Hays Banking - October 2007

Hotspots

The market is experiencing consistently high demand for candidates of all levels across lending and lending support. Retail candidates from customer service to loans processing are required while at the senior level mobile lenders and business development managers are hotspots.

The mortgage sector has experienced significant levels of candidate movement, creating hotspots at the senior manager/state manager level.

The commercial and corporate banking market is also very active, particularly for senior origination and business development candidates in corporate and property finance. Hotspots also exist across the board for credit analysts, senior credit analysts and lending support, while corporate credit managers are a recent hotspot.

The coming quarter

The current banking market is extremely buoyant with employer hiring intentions indicating jobs growth will continue across all the banking sectors and job types this quarter, both temporary and permanent.

Executive recruitment

Reflecting the intent of most organisations to continue to grow their market share, executive vacancy activity is focused on business development candidates rather than strategic or leadership skills.

Salaries

Salaries in resources-booming Perth have experienced strong increases, with employers prepared to pay a premium to attract skills. However over this quarter salaries in Perth and across Australia are expected to remain at current levels with no further movements expected.

In general across Australia organisations are becoming more creative in structuring their packages, with many now paying bonuses either up front or guaranteed.

The Hays Salary Survey includes over 80 banking job roles across 9 locations in Australia and New Zealand and can be viewed at www.hays.com.au/salary

Candidate trends

There has been an increase in the movement of experienced financial planners and fund managers. Such candidates receive multiple offers from around Australia and overseas, and this makes it very tempting for them to examine the market and test the opportunities that are offered. Broadly speaking, multiple offers for strong candidates is a growing trend which is placing pressure on employers to make decisions about their preferred candidate quickly.