Azhar Unwala, Senior Analyst, PublicRelay

With a talent crunch in financial services, retaining employees matters more than ever. Turnover can cost firms $15,000 per worker in the short-term and undermine financial firms’ profitability in the long-term.So, what do employees care about the most in their financial services workplace? To answer this, PublicRelay’s human-assisted AI solution analyzed over 1,500 data points from Q2 2019 Glassdoor reviews for a sample of financial services companies.We found that career opportunities were the biggest factor influencing employees’ overall perception of the workplace, surpassing issues like culture, compensation, benefits, and diversity. This was especially true among entry-level employees, who made up most of the reviews.Lack of upward mobility was also the biggest challenge for retention. 40% of reviews among employees who left their financial firm cited lack of advancement opportunities. They also complained about leadership picking favorites and inadequate training.Interestingly, Americans discussed career prospects more than those abroad. Americans also tended to be positive about their long-term career in financial services, at 72% favorability compared to 51% favorability among international employees.