(Pictured: Sally Humphris)
Sally Humphris, the former head of institutional sales at La Trobe Financial, has moved back into the recruitment industry, becoming a partner at the Dawson Partnership, a Sydney-based firm specialising in financial services recruitment.
Humphris, who started her career in broking before moving across to asset management with Merril Lynch, had previously been in financial services recruitment at Freeman Adams, a part of the Candle group of companies.
She said: “There are not many people in recruitment who come from the funds management industry. It makes a big difference when you understand the responsibilities entailed in a position and also in having a network of people to work with.”
Peter Dawson, who is also a former fund manager, started the Dawson Partnership in 2010. He moved into recruitment in 2002 after he left Chifley Financial Services, where he was general manager in charge of institutional and financial planning clients.
He said: “In this [funds management] industry everyone is connected one way or another. I have known Sally for years and actually tried to recruit her at a couple of roles I was working on before.”
Financial services recruitment has been difficult since the global financial crisis because of the downsizing among banks, bank-owned firms and alternatives managers in particular. However, employment has been picking up in the past two years and the outlook for jobs growth is good, Dawson says.
He published his firm’s latest annual recruitment survey last week, which reports an expected pickup in new positions, particularly in wealth management. This year, 32 per cent of organisations surveyed said they intended to hire new employees, compared with 24 per cent last year. Also, 60 per cent said they would maintain current staffing (last year 55 per cent) and 8 per cent said they were unsure of their intentions (last year 9 per cent).
Of those who said they intended to hire more people, the biggest category – 42 per cent – said this was due to positive investor sentiment. “Respondents stated that there was continued investor appetite for retirement and non-retirement products, particularly across mainstream asset classes,” the survey said.
Organisations surveyed included fund managers, platforms, aligned and independent financial planners and super funds.
Dawson said he would also be introducing a remuneration survey by the firm at the end of this financial year.
