Gender diversity will remain a key area of focus for the financial services sector at the leadership level in 2016, according to recruitment specialist HAYS.

Unveiling its list of recruitment trends for the coming year, HAYS said that “flexibility, adaptability and diversity” will be key priorities for new talent in the coming year.

“The financial services sector in particular is focusing on gender diversity at the leadership level. More employers ask their recruiter for a good mix of both genders for shortlists, particularly across traditionally male dominated sectors such as banking [and] financial services,” Hays managing director Australia and New Zealand, Nick Deligiannis, said.

“IT employers also want to engage female IT staff at a younger age including through graduate recruitment and encouraging more female students to choose IT careers.”

The comments come on the back of the Turnbull Government’s innovation statement announcement last week, with the Federal Government allocating $84 million towards investment in digital literacy and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education over the next four years — including $13 million to encourage the participation of young women in STEM.

Deligiannis said that technology will continue to drive change in the recruitment of talent as well as how employees perform their jobs.

“Technology is not only driving how products are made and promoted but also how employees perform their jobs — it’s creating entire new careers, reshaping existing ones, and changing the way organisations recruit and engage talent,” he said.

“To succeed, organisations need people who not only understand how to make the best use of these [new] technologies but who also have the interpersonal skills to bring the organisation along with them.”

According to Hays, the top 12 recruitment trends for 2016 are:

1. Growth of flexible workforces;
2. Focus on STEM careers;
3. Digital Influencers and Analysts;
4. Focus on security;
5. Digital & Mobile Apps;
6. Development and Operations (DevOps);
7. Customer experience;
8. Candidates need to be adaptable;
9. HR to harness content marketing;
10. Workforce diversity;
11. New ways to attract and retain talented healthcare professionals; and
12. Revolution of recruitment outsourcing.