One of the most optimistic statistics to emerge from Credit Today's 2007-2008 Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey is that 73.5 percent of credit execs say their job satisfaction is increasing or stayed the same, up from 69 percent three years ago. Furthermore, 84 percent of credit execs are always or almost always working to their potential, a substantial improvement from three years ago, when 78 percent felt they were working to their potential always or almost always. Here are some more quick takes from the survey:

Salaries at Larger Companies Rising Again

After several years of level or even slightly declining salaries for senior-level credit execs at large companies, salaries for larger company credit execs are now rising at the same rate as those at small companies.

Loyalty Is Up

For all the talk about our mobile society and job-hopping, credit is a stable profession. The average credit manager has been with his current company for 10.2 years, up from 9.1 years three years ago. The median time is eight years, up from only six in the last survey. Twenty percent have been with their employer fewer than three years. On the other end of the scale, twenty percent have been with their employers for more than 18 years.

DSO, Bad Debt Levels and the Ability to Manage Staff Are Rising In Importance for Credit Execs

None of these are new, of course, but these performance measures are being used increasingly by top management in assessing the performance of credit execs and their departments.

Staff Turnover Rates Up

Despite greater loyalty at the top, staff turnover rates in credit departments are up modestly to 16.5 percent, on average, compared with just 12 percent three years ago. Thirty-five percent had no turnover during the past year; down somewhat from three years ago, when 50 percent had no turnover.

Staff Sizes Down

Our survey proves that credit execs really are doing more with less, as average staff sizes declined from 9 in 2004, to 7.6.

Hours Up

The credit profession is definitely not a "nine-to-five" occupation, as the average work week for credit professionals now stands at 47.7 hours, up from 46.5 three years ago.

Brain Drain Reversed
Last time around, we observed that the only 57 percent of survey participants had completed a college degree (or more). But the education level of this year's participants is markedly higher.

More than 26 percent of survey respondents have graduate credits (10.5%) or a four-year degree (15.7%), up from just 14 percent last time around. In addition, the percentage of participants with less than a college degree declined markedly from 43 percent in the last survey to only 31 percent in the current survey.

Hiring Is Up

Despite the decline in staff size, hiring is robust. In fact, 28.5 percent of credit execs expect to add staff in the coming year, but only 16.5 percent expect to downsize.

Portfolios Up

The average portfolio of survey participants this year is $141 million, up from $131 million three years ago, while the median rose from $25 million to $36million.

Women's Role Increasing

Much of the rise in portfolios is being handled now by women. Three years ago, the average woman in our survey managed a $60 million A/R portfolio. Today, the average is $102 million.

Survey Participation Is Up

A total of 1,119 credit professionals participated in Credit Today's just released 2007-2008 Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey, a new record, up substantially from our 2004 survey, which had 945 responses. Sixty-two percent of survey respondents are the top credit executive at their company.

To give some perspective on the breadth of this year's survey, we estimate very conservatively that survey participants manage A/R portfolios totaling $118 billion. If that number turns over just 9 times a year (representing a DSO of 40), annual sales of those who participated in the survey are about $1 trillion, or 1/13th the entire U.S. GDP.

In addition to capturing detailed salary statistics for all major credit department positions, the survey covers a wide range of job satisfaction issues.

Download the Full Report Now

Members of this site can download the full 2007-2008 Credit Today Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey by clicking here.

If you are not a Member yet, no problem.

You can have full access to the site within one minute from now. Click here to get started.