Risk Talent: 74% of risk personnel are considering job change

A 74% majority of 500 risk-management professionals surveyed by New York-based recruitment agency Risk Talent Associates say they are considering changing jobs in the next two years.

That includes 27% who say they will change jobs, and 45% who say they may change jobs. This is dramatically higher than the 17% of those surveyed who said they had actually switched roles in the past two years. Michael Woodrow, president of New York-based Risk Talent Associates, said: “Increased emphasis on risk management by firms, regulators, media and investors is causing experienced risk professionals to look externally in order to ensure their current compensation reflects their market value.”

In fact, compensation has seen substantial growth in the past few years. According to Risk Talent’s survey, total compensation among risk managers grew at a compound annual growth rate of 8% between 2003 and 2006. While growth in salary was just 4% during this period, growth in cash and non-cash bonuses was 11% and 8% respectively.

The survey also showed that a significant proportion of risk-management professionals also expect their organisation’s risk-management function to grow during the next year. In total, 40% of those surveyed said they believed their risk division would increase in size, while 55% predicted it would remain constant and 5% said it would shrink. One of the drivers of this an increased number of compliance and regulatory staff, according to the agency. Interestingly, the proportion of respondents predicting a growth in their risk-management function was slightly lower in investment banking, at 34%.