Finding suitably qualified candidates will be one of the biggest challenges for financial services sector employers looking to expand their teams, this year, a report reveals.
Data from recruitment consultants Robert Half’s Australian hiring survey, found that more than half of chief financial officers and finance directors planned to create new roles in the first six months of 2016.
Robert Half Asia Pacific senior managing director, David Jones, said the survey revealed 89 per cent of respondents reported that it was a challenge to find skilled finance professionals, with 37 per cent citing the lack of specialist technical expertise as the primary reason.
The survey found that financial planning (18 per cent) was one of the areas where employers were finding it most difficult to find the right staff, behind business/financial analysis (23 per cent) and accounting (21 per cent).
“The reality is that the ‘war for talent’ remains stronger than ever,” Jones said.
“Companies therefore still and increasingly are on the hunt for and in competition with each other to find and recruit financial top performers.
“Employers need to be aware that highly skilled employees are in demand and they know it, so it’s vital for CFOs to consider new and more imaginative ways to retain their financial top talent.
“Apart from salary increases, it is worth considering other options such as more flexible working conditions, increased personal leave, bonus incentives and even new project or internal career path opportunities.”
