The Australian risk and compliance employment market continues to fascinate us.
Rapid geo-political shift, turbulent economic markets, geo-political developments, and the constant change we see to businesses, markets, and economies in our post-pandemic world all demand an ever-evolving skill set from candidates and wide-ranging demand from our customers.
In addition to the prerequisite technical risk and/or compliance skill sets and competencies our clients always look for, we're seeing the emergence of several new specialised areas within the traditional operations risk and market risk sectors.
Here are 5 emerging hiring demand trends we have observed during the first half of 2022.
1. Sanctions Programs
Many businesses and their supply chains are being affected by the impact of the sanctions that have come because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This invasion and the unpredictable nature of geopolitics have brought forward a shift in legislation, with a new world order having emerged. This has pushed organisations to bolster their sanctions programs and build teams to cope with the demand.
These teams are learning how to ensure risk protocols can be adapted efficiently in the event of future and ongoing sanctions, and what happens in the event of other future conflicts.
Risk and compliance teams are asking how the lessons we learn now carry forward into the future.
2. Digital Fraud Specialists
The global fraud landscape continues to change significantly, notably after the pandemic, with the multitude of digital trading platforms and the emergence of such widespread cryptocurrency.
With trading happening in such a diverse range of marketplaces, through new and ever-evolving gateways, and with such a wide variety of security protocols, organisations have never been under so much pressure to protect customers and themselves from digital fraud.
A whole new world of ways to conduct fraud by increasingly sophisticated bad actors, organisations are learning how to cope with daily changes to the subjects of who is monitoring fraud activity and what does organisational governance need to look like.
The metaverse is here and these digital fraud risk and compliance roles are one of a handful of the “jobs of the future” that we are already seeing today.
3. Stagflation Risk Analysts
The chorus of economists predicting the outlook for the economy to be headed into a stagflation era is growing louder.
As we brace for the impact of stagflationary shock, organisations will need to navigate how they model themselves in the short to medium term for our new hybrid working economy. Interest rates have the potential to cause a long and slow recession that could trigger high unemployment and slow growth.
Certainly, a contemporary challenge for the traditional market risk analysts exists here, which will continue well into 2023.
4. Whistleblowing – Compliance policies and procedures for protection
Almost all the recent high profile corporate fraudulent behaviour seems to have been alerted by whistle-blowing.
Organisations must shape to protect themselves by developing compliance procedures which ensure that the integrity of the controls and protocols are upheld, and ensure the security, anonymity and even protection of the whistleblower.
Not only is there increased legal pressure being placed to implement these safe internal whistleblowing controls, but gauging the effectiveness to ensure commitment to these programs.
Compliance and risk management is a continuous process. Focusing on data gathering and conducting qualitative analyses will be pertinent in evaluating the implementation and effectiveness and will in turn, provide a better outcome for all.
5. Greenwashing and Sustainability Compliance Officers
The necessary concern about the overstating of organisational green credentials or “greenwashing’ is now within the remit of compliance teams here in Australia.
Originations with integrity must ensure sustainability is more than just an opportunity to meet compliance criteria, check boxes, or virtue signal to the world.
With our climate in crisis, how does sustainability go beyond compliance frameworks and who will lead the way?
