Despite market uncertainty, retaining staff remains a key concern for CFOs and finance directors, according to new research by recruitment specialist, Robert Half. In a survey of 200 CFOs and finance directors (FDs) across the UK, two thirds (66{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}) said they were very or somewhat concerned about losing top performers to other job opportunities in the next year.

Publicly listed companies are the most concerned about staff resignations (73{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}), which is closely followed by 64{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} in the private sector, with the public sector least concerned at 60{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}. Large company executives are also worried, with 74{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} indicating so, compared to medium (64{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}) and small (63{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}) companies.

However, it is not only top performers that companies should be concerned about losing: more than one in three finance leaders (36{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e}) believe that between 9{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} and 20{6060b2de664e4eaa3e7b7e86961ce2c4bbd7a29b6c1097abf8257a4e5b07383e} of their new finance and accounting employees leave the company within the first year. This is in contrast with the expectation that new employees will stay with their firm for an average of 4 years.