS

• 76% indicated they have current recruitment needs and will be releasing these opportunities to the market as government restrictions ease and as some organisations will phase back to normalised working environments.
• 60% indicated they are now open to recruiting professionals outside of home city locations. This scenario will also pose interesting challenges and opportunities for recruiting talent, significantly increasing the size of talent pools from which to draw.
• 41% are only recruiting essential positions due to staff turn over or parental leave etc.
• 35% indicated they have adapted to digital interviewing and remote onboarding of new hires and will be hiring as required and in alignment with their business strategy.
• 25% indicated that recruitment has not been impacted at all by COVID-19.
• Less than 10% of organisations surveyed had no plans to recruit in the next three months. These organisations are taking a more conservative approach and not pursuing growth strategies.

POSITIONS AND SKILLS DEMAND

• Business development managers who are currently employed have been extremely busy, but there have very few new hires due to lower sales conversions and protracted sales cycles.
• Marketing professionals who are currently employed have also been very busy, but very few new hires due marketing being viewed as a cost centre.
• Investment data analysts are in demand due to several investment data related projects getting underway.
• Investment consultants have been in demand with most asset consulting firms looking for experienced professionals with deep asset class knowledge.
• Performance analysts with specific asset class knowledge.
• Investment accountants always have increased demand as we approach financial year-end.
• Investment operations with experience managing the oversight of service providers.
• Investment mandate compliance.
• Asset classes experience, specifically with fixed income / credit and infrastructure.
• Investment analysts with coding skills (VBA as a minimum, increasingly Phyton).

OTHER MARKET INTEL

Supporting this survey, Kaizen recently conducted two virtual round table events with senior human resources executives and investment operations leaders.

From our May job market update we noted that there had been limited job losses, but indeed many are working harder than ever.

As we have progressed through the pandemic, we have started to see some casualties, primarily around non-essential projects which have been put on hold and interestingly some business development professionals. We have also observed limited redundancy due to structural changes, notably one major super fund merger.

Additionally, we surveyed advice businesses and noted there has been a longer-term trend of professionals leaving the industry which was not related COVID19.

Other interesting observations was that recruitment processes have significantly slowed (almost doubling in time). We optimistically hope this will change as homeschooling comes to an end.

I hope this job market update has been helpful to both employers and job seekers. Anecdotally, we are observing a marked increase in activity and morale across the job market. As always, reach out to Kaizen Recruitment if you are looking to recruit, seeking a new career challenge or have any general questions about the state of the market.

Regards

Matt McGilton – Managing 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.

Like what you see?

Please feel welcome to join
Kaizen Recruitment’s mailing list

SUBSCRIBE