Finance professionals, it seems, are less inclined to seek new job opportunities than many other employees. At least that is what the latest evidence suggests.
The most recent salary survey from Remunerations Economics, for instance, reveals that the resignation level among accountancy and financial staff has fallen for the sixth year running, to just 3.4 per cent. By contrast, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) says that turnover is running at 15.7 per cent across the economy as a whole.
But finance directors should resist the temptation to take too much comfort from these findings. The latest salary study by financial recruitment company Robert Half Finance & Accounting finds that more than half the current finance workforce is looking to change jobs.
Though the headline statistic is alarming, and should rightly act as a wake-up call for those companies wanting to hang on to their best employees, looking for a new opening is a few steps short of walking out the door.
Most employers still have the chance to devise an effective retention strategy - but finance directors need to take action quickly as the demand for good finance staff and the cost of replacing leavers are both rising.
Some staff turnover is desirable, as it allows fresh blood to flow into the organisation, but losing valued employees is costly. The CIPD puts a price tag of £8,000 on the cost of labour turnover for a senior manager - and that figure does not include the cost of recruiting to the vacant post.
Typically, the more specialised the post, and the more the required skills are in short supply, the harder, and more costly, it is to replace staff who have walked.
But the costs are not only financial. When individuals leave, they take with them their accumulated corporate knowledge, which can be a vital ingredient in achieving business success.
So the cost to an organisation of replacing highly skilled finance professionals that it has typically invested much time and money in recruiting and developing is likely to be considerable, especially as current demand is outstripping supply.
"The big accounting firms are desperate to hold on to to staff," says David Chancellor, director of commerce at recruitment company Robert Walters. He says the current job market for finance professionals is a seller's one, with job seekers now getting three or four employment offers rather than one or two, as was the case a few years ago.
Graham Beale, finance director at Nationwide Building Society, agrees. "International Financial Reporting Standards [IFRS] and Sarbanes-Oxley have increased the workload of accountants, so there is a big demand for their services," he says.
At the same time, there is evidence that companies will increasingly struggle to fill vacant finance posts because there is a growing skills shortage in the profession that is likely to worsen further.
A report from City & Guilds, charting critical skills for tomorrow's future, places qualified finance professionals at number 14 in the 2020 league table of 'rarest species'. This means that, while these posts may be some of the most crucial to the UK economy 15 years' hence, they will also be some of the hardest to fill.
According to City & Guilds, this is due to "an acute skills shortage brought on by the lowering of standards and experience required for entering the profession".
Underlying this trend is the erosion of relativity in pay rates for finance professionals, which has resulted in "an influx of less able individuals, at the expense of talented staff who are exiting the industry in search of better opportunities and pay".
City & Guilds urges those professions that are most at risk to review their retention strategies to safeguard future employees and stem the outflow of talent.
Attracting the right staff
Before an organisation begins to even think about retaining staff, it needs to have in place a resourcing strategy that attracts the right people in the first place. Effective recruitment is the first step to keeping staff.
The array of recruitment and selection tools available to help employers reach a wider pool of potential recruits and to aid their ability to make the right appointment is growing.
Psychometric tests, which are used to develop an objective and well-rounded picture of a candidate and to assess their 'fit' to the vacancy and organisation, are increasingly popular for high-level and specialist posts, as are assessment centres that focus on both the behavioural and technical competencies for the job. Gauging a candidate's fit with the organisation is crucial.
"Cultural fit is very important when recruiting," says Carol Hurst, head of personnel operations at Nationwide. "It's important that a candidate's values match our values."
Chancellor concurs. "As a recruitment business, we have to understand a client's culture and only put forward people who would fit in," he says.
Selection is a two-way process. Job seekers beginning, or wanting to further, their finance career will be weighing up the organisation as much as the organisation is assessing them.
Turnover tends to be highest in the first couple of years of employment, suggesting that many new recruits quickly become disillusioned with the job or that the role or organisation does not meet their expectations.
Providing a realistic picture of the role and potential future career opportunities, as well as effectively integrating recruits, will help minimise attrition among new employees.
