Finance professionals need to upgrade IT skills



Financial professionals with well-developed IT skills will be highly sought after in 2017 as financial digitisation and workplace automation increasingly influences the financial landscape in the coming year, according to Robert Half.
The recruitment agency said jobseekers would need to upgrade their IT skills to keep pace with changing and growing demand, as the industry would look for candidates with specialised skillsets.
Robert Half Asia-Pacific senior managing director, David Jones, said: "Finance professionals aspiring to a higher salary in 2017 will need to not only possess sufficient finance skills and qualifications, but also encompass IT skills in to their CV, such as IT auditing, system infiltration projects and project planning of data migration.
"In Australia, particularly in NSW, these candidates are in short supply and will have the leverage to negotiate a generous package."
Jones also said that digitisation, big data, and process automation would impact finance function in 2017 and in the future, those professionals who were quickest to adapt to the changes would be more likely to attract increased salaries.
"As companies continue to evolve with the growing influence of new technology, finance professionals will be expected to exhibit a more tech-based skillset in the future, particularly within the business analysis and commercial areas," Jones said, adding those with cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system experience would be in demand.
Companies who were executing these new strategies would need to alter their recruitment strategy and update the required skillsets when recruiting financial specialists, Jones said.
Recommended for you
BT is to launch a new low-cost “Focus” investment menu for its Panorama platform this October, in partnership with Vanguard, seeking to compete with industry superannuation funds.
Net gains of financial advisers have already doubled since the start of FY25, according to this week’s Padua Wealth Data, with momentum gathering pace far faster than the previous financial year.
National advice firm MiQ Private Wealth has appointed a new chief executive to lead the business through a “transformative era” after penning a partnership deal with AZ NGA earlier this month.
WT Financial’s managing director, Keith Cullen, believes the firm’s Hubco model with Merchant Wealth Partners will be a “repeatable growth model” for the business as it scales its adviser numbers.