Mark Spiers – General Manager Advice – BT Financial Group
Westpac and St.George Financial Planning aims to double the number of women working in planner roles by 2015 to over 700 planners.
This initiative will see current female representation in Westpac Financial Planning and St George Financial Planning increase from 26% to 45% over three years.
“We know women make great financial planners and it’s time we made it easier for women to work in our growing industry,” says Mark Spiers, general manager Advice, BT Financial Group.
To achieve this, both St.George Financial Planning and Westpac Financial Planning have reviewed and revised their employment offers to ensure they are attractive, rewarding and progressive for women interested in financial planning as a career.
”By looking at our own work practices and listening to the changes women need to make the profession more attractive, we are making real change to the way we attract and retain women to the profession,” says Mr Spiers.
Structural change has already been made across both businesses to improve the flexibility of the employment offer and to increase the level of planner support.
This includes the revision of planner scorecards to better reflect flexibility of work hours, as well as access to childcare and the opportunity to purchase additional leave to help manage school holidays.
Increasing planner support via study assistance, induction programs and 100% paraplanner support have been key areas of focus. Career paths via different entry points into the profession have also been established, recognising that 63% of existing advice-related roles such as paraplanning, call centre and banking staff are filled by women.
Currently, there are approximately 16,500 planners in the financial planning industry, with approximately 13,200 male and 3,300 women.
“We are not taking a numbers-based approach in this project, but we are setting targets,” says Mr Spiers. “We want to be accountable and signal to the market we will make this happen.”
With the dawn of a new era of demographic change, increasing the number of women who are financial planners is essential if the industry is going to provide advice to more Australians.
Increases in longevity, higher female workforce participation and women wanting more control of their financial affairs will all put pressure on the limited number of financial advisers.
