Hays 2025 Salary Guide top finance job trends

Garreth Hanley:
This is INTHEBLACK, a leadership strategy and business podcast brought to you by CPA Australia.

Jackie Blondell:
Welcome to CPA Australia's INTHEBLACK podcast. I'm Jacqueline Blondell, and today we're diving into the jobs market for finance professionals via the Hays 2025 salary guide. Joining us today is Shane Little, managing director of Enterprise Solutions APAC Hays. Welcome to In The Black, Shane.

Shane Little:
Thank you Jackie. It's really good to be with you today.

Jackie Blondell:
Now, personal and job satisfaction has raised its head in the 2025 findings. Does the amount you earn correlate with how satisfied you are in your job?

Shane Little:
Well Jackie, I think it's fair to say it's not entirely linear. There's a correlation for sure, but there's some clear trends and some notable expectations amongst candidates.

Generally you see people who are paid higher salaries generally leads to greater satisfaction, but if they don't have the right relationship with their employer, the right relationship with their manager, the right balance between their personal life and their work life and they don't see the value in the role of the organisation they work for, the greater salaries are often forgotten and dissatisfaction creeping quite quickly.

Jackie Blondell:
So it's not a matter of saying earning 250,000 and still expecting to be earning more at that sort of just sub below the C-suite type of role, there's no dissatisfaction at that level?

Shane Little:
It's not as simple as saying there's no dissatisfaction. The data from our survey tells us that there is considerable higher levels of satisfaction at that greater than 250 level. So 83% of candidates report satisfaction with their job at that level, which is a pretty high number.

But beneath the 250 level, it dropped to about 80. So again, a very high number. But when you start getting down to 100 to 150, it begins to plateau. And really that overall relationship, that balance, that input you have from your manager becomes really, really important.

And then when you step down into some of the more entry level roles that are typically held by younger generations, the younger workforce, that is where you begin to see a slightly less satisfied workforce or more dissatisfaction in terms of the relationship between employee and employer.

Jackie Blondell:
AI raises its head in this survey as well. The survey says AI is clogging up the system. How's this happening? I thought AI was supposed to make things more efficient in the recruitment process.

Shane Little:
I think we could say AI is clogging up the system in many areas and not just in recruitment, but I think it's a really fascinating topic for our industry and for candidates trying to navigate the job seeking market. It's often a period of time of high emotion and it's stressful and not many people go through the job seeking process and look back on it as a period of time of great fun in their life.

And AI has the potential to make it a richer experience, a better experience for candidates, but I don't think we're there yet. I think recruitment organisations, I think job boards, I think the likes of LinkedIn and employers themselves are really wrestling with how do we make the candidate experience better as a result of AI and not possibly more fragmented and sometimes more generic? Because what's happening is applications per job across Australia and New Zealand are at an all time record high.

The Seek data tells us that, and some of that may be due to a slightly depressed job market, but without doubt a big part of that is down to the fact that the majority of applicants today and job seekers today can write a job application, can tailor a resume to an advert or to a job description very easily using some of the freely available AI tools and instinct would make you think that that helped the job seeker.

But actually what it is creating is almost a level playing field across the application base and it becomes more difficult for people to differentiate themselves if everyone has access to the same tools. So we're in this period of time I think where we're wrestling with the tools, we're wrestling with the technology and we're not seeing the best outcomes for the candidates as a result of that.

I think we will get there and we at Hays are doing some really interesting stuff to try and accelerate the process and increase the candidate experience. A number of our customers are, and then a number of our peers in the marketplace and our partners in the marketplace who operate in the same sector are all working hard, a lot of it in collaboration to try and use the tools and the AI to create a richer candidate experience and ultimately get the best outcomes for candidates and hiring managers. We're certainly not there yet.

Jackie Blondell:
So in essence, are we seeing many, many more applications, but it's hard to discern the quality because AI is making things uniform?

Shane Little:
Exactly that. I spent some time at an industry event last week and Seek, who are obviously the main player in our job board market in Australia and New Zealand, provided some data and they are now seeing a record number of applications per job, and that's across their entire existence going back 15, 20-odd years. We are seeing it that there is heightened level of applications coming into our organisation from candidates over the last six or seven months.

And the challenge for us and the challenge for employers and the challenge for hiring managers is how do you deal with that volume to find the most suitable applicants within that application base? And arguably they are in there because there is talent in the marketplace today and there is talent moving around, not in every skilled environment, but it is there.

But as anyone who's been a hiring manager knows, screening 50 candidate applications or 50 resumes to try and find the two, three or four you might choose to interview or carry out a phone screen with, if you don't have the right tools and technology to help you with that, that's a really manual and time-consuming process.

So the level setting that AI has created, as you say Jackie, has led to a slightly, I wouldn't say confused, but almost blurred application funnel that creates an awful lot more downstream impact to hiring managers and recruiters alike.

