Increase female planners to get the best
If the financial planning industry does not strive to hire more women it is not getting the best that is available, StatePlus believes.
StatePlus has been looking to increase their female planner numbers and employees at management level to have a better gender balance, according to its managing director, Michael Monaghan.
"All organisations need to accept that half the population is female and if we don't address that segment of the population we're not getting the best that's available,"Monghan said.
"There are currently three females out of eight executives reporting directly to me and at our next level down, the people who report to the general managers, we run at about 40 per cent.
"Our weakest statistic is that we only have two female regional managers out of 18."
However, within their client services offices (CSO) 89 per cent were female, and the firm had internally promoted a couple female CSOs into a financial planning role.
Monaghan said the firm was looking to grow their female planner numbers through a graduate program.
"We haven't started it yet, but we can overweight female recruitment at the graduate level. It won't surprise me that there's at least 50 per cent female graduates and if that's the case we have a good chance to recruit at least 50/50, and maybe one or two more females," he said.
General manager for human resources, Tracy Murphy, said although there were no differences between men and women on the technical expertise there were other skills to be considered.
"It is the softer skills, like empathy, that differentiate between two planners with the same qualifications. It is a bit unique and you're looking for those unique qualities," she said.
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