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
With Insignia Financial suffering a cyber attack on its Expand platform, this can potentially have a negative impact on the two private equity bids currently in play for the firm.
State Street Global Advisors has made an equity investment in Ethic, a platform helping financial advisers to produce bespoke portfolios, reflecting the greater client demand for customised portfolios.
WT Financial’s new entity with Merchant, Investco, has entered into a heads of agreement to merge three financial advice firms.
ASIC has released the results of its first adviser exam to be held in 2025, with 241 candidates attempting the test.