Let’s be honest – the finance world hasn’t always been kind to working parents.
For years, “flexibility” was the word employers used in job ads but rarely meant in practice. Rigid 9-to-5s, presenteeism dressed up as commitment, and a quiet assumption that anyone taking time out for the school run wasn’t really serious about their career. Sound familiar?
We see it from both sides at Campbell Grove Talent. As a, Accountancy and Finance Recruitment agency based in Yorkshire, we regularly talk to brilliant transactional finance staff, management accountants, Financial Controllers and Finance Directors across Yorkshire who are desperate to keep progressing their finance career, but who are also parents, carers, humans with a life outside the ledger.
We talk to employers who genuinely want to hire and keep great people, but haven’t quite worked out how to make their business a place working parents actually want to stay.
So here’s what we think really makes the difference.
Flexible working isn’t a perk – it’s essential now.
If your job ad still says “some flexibility considered,” you’re already behind. The best finance candidates we place aren’t asking whether flexible working is available – they’re assuming it is, and choosing between employers based on how flexible.
That doesn’t have to mean fully remote or a four-day week (though both work brilliantly for some finance teams). It might be:
The businesses that get creative here are winning the best candidates before the job even hits the market.
Talk about it in the job advert – properly
We read a lot of finance job specs. Most say nothing about family-friendly policies, and the ones that do usually bury it under a single generic bullet point.
If you offer enhanced parental leave, flexible hours, or a genuinely supportive culture, say so – clearly, near the top. It signals to candidates that this isn’t lip service, and it will get you more applications from experienced parents who might otherwise scroll straight past.
Enhanced parental leave still sets you apart
Statutory leave is the floor, not the standard. In a competitive finance market – and Yorkshire’s finance and accountancy sector is genuinely competitive right now – enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave packages are one of the clearest ways to stand out from other local employers.
It also pays off long term. Better leave policies mean better retention, and retention means you’re not repeatedly paying recruitment fees to replace people who left because a competitor offered more support.
Make returning to work an actual process, not a hope
Too many finance teams treat “returning from leave” as something that just sorts itself out. It doesn’t. A proper phased return, a keeping-in-touch plan, and an honest conversation about workload and expectations make an enormous difference to whether a returning parent feels set up to succeed, or set up to quietly start job hunting six months later.
Progression shouldn’t stall because someone became a parent
This is the big one. We’ve placed incredibly capable finance professionals who felt overlooked for promotion the moment they came back from leave or asked for flexible hours – not because their performance dropped, but because of assumptions about their “availability” or ambition.
If you want to genuinely support working parents in finance, that means part-time and flexible-working employees are still considered for FC and FD roles, still put forward for study support, still in the room for the next opportunity. Anything less and you’ll lose your best people to a competitor who does it properly.
Culture matters more than policy
You can have every policy written down beautifully and still have a culture where nobody feels able to really use them. If your senior finance leaders never leave on time, never use flexible hours themselves, and quietly raise an eyebrow at 3pm sign-offs, your policies are just words on a document.
The employers we see winning working parents over are the ones where leadership visibly models the behaviour – an Finance Director who leaves for nursery pickup and logs back on later, a Head of Finance who’s open about their own job share. It gives everyone else permission.
Why this matters for your business, not just your people
This isn’t just the right thing to do – it’s a genuine recruitment advantage. The finance talent pool includes a huge number of highly skilled parents and carers who are actively filtering out employers who don’t get this right. Get it right, and you’re recruiting from a much wider, deeper pool of experienced accountants and finance leaders than the competition down the road.
Need help finding finance talent in Yorkshire who’ll thrive with you?
At Campbell Grove Talent, supporting working parents and championing flexible working isn’t a box we tick, it’s genuinely part of why we started this business. Whether you’re hiring transactional finance support or your next Finance Director, we understand what candidates are really looking for, and we know the Yorkshire finance market inside out.
Get in touch on 0113 418 0877 or hello@cgtalent.co.uk and let’s find you the right person for your team.
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