Jobs in Australia follow the Yellow Brick Road
As part of a major new recruitment drive, Yellow Brick Road (YBR) is targeting qualified financial professionals who have been made redundant from, or are looking to escape, the Big Four Australian banks. Its Wealth Agents campaign has already attracted a large number of applicants who are eager to break away from the “sterility” of the traditional banking industry, says YBR in a statement.
The programme is aimed at people who already have a financial services background and want greater career flexibility. “That could be mums who want to be at home with their children but don’t want to give up their careers and it could also be older professionals who have found themselves being replaced by younger candidates,” says YBR.
Earlier this month, it was announced that Macquarie had joined forces with Mark Bouris-backed YBR to compete in Australia’s mortgage market.
Bouris has made no secret of the fact that he is targeting staff from the Big Four and is taking advantage of recent industry-wide redundancies. When Perpetual announced a further 300 job cuts this month, he immediately responded with a twitter post calling for applications from retrenched staff.
"There are a lot of good people out there who have been put out of bank jobs,” Bouris told The Australian. "The program is aimed fairly and squarely at those who have been overlooked. I want them to work for YBR because they are highly skilled people who understand the market and love what they do."
Stuart Jackson, director, financial services, Hudson, says that current employees from other firms may be hesitant to consider a move because the employment market is so subdued. “However, there is good talent available with a wealth of experience – anyone impacted by headcount reductions would jump at the chance to challenge the Big Four’s market share,” he says.
For many jaded banking professionals, joining a new bank with new products and customers may be an attractive option, says Andrew Hanson, director of financial services, Robert Walters. “There may be the lure of generous remuneration for customer-generating roles and the advantage of getting in early if the enterprise all goes well – the Macquarie brand is also still very strong in Australia.”
However, as headcount is already lean, the Big Four banks are running a tight ship and will be desperate to hold on to good staff, says Hanson.
YBR offers home-loan, commercial-loan, financial planning, insurance, superannuation and investments products.
