Abstract of Irene Irvine presentation

Irvine, who oversees recruitment of roles within the business development sector as part of her job, says the issue of recruitment is one of today's key management challenges for companies which requires a change of thinking.

"If people haven't thought about recruitment, they need to do so now or they will face problems in the future," she says.

Irvine also points out that the financial services industry is a boom sector and has a different skills set to what it used to, which needs to be recognised.

"People are more skilled today and companies who are recruiting staff obviously want to get the best skilled people," she says.

She says there are several issues in the current environment that companies need to consider when managing recruitment and retaining existing staff.

The changing demographics within the industry needs to be recognised along with supply and demand in the financial services sector. She says Morgan and Banks consultants have reported that there is a serious shortage of DFP and CFP/CPA qualified people, and the skills shortage is likely to continue while demand will increase.

Changes to technology and the impact of the Internet is another area to consider according to Irvine. The advent of web sites that create profiles for job seekers and performs the job searching for them online has significantly altered recruitment, and companies will need to face the 'Internet trend'.

"With the Internet and the ability to search jobs and get job profiles, job hunting is now far easier and different," Irvine says.