Tight candidate supply is continuing to place upward pressure on salaries for compliance professionals in Australia, according to market-wide research.
An Australia-wide survey of the compliance market by specialist recruiter Taylor Root, in conjunction with Risk Management magazine, found that under-resourcing and the regulatory environment will continue to drive demand and salary growth. “The biggest growth area in terms of numbers will be at the junior and mid level,” said David Buckley, partner at Taylor Root. “This is just literally to cope with the increased regulatory burden. There has definitely been a realisation over the past two years or so that many compliance and risk departments have been under-resourced, irrespective of new legislation or tightening of the regulatory burden. Coupled with any new legislation that is coming through, organisations have already been significantly under resourced and have had to recruit quite aggressively in risk and compliance.”
Despite the shortage of experienced candidates, 60 per cent of Taylor Root clients said they will either increase the size of their compliance team or will actively recruit in the coming year.
But getting an exact fit for compliance roles is becoming more difficult. “There is very, very limited supply of available experienced candidates,”Buckley told Risk Management. “This has meant that clients now realise that they won’t necessarily find the perfect candidate with all the prerequisite prior experience and must explore a number of alternative avenues to find potential staff. There is ongoing recruitment out of the regulatory bodies. An increasing number of lateral hires are coming in the shape of portfolio accountants, operations, people from middle office roles generally, and we see the occasional lawyer with no compliance experience moving into compliance roles.”
The study also found that companies viewing risk and compliance functions as business partners are more likely to attract quality candidates, while those –now in a minority, according to Buckley – that do not, will struggle to recruit and retain talented compliance professionals.
While the strongest growth is expected at the mid and junior levels, an increasing number of smaller firms are creating dedicated head of compliance roles. “Of course, heads of compliance roles have existed before, but there is a definite trend towards separating legal, compliance and risk responsibilities and having a dedicated head of compliance where previously this might have been a hybrid role,” Buckley said. “It’s all about the depth of work that is now involved and the burden that overlays and underpins the whole business. This translates itself into some great career opportunities in the compliance space both globally and locally. The majority of compliance experience is transferable between jurisdictions.”
While the Federal Government’s reform of anti-money laundering laws – which look set to rival Financial Services Reform in terms of resourcing needs – is expected to keep demand for specialists high, the nature of regulatory reform is increasingly driving demand for contractors.
“We are seeing a really big increase in the number of contract and temporary roles,” Buckley said. “Many compliance teams are finding it very difficult to plan ahead. For example, they are getting thrown into internal compliance and risk projects which haven’t been planned or projected. More and more clients are happy to take junior staff on contract on a ‘try before you buy’basis. Contract positions are increasingly popular.”
In terms of salaries, investment banking remains the highest paying sector in terms compliance roles. Retail banking was second, with funds management in third.
To obtain a copy of Taylor Root’s Australian Compliance Market and Salary Survey 2006-2007 click here