Finance leaders in 2026 face a perfect storm: rising compliance demands, digital transformation pressures, and persistent talent shortages. The question isn’t just how to hire, it’s how to keep your best people.
Finance teams across the UK and especially in Dorset and the wider BCP region are being asked to deliver strategic insight, operational excellence, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation all at once. Yet many are doing so amid rising workloads, limited resources, and increasing expectations from leadership.
At Bond Williams Accounting & Finance, we see a clear shift: the challenge for 2026 isn’t just attracting finance talent, it’s retaining it. Recent data reinforces this: 62% of finance professionals expect to move roles within the next two years, and 58% expect their next move to be outside their current organisation (ACCA, Global Talent Trends 2025). For the UK specifically, 52% say they’re actively seeking new opportunities within the next 12 months (ACCA Careers summary of GAAPweb Salary Survey 2025).
The Reality for Finance Professionals
Finance professionals are stretched across:
- Compliance, reporting and governance
- Data analytics and digital transformation
- Strategic advisory and business partnering
- Rising regulatory and stakeholder demands
Many report feeling overworked, under-resourced, and increasingly pressured, with SMEs particularly struggling to resource teams effectively. The strain is reflected in global indicators: 52% agree their mental health suffers due to work pressures (ACCA).
Key Hiring Trends in 2026
Finance recruitment continues to evolve:
- Digital transformation is reshaping transactional roles while FP\&A and business partnering expand
- Compliance, governance, and ESG reporting skills are in high demand
- Broader mid-level roles mean professionals carry more responsibility and influence
- Hybrid finance and tech roles combine financial expertise with data, systems, and process improvement
Retention and hiring are tightly linked to workplace design. Over 76% want hybrid working, yet 51% are still in the office full time, a misalignment that risks attrition if left unaddressed (ACCA).
Skills Shortages
Hard-to-find capabilities include:
- Advanced analytics and digital finance tools
- Experience in system upgrades and IT transformation projects
- Regulatory, governance, and ESG awareness
- Financial modelling and strategic forecasting
- Hybrid finance and tech capability
- Strong communication and stakeholder engagement
Skills development is now a retention lever. Half of professionals fear they’re not developing the skills they’ll need, and only 32% say their organisation provides opportunities to learn AI-related skills, creating a clear upskilling gap employers can close to keep their best people (ACCA).
What Finance Professionals Want
Top priorities for 2026:
- Hybrid working and flexibility (including four-day week options where possible)
- Competitive salaries aligned with workload and responsibility (cost-of-living pressures persist; 41% expect an 11%+ pay rise over 12 months)
- Strong pensions and benefits
- Clear, structured career progression
- Recognition for contributions and meaningful work
Purpose matters too: 67% are interested in sustainability-focused finance careers, so visible ESG projects and responsibilities strengthen the EVP for finance talent (ACCA).
Why Finance Professionals Consider Leaving
Attrition is rising due to:
- Excessive workloads and long hours, especially during reporting cycles
- Limited progression or unclear career paths
- Lack of recognition for strategic contributions
- Insufficient wellbeing or development support
- Return-to-office mandates that clash with strong hybrid preferences (76%+ want hybrid vs. 51% still in office full time)
Two additional signals from ACCA’s 2025 findings amplify the retention challenge:
- Entrepreneurial ambitions: 52% see accountancy as a springboard to running a business. If this mindset isn’t engaged internally, professionals may look elsewhere
- Side hustles are rising: 43% of Gen Z and 39% overall now engage in additional work. Employers that channel this energy into intrapreneurship and innovation are more likely to retain it
Recognition matters across demographics: 45% say their organisation focuses more on certain aspects of diversity than others, with specific attention needed on recognition of older employees (ACCA).
How to Retain Finance Talent
Retention requires meaningful action aligned with the evidence:
- Design for hybrid: Highlight flexible, outcome-focused working
- Create visible progression: publish frameworks and mentoring paths; support lateral moves that build “career lattices”
- Fund skills and AI learning: close the development gap with structured learning for analytics, automation, and AI (only 32% currently get AI-learning opportunities)
- Boost wellbeing at peak cycles: resource month-end and year-end properly; add temporary cover and smarter tooling; set boundaries given the 52% mental health impact
- Channel entrepreneurial energy: intrapreneurship programmes, innovation sprints, and problem-solving missions to retain those with start-up ambitions
- Align rewards with market reality: review salary and benefits against market annually; acknowledge cost-of-living expectations (41% expect 11%+ rise)
- Offer ESG-aligned work: tie projects to sustainability outcomes to engage the 67% who value this
- Value experience: recognise and reward older employees explicitly; diversify stretch assignments
(All data points above from ACCA, Global Talent Trends 2025.)
The Bottom Line
Finance is the backbone of organisational stability and strategic decision-making. In 2026, businesses that invest in and support their finance teams will outperform those that fail to recognise the pressures professionals face.
The evidence:
- 62% of finance professionals expect to move roles within two years, and 58% expect that move to be outside their current organisation (ACCA)
- In the UK, 52% say they’re actively looking to move within 12 months, a near-term retention risk (ACCA Careers / GAAPweb Survey)
Are you ready to strengthen your finance team for 2026?
Talk to us at Bond Williams Accounting & Finance for market insight, tailored recruitment solutions, and long-term talent strategies: https://bondwilliams.co.uk/contact/
