Bonuses get paid, and within a few weeks the resignation letters start. Most controllers and finance leaders have seen it. The bonus was the reason to wait, and once it is in the bank, the wait is over.
If you manage an accounting or finance team, the weeks after payout are the best time to find out who is thinking about leaving, and to do something about it while you still can.
Why the post-bonus window matters
Finance people tend to time their moves. They finish the close, collect the payout, and then look. Recruiters see more activity at the senior analyst to manager level in this period, and the people looking are often your strongest performers, because they are the ones with options.
That also means your competitors are hiring from the same pool at the same time. A resignation in June is not a surprise to the person who gave it. It is only a surprise to you.
What is usually behind it
In our experience it is rarely one thing. It is usually one of these:
- Pay has slipped against the market, and the bonus was covering the gap
- The work has not changed in two or three years
- There is no visible next step, or the next step is blocked by someone who is not leaving
- Leadership or team culture does not match what the person was promised
Pay is the one managers assume, and it is often not the main driver. Someone who is bored or boxed in will take a modest raise elsewhere over a larger one to stay.
Have the conversation first
Do not wait for an exit interview to ask. A short, direct stay conversation with each key person does more than a retention bonus offered at the last minute.
Ask three things:
- What would you want to be doing in 12 months that you are not doing now?
- What is one thing that would make this job better this quarter?
- Is there anything about pay or title that you feel is out of line?
Then follow up on what you hear. Asking and doing nothing is worse than not asking.
Offer a real path, not a vague one
Most companies would rather promote from within, especially in finance where knowing the chart of accounts, the auditors and the quirks of the ERP saves months. But internal promotion only works if people can see it.
Practical options that cost little:
- Name a team lead role for a senior analyst, even before a manager seat opens
- Hand over a visible project such as a system migration, a budgeting rebuild or a lender reporting package
- Give a high performer a seat in the monthly business review so they work with operations and sales
- Set a 6 to 12 month timeline for a promotion decision and write it down
A date and a named criterion beat a general promise every time.
Check your pay against the market
If your last review of finance salaries was before the bonus cycle, redo it. Use public wage data from Job Bank in Canada or the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the US as a baseline, then compare against what you see in live offers for the same level in your city. Pay for mid-level roles can move faster than a company's annual band.
You do not have to match every number. You do need to know how far off you are, so a counteroffer is a decision and not a scramble.
Plan for the person who still leaves
Some people will go regardless. Prepare so it does not stall your close.
- Document the recurring tasks and their deadlines now, not on the last two weeks
- Cross-train one person on every critical process
- Decide which seats you could cover with contract help while you hire a permanent replacement
- Keep a short list of qualified candidates warm, even when you have no opening
Contract finance professionals are a sensible bridge for month-end, audit support or a systems project. They also let you test what the role really needs before you commit to a permanent job description.
Hiring when others are hiring
If you are filling a mid-to-senior finance seat now, you are competing with every other firm that lost someone. Candidates are reassessing, but they are also comparing. Move quickly on strong people, be clear on the scope and the path, and put the pay range up front. Slow processes lose finance candidates to faster ones, often within a week.
What to do next
This week, list your five most important people in accounting and finance and book a stay conversation with each. Then check their pay against current market data and write down the next step you can honestly offer them. If you need a contract hire to cover a gap or a permanent hire to replace someone, a Traverse recruiter can help with this.