Jackie Blondell:
But meanwhile we've still got a few skill shortages in various areas. Which sectors and geographic areas are being hit the hardest by having trouble finding people?

Shane Little:
The skill shortages are varied I think is the way I would describe it. If we look specifically at sort of the finance environment and we think about this through the lens of a finance professional, we are seeing not mass disruption, but we are absolutely seeing disruption at some of the entry-level roles within the finance profession.

Some of that happened 10, 12 years ago through offshoring, but now it's happening even faster through the acceleration of automation in some of their roles. And for this reason, we're seeing finance professionals become quite mobile. And what I mean by mobile is they're willing to move employers and they're willing to move organisations quite quickly for either better pay and conditions or for the opportunity to increase the diversity of their skillset and get new challenges in what they do.

And the technical capability of a finance professional remains important. And where the candidate has that in spades, the employers are struggling to hold onto their best candidates. They are seeing candidates move unless they can offer them increased opportunity to develop their skills and then match their salary ambitions at the same time. The other element of skills I think that is relevant across all industries but very much so in the finance space is we used to use the term soft skills.

We like to use the term human skills now across the industry. And what we really are talking about here is the skills of communication, teamwork, adaptability, flexibility. These sort of human skills are becoming really, really important in the workplace more broadly, but in particular in the digital finance landscape where you're trying to change how an organisation does business, how it serves customers, how it interacts internally with people. These human skills from a finance profession perspective are becoming really, really, really important.

Jackie Blondell:
Now let's look at specifics. For finance workers, what sort of jobs and industries reap the best rewards in terms of paying conditions?

Shane Little:
I don't think this has changed too much in the last 12 months or so since we completed our previous salary survey. From an industry perspective, we still see the resources, mining, sort of energy space as a really attractive industry, there's often the opportunity for a higher base pay and location allowances that come with some of those organisations within that industry.

We see good growth in technology and professional services organisations for finance roles. In particular, those that can bring a level of strategic interpretation and add value in a business partnering context and not just do the basics of finance. And then financial services, banking, superannuation, the market in both Australia and New Zealand in areas such as corporate lending, funds management, investment accounting remains quite strong.

Now we do see some marginal differences across different locations and if we look at some of the standouts in the survey in particular in relation to Australia, you see things like roles such as product control manager earning up to $200,000 in Sydney and Melbourne at the top end of town. And then in Sydney, a senior fund or investment accountant can earn up to 170,000. If you start stepping into some of the other major metro environments across Australia, you can often expect maybe a 20 or $30,000 decrease.

Jackie Blondell:
What about paying conditions when you compare Australia and New Zealand? Are we seeing a move from New Zealand to Australia for better conditions or are New Zealand accountants quite content with their working and pay conditions?

Shane Little:
I think generally it's not a secret that there has continued to be significant skills migration out of New Zealand. And we've seen that not just to the east coast of Australia but also to the west coast. And from a general sort of pay perspective, salaries in Australia are higher. We see that ranging anywhere from sort five to 16, 17% across most industries and roles compared to New Zealand.

And I mentioned earlier on an example of a fund or investment accountant would earn at the top end possibly 170 in Sydney, $170,000 in Sydney, that might drop down to 140,000 in some of the other cities across Australia. In Auckland, the data tells us that that same role would probably earn about 107 to 110, and that's New Zealand dollars. So there's a delta there.

And that obviously makes Australia an attractive place for finance professionals to consider if career advancement and salary advancement is really, really high on their agenda. There's also the cost of living that you need to take into consideration. And whilst the cost of living crisis is arguably as severe in New Zealand and in some reports is more severe in New Zealand in addition to lower salaries in New Zealand, it's interesting that New Zealanders report a marginally higher overall satisfaction with their earnings compared to Australians.

Maybe they're generally a happier bunch New Zealand compared to us in Australia, but 64% of New Zealanders report satisfaction with their earnings. In Australia, that number is 60. So close, but still New Zealanders are slightly more satisfied.

Jackie Blondell:
That's really interesting. You also sort of delved into generational attitudes to career progress. Did you find intergenerational differences and is there envy between generations in how they approach their careers?

Shane Little:
I think this topic of intergenerational envy is a fascinating one. I've got a fifteen-year-old son who is already beginning to think about the workforce and actually has his first part-time job and I think he looks at me as a dinosaur. And when I tried to support him with his first job application, you could imagine the response I got. I'm not sure there's outright envy, but there's definitely intergenerational tension and possibly a lack of understanding on both sides of the generational divide.

There's a heightened level of frustration amongst younger workers in the workforce today. The data tells us that from our survey. Younger workers and the threshold we use in our data is under 39 for this purpose. They have a sense of frustration and are heavily concerned with how politics, climate change and things outside of their control impact their career opportunities, probably more than hard work and their own capability. So very aware of the world around them and some of the impacts that might have on them from a career perspective.

