Swimming at the Deep End of the Talent Pool – Understanding salary & benefits packages currently offered to employees in Australia’s advice firms. Published by Business Health Pty Ltd, February 2023.
Excerpts:
There is a need for smaller businesses to differentiate their staff offer from larger competitors and to understand what additional benefits they can offer that may not be available in a larger firm.
Many smaller practices (with a gross revenue of less than $500,000) are struggling to deliver an acceptable profit return and there is a direct correlation between profitability and the number of support staff.
When comparing results from the smaller practices (those with three or fewer employees) against the larger businesses, those with more than three employees reported paying higher than average salaries and larger bonuses and were far more likely to offer their team members an enhanced package of ancillary benefits.
Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean the smaller firms will not be able to attract or retain quality staff. What is does highlight however is the need for smaller businesses to differentiate their staff offer from larger competitors and to understand what additional benefits they can offer that may not be available in a larger firm.
While a competitive salary is a prerequisite, smaller practices may, for example, be able to offer a warmer/more familial culture, direct access to the owners/leaders of the business, more engagement with clients and fast-tracked equity opportunities. Moving forward, these attributes will be highly sought after by some employees and, when positioned correctly, could help to clearly differentiate smaller firms from their larger competitors and enhance their standing as an employer of choice.
Demand for quality staff is currently at an all-time high and the market does not show any signs of cooling during the coming 12 months. Two thirds (68%) of advisory firms reported that they are looking to add new members to their team during 2023, with competition greatest in the city/metropolitan areas where 72% of practices will be actively recruiting.
Interestingly, it will not be revenue generating advisers that will be the most sought after. While 46% of businesses will be searching for a junior adviser with less than five years’ experience, half are intending to appoint additional client service managers/officers to their team. A third of firms (31%) indicated they will be adding an experienced adviser and 25% expect to bring on additional administration/reception support.
The positions in least demand will be experienced paraplanners (with only 2% of practices recruiting for this role), junior paraplanners (10%) and General/Practice Managers (15%).
While most firms will continue to leverage the traditional recruitment channels to find their new hires, as the chart below shows, there were some interesting differences based on the location of the practice.
The full report is available here: Staff Salaries & Benefits Report – Business Health
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