Hays Accountancy & Finance - April 2007

Public Sector

Hotspots

• Senior management accountants, systems accountants, senior financial accountants, internal auditors and financial/business analysts are all in demand. Small public sector or NFP organisations are considering candidates with experience from an equivalent sized organisation. Larger organisations are generally seeking candidates with commercial experience. This demand is created by a refocus to become more commercial in order to be more productive and save money.
• Assistant accountants are very much in demand, particularly in not-for-profit organisations. This demand is caused by many not-for-profit employers experiencing growth and high productivity levels while additional funding (both government and non government) is also a contributing factor.
• Government departments across Australia are upgrading the roles of their CFO's primarily for corporate governance purposes, as well as ensuring these employees are appropriately academically and professionally qualified.
• There is a general shortage of qualified accountants with staff management skills due to the trend to fast-track less experienced and graduate staff for retention purposes.
• There is a continuing demand for risk, compliance, costing and policy writing accountants in addition to financial staff. Demand for risk and compliance candidates is particularly high due to the creation of new positions with large organisations.
• Cost accountants remain in demand due to the continuing growth of shared services initiatives across the states. They are also in demand as GOC's move towards commercialisation and compete for business with the private sector.
• Policy writing remains an area of demand due to the amalgamation of state government departments and shared services initiatives.

The coming quarter

High levels of restructuring are occurring and senior positions need to be filled. Many contract positions are becoming permanent and public sector organisations are conducting recruitment processes to that effect.

An increase in temporary and contract recruitment has occurred since legislation and processes involved for permanent recruitment prevent government organisations from acquiring talent quickly. Through temporary recruitment a department can secure solid candidates as well as have the opportunity to run a process to fill the role permanently.

Employers are also utilising temporary recruitment to trial a candidate's abilities in the workplace, since in the current market some candidates are overselling their abilities. We expect this to continue to be a popular way to recruit, although candidates who are currently employed are reluctant to give up a permanent role for a temporary assignment.

Contract vacancy activity is also expected to be impacted by financial year-end, with demand solid for contract external auditors.

Executive recruitment

Executive recruitment is expected to be very active over the quarter as major organisations restructure and seek solid senior skills to lead change. The major hotspot of executive recruitment continues to be universities.

Highly skilled and experienced financial executives remain in demand due to a growing lack of depth of experience in other levels of the candidate market.

Salaries

A shortage of skilled and qualified accountants is resulting in candidates being offered salaries above market or skill level. While salaries are expected to remain at current levels for the next quarter, looking forward employers recruiting for senior roles ($125,000 and above) will need to review the package offered in order to compete with the private sector, which is increasing salaries offered for these candidates.

Certain areas of the not-for-profit market have special salary packaging, which is a definite draw card for candidates. Not-for-profit employers are realising the need to be competitive and are more open to salary negotiations to secure the best candidates.

We are also seeing an increase in counter offers in order to retain good staff.

We expect temporary rates will hold steady following their inflation over the past two years to meet candidate expectations. Although there are still more positions than quality candidates, the value adds of the public sector attract candidates to positions rather than pure salary.

Candidate trends

There has been a decrease in the availability of permanent financial and management accountants due to increased competition from the private sector. In fact, when compared to the previous quarter candidate applications per position have dropped. Yet there has been an increase in candidates who have been with their current employer over two years who are now looking for a new position.

The slowness of public sector permanent recruitment processes means that candidates are more often taking up other opportunities from commerce or the profession rather than waiting for weeks or months for a decision from a public sector organisation.

Not-for-profit organisations prefer candidates with on-the-job experience rather than raw graduates.

As the lowest paying government in Australia, Western Australia's Government is competing with the attractiveness of the booming commerce & industry sector and has great difficulty in attracting candidates.

There are more candidates seeking work/life balance, which places a higher demand on the market and benefits such as study leave, car parking, AWA's and flexible working hours are all rising.