Finance Market Trends & Salary Review 2024-2025

Welcome to our 2024/25 Market Trends & Salary Review. It has been a privilege to witness the growth and development in the Australian economy over the last quarter century and access the insights we have gained from our personal interactions with finance and business leaders.

The current cautious hiring market contrasts clearly with the confident hiring frenzy of 1999 when we started – an important reminder of the inevitability of business cycles.

While a lot has changed, the basic principles of successful recruitment have remained constant. Sourcing and retaining talent remains a top priority of corporate leaders

Perceptor started as, and remains to this day, a focused and specialist expert in best-practice recruitment capability and also in the functional Finance/Accounting/Commercial discipline, where we have accumulated a broad and trusted network.

Thanks once again for your support over the years.

Market Observations

• Increased government influence on the business sector. Whether through increased regulation and reporting requirements, or complex industrial relations laws, or even direct subsidies for particular sectors such as energy and housing, state and federal governments are ramping up their influence and this will probably increase over the next few years. CFOs will be integral to understanding the implications and ensuring appropriate governance and compliance.

• Disciplined cost management is back in focus for most businesses as their input costs have risen substantially over the last 3 years. CFOs will be tasked with identifying suitable projects to create the most appropriate cost base and improve profit margins.

• Progression paths for finance professionals are more varied and less linear than the past. There is no ‘standard’ path anymore, so the younger cohort are quite comfortable moving freely between roles as long as they are being stimulated and learning new skills. As the pace of change picks up, the best approach is to be flexible and take advantage of opportunities.

• The next year will be cautious but not static for the vast majority of organisations. While the economic fundamentals here are solid, the uncertain path of interest rates, upcoming elections and geopolitical tensions will lead to volatility in sentiment. While overall unemployment is likely to rise, the critical tasks and value-adding information produced by finance teams will ensure demand remains strong for high-calibre finance professionals.

CFO role evolution over 25 years

Financial steward -> Key strategic leader

Siloed functional role -> Collaborative advisor across the business

• Greater focus on cost management and optimisation for the organisation

• Increased use of technology to implement automation and efficiency

• More sophisticated analysis and insightful reports. AI will continue to drive this.

• Greater emphasis on hiring and retaining a high-calibre team.

• Broader responsibilities across other functions such as IT, Operations, HR, Property, Strategy and M&A.

• Greater involvement in Capital Management including treasury and cash management.

• De facto role as Chief Risk Officer across not only financial risks but enterprise-wide operational risks. Current focus on cybersecurity strategy and investment.

• More recently, involvement setting up ESG measurement and sustainability reporting. A major and ongoing change.

• Increased involvement in international markets for customers or suppliers requiring sophisticated understanding of legal and financial rules and regulations in different jurisdictions as well as cost differentials for sourcing.

• Higher profile interaction and communications with external stakeholders including shareholders, government authorities, capital markets and customers

Market Activity

Senior Executive Finance Appointments

The CFO market has been subdued over the last 12 months with incumbents opting to stay put given the slowing economy and uncertain outlook. This is particularly frustrating for senior candidates who have left a previous employer and are keen to take on a new challenge. However, the status quo rarely lasts, and we expect increasing movement over the next year as the ‘growth’ or ‘change’ mandates are implemented. Salaries have moved in line with the broader market (3-4%) and bonuses have been slightly lower than the previous year on average.

Mid-Level Market

The long-term trend of companies investing in their business partnering has continued to create movement and opportunity in the mid-level market for Commercial Managers, Senior Financial Analysts and FP&A Managers. New roles have been created and there has been consistent levels of activity for these roles across most sectors.

Controller and reporting/compliance roles have also been a busy market with many businesses investing in finance talent to ensure robust controls and governance are in place and to drive further automation of financial processes.

However, with a more cautious hiring mentality, we have seen many clients insist on ‘job-ready’ candidates mainly from a similar role elsewhere, which can reduce the pool of potential candidates significantly. At this level, salary increases have matched inflation and target bonuses are being paid.

Qualified Market

The levels below Manager have stabilised after a frenetic hiring burst over the last couple of years but demand remains strong. As more clerical roles are automated or outsourced, this creates the opportunity to take on more responsibility and face higher expectations.

The activity levels will continue to be high for these candidates as they are tempted to move onwards and upwards in their careers. Salaries have moved up again this year by 5-8% with more scope for bonuses, though often discretionary amounts.

Interim

As corporates return to a more cost-focused mind-set, they have tightened approval processes for interim resources to ensure a clear requirement. This has the benefit of offering interim candidates a specific mandate and estimated timeframe. Maternity leave cover and IT projects remain the most common drivers for interim roles but business transformation projects are also a key driver of demand for specific interim skills. There is undoubtedly an increased pool of quality finance candidates available for interim roles compared to a year ago.

Important skills to progress your career in Finance

• Problem-solving

• Project experience

• Stakeholder communication

• Understand the detail and drill down as required

• Curiosity

• Learning capability

• Agility

• Delivery and reliability

• Manage ambiguity

Salaries and Bonuses

Our research and data suggests that most companies are offering between 3-4% salary increases on average this year, finding a balance between controlling costs while acknowledging the cost of living increases faced by their employees.

This will strike an acceptable balance for most employees given higher increases in previous years and the heightened focus on job security at present.

Bonus payments have been generous in most sectors reflecting the strong results over the last year but are unlikely to be sustained next year in a more challenging market where it will be harder to meet company performance targets.

Salary Tables

Large Corporate (ASX100 or major multinational)

Medium Sized Corporate

Commercial Finance & Analysis

Financial Reporting, Tax, Treasury, Risk & Compliance