"Preparation is vital in attracting senior finance staff," says Andy Naylor, head of eastern region at recruitment consultants Badenoch and Clark. "The ability to communicate a clear picture of the role, how it is likely to develop over time and where it fits into the strategic objectives of the company are essential."
All the evidence points to employers requiring a sophisticated and flexible approach to staff retention, designed to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the workforce. In today's competitive marketplace for skilled and experienced professionals, being viewed as an 'employer of choice' by prospective recruits and existing staff can tip the scales in a company's favour.
Striving to become an employer of choice means building a company's reputation so as to differentiate it in the jobs market. The approach is closely linked to 'total reward' - a concept that recognises the employment experience is influenced by factors far wider than the more traditional reward offering of basic pay and benefits.
Finance staff expect a competitive remuneration package that reflects individual performance and allows them to tailor benefits to their own needs, so the rest of the offering will often be the decisive factor influencing someone's decision to stay or go.
"Recruitment and retention strategies need to strike the right balance between financial rewards and non-financial incentives, such as flexible working and career opportunities," says Chancellor.
The research strongly suggests that it is often not the 'pull' factors, such as the slightly better remuneration package on offer elsewhere, that tempt qualified and experienced finance professionals away but a lack of satisfaction with their current employer. The Robert Half research identifies the negative 'push' factors prompting finance people to seek new jobs as: increased workloads, longer working hours and stress.
Though practices to improve work-life balance, like the availability of flexible working options, are important to many of the growing number of women following a career in finance, it is not only female finance professionals that want to achieve a better balance between their work and personal lives. People's aspirations are rising across the board.
The long-hours culture
Chancellor says: "Many finance professionals, who have spent three years moving around the country doing their audit in practice, often don't want to work long hours once they're qualified."
Beale says that, although Nationwide's main sites, Northampton and Swindon, are not attractive locations for some, increasingly, the building society is attracting finance professionals from London who have grown tired of the 'hustle and bustle' of the city, particularly the travelling.
Highly qualified or experienced knowledge workers, such as finance professionals, place a high value on the training and development and career progression opportunities on offer.
Another survey from Robert Half finds that a lack of career options tops the list of reasons why managers think employees will leave. Having likely invested many years in training and honing their skills, it is not surprising that a resignation is very likely to rest on whether an employer can facilitate their ongoing development.
"Professional training and career prospects are the most important influences on retention among finance staff in our company," says Microsoft UK finance director Paul Hart.
While training at Microsoft is targeted at individual needs, 'star performers' qualify for a number of career opportunities, including working overseas in one of the US software company's subsidiaries on either a long-term assignment or a three-month swap programme.
"One of my team has just become my equivalent in the Netherlands," says Hart.
Microsoft also places great emphasis on mentoring to ensure people achieve their potential. "I have one-to-ones each month with both my direct reports and my mentees," says Hart, adding that they are "equally important".
Beale also believes that plentiful training and career opportunities are vital to retaining the best finance talent.
"Our size means we can offer a wide range of options so people can fulfil their career ambitions," he says. "Whether you want a career in taxation, management accounting or regulatory reporting, we are big enough to accommodate you and help you achieve your goal."
Both Beale and Hart acknowledge that the role of finance is changing and opportunities to become more involved in other aspects of business are very attractive to ambitious professionals.
"Finance staff are highly valued for their analytical and technical skills and are increasingly involved outside the finance function," says Hart.
Similarly, Beale says: "There's greater value being placed by business on what accountants say and do. They're no longer regarded as 'bean counters' but as partners working closely with other parts of the organisation."
Naylor has also observed this shift and its impact on retention. "As the commercial and strategic influence of senior finance staff increases, so does the need to operate in more complex structures," he says.
"One of the many opportunities to improve staff retention at the senior level is to create an environment that promotes strong working relationships between finance and other departments."
There is no single, miracle initiative that can turn around too-high turnover within a company or keep valued team members. Any serious bid to improve the retention of finance talent needs to be contingent on the organisation's specific needs. It will also need to embrace more than one initiative so that it appeals to the diversity of today's workforce.
As a professional group, it is clear that finance staff will continue to be integral to the success of the knowledge-based economy. Companies need to ensure that they invest in these key workers now to reap the benefits of a committed and loyal team into the future.
RETENTION TIPS