When skilled finance professionals are in short supply and recruitment feels more like a scramble than a strategy, it might be time to try a different tactic. Rather than constantly searching for new talent, maybe turn your attention inward to nurture the talent you already have.
We don’t mean give someone a quick online course and off you go. It’s about really investing in your people to build a culture where growth and development are integrated into your business.
As we’ve seen from the labour market outlook earlier this year, the competition for talent is fierce. However, good planning, with a strong internal development strategy, can be your saving grace during tricky times.
Development Planning With Purpose
Companies that genuinely invest in their people see a meaningful return – we’ve seen it time and again throughout our work with clients and internally at Core3. Of course, this investment is only made possible by finding the right person in the first place, but development planning, when done with purpose, increases employee engagement, reduces turnover and strengthens team performance.
People want to feel valued – it’s true in life and at work. When they know their employer is genuinely interested in helping them grow, they’re more likely to go the extra mile. They become more motivated, their loyalty to you deepens and the wider team benefit.
The cost of going through the recruitment process is no joke either. The time, effort and financial burden of replacing a key employee adds up quickly, not to mention the impact of losing valuable knowledge and experience. By focusing on talent development, you can retain your best people and reduce the disruption and expense that come with high staff turnover.
Having a focus on nurturing talent also sends a powerful message to any future recruits. We see it more and more that today’s candidates are looking beyond salary. They’re searching for growth, opportunity, and purpose. A business that champions development stands out in the eyes of top talent, and that reputation travels fast.
Personalised, Practical and Built to Last
You might be reading this and thinking: “Right, now tell me how to it!”. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all. The most effective approach is spending some time understanding each individual’s strengths, ambitions and areas for improvement. Only then can you build a plan that supports their journey and aligns with your company goals.
Start with a proper conversation. One that helps you deep dive into your employee’s ambitions. Find out what motivates them. Find out where they see themselves in two, five, and ten years. Then ask them what skills they think they need in order to get to that point. This is a great first step to making your employee feel heard and will give them reassurance that you’re serious about their future.
Then it’s onto the learning opportunities. These can come in many different forms, such as hands-on experience through stretch projects, job rotations across different areas of the business or more formal learning opportunities like industry courses or professional qualifications. Mentoring and coaching can also play a role, especially in boosting confidence and providing guidance when employees step into new responsibilities.
We often work with businesses to align their hiring and development strategies, building long-term talent plans that don’t just fill current gaps but also prepare teams for the future. It’s part of how we help companies move away from reactive hiring and towards a more sustainable, strategic talent model.
Create a Learning Culture
In a fast-moving sector like finance, you can’t afford to treat learning as an afterthought. To keep your best people, you need to make it part of your culture. That starts at the top. When leaders are visibly engaged in learning themselves by attending training, seeking feedback and being one of the first to share knowledge, it sends a clear message that personal development matters.
Practical support helps too. Whether it’s giving employees access to high-quality resources or simply protecting time in their schedule to learn something new, the organisation has a role to play in making development feel not just possible, but valued.
Don’t overlook peer-to-peer learning either. Encouraging your teams to share their insights and experience, perhaps through internal workshops or more casual lunch and learns, will promote collaboration and strengthen relationships within the team.
Once you’ve created your learning culture, you can use this as a powerful tool in your next recruitment drive. We often encourage our clients to spotlight learning and progression as key differentiators in their value proposition. Creating video content to tell employee stories or capturing behind-the-scenes insights can help others see that development isn’t just something you do – it’s something you’re known for.
Measuring What Matters
Of course, investing in development means proving its worth. That doesn’t mean keeping a tally of how many courses someone’s completed, but understanding the real impact.
Start by setting clear, meaningful goals. Are people staying longer? Are teams performing more effectively? Is there a noticeable shift in morale, engagement or productivity? The data will look different for every organisation, but the key is consistency. Track progress, listen to feedback and be willing to tweak what’s not working.
We’ve been helping our clients bake these measures into their strategy, making it easier to demonstrate ROI, refine the approach and continuously raise the bar.
Planning for Tomorrow, Not Just Today
Perhaps most importantly, effective development planning helps future-proof your workforce. Things change quickly in business. It’s just the nature of the beast. So, having a clear internal talent pipeline can be a major advantage.
There aren’t many people who stay in the same role for their entire career. So when the inevitable does happen, at least you’ll have a ready-made replacement when they decide to move on. When people know that progress is possible, they’re more likely to put down roots and invest in their own development as well as the company’s.
When we look at what we’ve done to grow our talent, we know we’re on the right track. Supported by our B Corp certification, we believe prioritising people and the planet over profit isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s a powerful retention strategy.
Two days every month are dedicated to personal development, where our current leaders get to upskill and our future leaders begin to learn their craft. Our team have the chance to regularly participate in 360° feedback and psychometric testing to improve self-awareness and align with our B Corp values. We also offer our team six days per year for each of them to volunteer and give back to local initiatives, which really resonates with them.
This ethos has created a company culture entirely different from the daily grind of any other finance recruitment agency they’ve experienced.
Final Thoughts
Although there are positive signs ahead, right now is tough for finance recruitment. But it’s important to balance your external hiring needs with nurturing the talent you already have. The skills, ambition and potential you need may already be sitting within your four walls. All it takes is the right strategy to unlock it.
Yes, it is possible you will invest time and money in someone just for them to one day leave. But as long as the impact they have while they are with you outweighs your investment in them, then you’re the real winner.
Growing your own isn’t just smart. It’s sustainable, rewarding and exactly what future-ready businesses need to thrive.
