A growth in the attractiveness of smaller banks could be down to how close they are to customers.
The finance industry came as the 19th most attractive industry to work in in Australia, in Randstad's 2018 Employer Brand Research.
It was down one place from last year, but Randstad’s national director said this was largely influenced by the growing success of more contemporary industries like technology, which jumped 4%.
When looking at the list of the largest companies, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) came on top as the best company in the finance industry to work for in the country.
However, taking into account the smaller companies in Australia, Westpac and ANZ were knocked off their podium places by ING and QSuper.
The growth of smaller banks like this has been attributed to their reputation with consumers. The research showed that 50% of respondents said they would not find a company attractive if it had a bad reputation.
Randstad’s national director, Malcolm Peak, said, “I think there’s a strong correlation between the attractiveness of an organisation and how much consumers interact with that organisation.
“We are seeing organisations that people can relate to more easily become more attractive as employers.
“If your financial institution is close to you as a consumer and is easy to deal with it will be more and more attractive and we’re seeing a growth of key influencing companies. They’re not the largest financial institutions so potentially they’re a little bit more nimble.
“I think one of the challenges is that there are a lot of conversations around some high profile bad apples, but the industry employs many people and there are a lot of really good people in there.
“It’s something that people have to look at objectively and there are some great opportunities for financial institutions to take note about their reputations and about trust.”
The research showed that ages 25-44 found the industry the most attractive, but it was age group 45+ that knew the sector better.
Running along a similar theme, respondents in New South Wales were most attracted by the industry, but respondents in Queensland knew the sector better.
