Retention strategies for employers is the topic today. In the UK finance sector, talent is leaving faster than many organisations anticipated. The average employee turnover rate sits at around 34%. For a finance professional earning £25,000 a year, replacement costs can exceed £30,600 when recruitment investment, onboarding time, and lost productivity are added. For senior roles, the impact is even higher.
These losses are hitting a market already under strain. Skills shortages are deepening, with 60% of finance teams lacking commercial awareness and 39% facing gaps in stakeholder management. At the same time, inflation, rising National Insurance contributions, and wage competition from a booming fintech sector are pushing salary expectations higher.
Despite these pressures, Gallup research suggests 42% of turnover is preventable when organisations address the right factors early. The problem is that many businesses still approach finance team retention reactively.
They respond to resignations after the fact, making counteroffers or reshuffling workloads rather than building retention into the team’s structure from the start. Retention by design is more effective. A proactive approach embeds retention strategies into three core areas: career development frameworks, a healthy and inclusive team culture, and future-focused skills planning.
Understanding Why Finance Talent Leaves
When someone resigns, it’s rarely because of a single bad day. Typically, slow-burning pressures stack up over time. Then a role seems to promise more, and employees jump ship. In UK finance teams, certain themes come up again and again:
- Workload pressures from month-end, year-end, and audit cycles leave little room to recover.
- Stalled career progression, particularly for those in transactional roles.
- Skills stagnate when automation changes the job, but training doesn’t follow.
- Pay misalignment with inflation or regional market rates.
- Generational differences in expectations for flexibility and technology use.
- Lack of strategic exposure for junior or mid-level staff.
Workload is one of the hardest to ignore. Smaller teams often must push through peak periods without extra support. Over time, that can lead to burnout, a major driver of finance staff turnover.
For others, it’s the lack of a visible next step. Junior and mid-level finance professionals often find they can only move forward by moving out. Almost one in four younger finance workers change jobs every one to two years, which creates a constant churn in early-career roles.
Automation adds another layer. Transactional work is changing fast, but staff are left unsure about their long-term place in the team without structured reskilling. Pay gaps, regional competition, and a lack of opportunities to build stakeholder-facing skills result in a widening UK talent shortage.
The Financial Cost of Turnover
Losing someone from a finance team doesn’t just create a new expense for a job ad. It changes the pace of everything. Work gets spread around, and the people picking it up are already busy. Reports take longer. Deadlines feel tighter. The conversation in meetings shifts because the person who knew the history behind a decision isn’t there.
It takes time to get back to full strength. New hires may need six to eight months to be fully productive in many professional roles. Until then, managers spend more hours coaching and less time on strategy. Projects move forward, but not as quickly or cleanly, and mistakes are more likely.
The money adds up, too. Some estimates put the cost of replacing an employee at 50 to 250% of their annual salary. That covers recruitment and training, but not the harder-to-measure losses, like missed opportunities, weaker client relationships, or the knowledge that leaves with the person.
There’s also the effect on those who stay. Seeing a colleague go can make others think about their next step. In a UK talent shortage, that’s a risk no finance team can afford. Holding on to good people isn’t just about avoiding recruitment costs. It’s about keeping stability, protecting morale, and keeping the work moving without disruption.
Here are several frameworks to consider that will improve your retention.
Framework 1 – Strategic Career Development Pathways
People rarely walk away from a finance role if they can picture where it’s leading. They often leave when the next step is a guess, or when it looks like the only real way forward is to leave altogether. Having a clear, realistic pathway changes that. It gives people a reason to imagine themselves here for years, not months.
The best career development frameworks are built from real opportunities people can take, and the support to make those moves possible.
In practice, that might mean:
- Letting someone buried in invoices try month-end reporting, even if it slows things down a bit the first time.
- Slotting in short bursts of training on skills the team will use, like a new automation tool or pulling ESG data into reports.
- Backing professional qualifications such as ACCA or CIMA, but pairing that with enough study time so they don’t have to burn themselves out to pass.
- Keeping skills fresh in the quieter months with niche but valuable training, things like risk management or anti-money laundering that pay off when the pressure’s on.
- Setting up mentorship opportunities that go both ways, allowing new and existing employees to support each other.
- Checking in every few months to discuss what’s working, what isn’t, and whether the plan still makes sense.
When people can see and trust these opportunities, they tend to stay. In a sector facing automation and a tightening UK talent shortage, that’s one of the most reliable ways to keep a team intact.
Framework 2 – Culture and Environment Design
You can give someone a great career pathway, but if the day-to-day feels heavy, they won’t stick around to use it. Finance teams live with pressure. Deadlines, audits, and last-minute demands from senior leadership. That’s normal. What drives people out is when those pressures come with no give, no support, and no sign that anyone’s paying attention to the load.
Culture isn’t a programme or a workshop. It’s what people feel at 4:30 on a Thursday when the month-end numbers still aren’t lining up. It’s how the manager reacts when someone admits they’re struggling. It’s the tone of conversations between teammates who’ve been through the same crunch.
Small changes often shift things more than big campaigns. Things like:
- Letting people start later after a late close, without making it a big deal.
- Watching workloads and bringing in extra help for quarter-end rather than expecting everyone to push harder.
- Noticing the effort, not just the outcome, like thanking the team for pulling together even if the deadline moved.
- Making space for people to provide genuine feedback and suggestions without feeling judged.
It’s easy to say, “We value our people.” The harder part is proving it. When people trust they won’t be left to sink, they stop looking for a lifeboat elsewhere.
Framework 3 – Technology and Skills Future-Proofing
Finance teams work in a moving landscape. Automation is taking over routine jobs, and AI is now part of forecasting and reporting. Regulations change faster than the forms you use to record them. If the skills inside your team stay still, people won’t just struggle to keep up; they’ll start wondering if they’re better off somewhere more forward-looking.
28% of finance professionals lack the skills to adapt to changing technology. That gap is waiting to turn into a turnover problem.
Future-proofing doesn’t have to be a sweeping programme. Sometimes it’s letting people try a new system before the official rollout, or giving them space to explore an automation tool that might save hours later. It can look like:
- Short, regular training on what’s becoming “the basics” now: data analytics, automation workflows, ESG reporting.
- Hands-on time with new technology so it’s familiar before it becomes essential.
- People can own small innovation projects, even alongside their core work.
- A mix of specialist depth and broader commercial skills so they can flex as the business shifts.
- Updates on regulatory changes well before deadlines, with time to adapt.
Investing in your team’s future-facing abilities goes beyond keeping seats filled. It keeps skills, experience, and trust inside the business.
Where Retention Really Comes From
Keeping a finance team together isn’t luck. It comes from the chances people get to grow, how they feel daily, and knowing they’ll still be relevant as the work changes. When those things line up, people stop looking for the door.
The real cost of losing someone isn’t just in recruitment fees or onboarding time. It’s in the projects that stall, the knowledge that walks out the door, and the pressure that builds on the people left behind. Those costs cut deeper in finance, where trust and accuracy are everything.
You don’t need a year-long programme to make a start. Three months is enough to show things are shifting:
- First month: Review what you’ve got now, including career paths, culture, and skills training, and ask the team what’s missing.
- Second month: make one clear change in each area, which people will notice immediately.
- Third month: see what’s working, adjust what isn’t, and prepare for the next round.
The UK talent shortage isn’t about to ease. Every employer is fishing in the same small pool. The teams that hold on to their people will be the ones that make staying feel like the smartest move they can make.
Thanks
Rachel
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, ranging from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we understand, and match employer and employee needs perfectly.
To learn more, contact one of our team members today or call us at 01282 930930.
