Most happy with bonuses

Professionals working in the Australian financial services industry were happiest with the bonuses they were paid last year, according to the findings of a new Global Bonus Survey.

The eFinancialCareers survey, released this week, revealed financial professionals in Australia had received an average bonus of $39,195 last year, representing a 13 per cent increase over the previous year.

Hardly surprisingly, 56 per cent of those bonus recipients said they were satisfied, 14 per cent were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied and 30 per cent said they were dissatisfied.

The relative happiness of Australians is probably a reflection of where they stand in relation to their counterparts overseas, with the eFinancialCareers data showing 50 per cent of US bonus recipients were happy with their motza, compared to 45 per cent in Singapore and 46 per cent in the UK.

This, in turn, is related to the fact that Australian and Singaporean bonus increases were much higher than those in the UK.

Commenting on the survey findings, eFinancialCareers Asia-Pacific head, George McFerran said that while the rest of the world had higher bonus dissatisfaction than Australia, this would not prevent high turnover across the finance industry as companies looked to grow headcount on the back of the economic rebound.

“As people who were reluctant to move during the financial crisis look for new career opportunities, companies need to gear up their retention efforts in order to prevent star performers from jumping ship,” he said.

The eFinancialCareers data also suggests that it is better to be working in Sydney than in Melbourne, with bonuses in the Harbour City averaging $46,000 compared to $27,000 in Melbourne.