And then older workers at that sort of 40 years of age and above generally are more satisfied. They value integrity and effort a slight bit more and they are a little bit less concerned with organisational culture and the purpose of an organisation. They tend to stay in roles longer, and that job movement that we see amongst the younger workforce is far higher than it is in the older workforce.

And aside from our survey, it's the topics that we talk about in our industry quite a lot Jackie, the intergenerational workforce, the main change that that is going to lead to is the likes of my generation will probably have one, maybe two, and quite possibly at a stretch three different careers during the course of their working life. It's highly likely that my children entering the workforce and those in their early 20s today will have 4, 5, 6 different careers through the course of their working life. And that's a significant change in how you navigate your career and how an organisation deals with those expectations of an employee.

Jackie Blondell:
Yeah, remarkable when you think about it. Now let's look at gender. How's the gender pay gap going? Is it widening or narrowing? And does it depend on where you are on the corporate ladder?

Shane Little:
I think the good news here is it's not widening, at least the data from our survey suggests it's not widening. So as a starting point that can be taken as some element of a positive. The negative is it's not narrowing at a really rapid pace. And we know that decades of conscious and subconscious bias has led to this gap in both, again, Australia and New Zealand and it is narrowing.

Some of the steps that we're taking from a legislation perspective and an employer perspective and a visibility perspective is having the right impact. But I think it can be described as slow. In Australia as you get to the upper levels of the salary bandings and you look at above $150,000 as an annual salary, 40% of employed men earn 150,000 or more. And you compare that only 25% of women.

And in New Zealand it's very, very similar .on the male side of things, it's 39% of men earn over $150,000 in New Zealand versus only 17% of women. So some interesting numbers in there that tell us it's still an issue we need to collectively work harder at.

Jackie Blondell:
It's something that won't change overnight, but at least it's not widening so that's something to consider. Now let's just for the last issue, let's look at your advi ce for job seekers. Considering these findings, what fundamental advice do you have for job seekers, particularly in the finance space?

Shane Little:
I might talk to you first if I can about what the data suggests and what our survey suggests and then I might share my personal view on this. The feedback we would give candidates in the finance industry and broader industries as well is first of all, know your worth and understand the market in which you operate in.

There's various tools and salary surveys like the Hays salary survey available to people to really benchmark what their experience is worth in today's market and set your expectation based on research and data, not on optimism or an ambition that may not be realistic.

And that's a really sensible first stop to take. In terms of your application process and how you present yourself to employers, as I mentioned earlier on, using AI and using tools to help you with that process is probably just part of life today. But avoid that mass generic AI generated resume or application letter. There is still a need for people to personalise themselves and to highlight the things they have done in their career or their personal lives that highlight those human skills and the ability to collaborate and work in teams. It's becoming more and more important.

So generic applications have flooded the marketplace and job seekers who stand out need to work a little bit harder to make themselves appear really personable in those applications. And then from sort of an ongoing basis, and this is as much about career advice as opposed to the job seeker advice is prioritise roles in organisations that offer clear career paths and offer clear development opportunities for you. And if you are sitting in a role where you are frustrated or you don't have the right level of challenge or learning opportunity, sometimes people's first step will be to go and explore the external market.

And my personal advice would be to always explore the internal market, either concurrently exploring the external market or even first, because sometimes you will find that organisations have the opportunity that you are looking for. They may not have themselves organised well enough to provide you with that opportunity or surface that opportunity to you automatically, but conversations can take you from very interesting directions within your own employer.

So it's not always just about moving jobs. And then I would probably say from a personal perspective, I said earlier on, my son Jamie is in that stage of life where he's thinking about his career and he's got his first part-time job in school. And what I say to him all the time is, there is two things that will differentiate you in today's workforce quite quickly, and one is collaboration and communication.

Be able to talk to people from all walks of life and from all backgrounds. Great customer service, whether it's an internal customer or an external customer goes an awful long way in this rapidly sort of changing world as AI comes at us from all angles. And the old adage of hard work in today's world is as important as it was when I entered the workforce 25 odd years ago. And I think if you take both of those things into an application process, into an interview, in today's working environment, you have the opportunity to differentiate yourself quite quickly.

Jackie Blondell:
That's great. Well thanks so much for joining us today, Shane.

Shane Little:
Thank you Jackie. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Really interesting topic.

Jackie Blondell:
For our listeners eager to learn more, please check out the show notes for links for the full salary guide and additional resources from Hays and CPA Australia. And don't forget to subscribe to In The Black and share this episode with your colleagues and friends in the business community. Until next time, thanks for listening.

Garreth Hanley:
To find out more about our other podcasts, check out the show notes for this episode, and we hope you can join us again next time for another episode of INTHEBLACK.