finance leaders can’t afford to ignore mental health.

tl;dr:

• burnout is a financial liability, not just an HR problem.
• it creates hidden costs through high turnover, lost productivity, and costly errors.
• finance teams are at high risk due to intense deadlines and a culture of perfectionism.
• the solution requires structural changes to workload and culture, not superficial perks.
• prioritising wellbeing is a powerful retention strategy that cuts costs and keeps your best people.

What’s draining your bottom line more than market volatility or operational inefficiency? Burnout.

As a finance professional, your world revolves around numbers, forecasts, and tangible assets. Team wellbeing can feel like a soft, unquantifiable metric belonging to another department. But this is a dangerous oversight. Stress, chronic overwork, and burnout within your finance and accounting teams are silently eroding productivity, engagement, and retention—creating a significant, yet often unrecorded, liability on your company's balance sheet.

This is no longer just an HR issue; it's a core financial risk. This article will show you how to identify the hidden costs of burnout, meet rising legal and cultural expectations in the UK, and build a high-performance finance culture that is both productive and sustainable.

burnout in finance: the cost you’re not accounting for.

Think of burnout as a hidden operational expense. While it doesn't appear as a line item on your P&L, its impact is just as real. Disengaged employees, a direct symptom of burnout, can cost a business 34% of that employee's annual salary due to lost productivity, errors, and absenteeism. For a senior accountant earning £60,000, that’s a £20,400 loss per year, per employee.

This hidden liability manifests in several ways:

• Attrition: The cost of replacing a specialised finance professional—including recruitment fees, onboarding, and lost productivity during ramp-up—can easily exceed 150% of their annual salary.
• Absenteeism: Burnout leads to more sick days. In the UK, stress, depression, or anxiety accounted for 17.1 million working days lost in 2023.
• Presenteeism: This is the silent killer of productivity. It’s when an employee is physically at their desk but mentally checked out, leading to errors, missed deadlines, and poor strategic thinking. For a finance team where precision is paramount, this poses a monumental risk.

Effective employee wellbeing programs are not a cost centre; they are a critical investment in mitigating this financial risk and protecting your most valuable asset: your people.

why finance teams are at higher risk for burnout.

The very nature of finance creates a perfect storm for burnout. The pressure is immense, the stakes are high, and the pace is relentless. This isn't just anecdotal; it's structural.

chronic overload: when always-on becomes dangerous.

Month-end, quarter-close, annual audits, forecasting cycles—the finance calendar is a series of high-pressure sprints with no real finish line. Consider a typical finance manager during a year-end close. They're juggling inaccurate data from other departments, chasing down approvals, and working late nights to meet unmovable statutory deadlines. The expectation is to be available 24/7, leading to severe mental fatigue. This constant state of high alert is unsustainable and inevitably leads to errors, disengagement, and burnout.

cultural drivers: perfectionism, pressure, and no pause.

The culture in many finance departments is built on an expectation of zero errors. While diligence is crucial, a culture of perfectionism can become toxic. It discourages asking for help, punishes mistakes, and promotes a relentless work ethic where long hours are worn as a badge of honour. This pressure-cooker environment directly undermines employee wellbeing and fosters a culture where team members suffer in silence, fearing that admitting to stress will be seen as a sign of weakness or incompetence.

how forward-looking finance teams are tackling burnout.

The solution isn't another yoga app or a one-off wellness workshop. It's about fundamentally redesigning how work gets done and embedding wellbeing into your team's operational DNA.

rethinking workload: eliminate, automate, delegate.

Before you can support your team, you must understand their workload. Encourage your managers to conduct a 'time audit' to identify bottlenecks and low-value tasks.

• Eliminate: Are there reports no one reads? Processes that are redundant? Be ruthless in cutting them out.
• Automate: Leverage technology to handle the drudgery. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) tools can automate data entry and reconciliation, freeing up your team for high-value strategic analysis.
• Delegate: Use frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritise tasks. Empower junior team members by delegating responsibilities that help them grow, while freeing up senior staff to focus on strategic imperatives.

embedding wellbeing into team operations

True wellness in the workplace comes from how you manage, not what perks you offer.

• Make Wellbeing a 1:1 Topic: Move beyond status updates. Ask questions like, "What part of your work is draining you right now?" and "Do you have the capacity for this new project?"
• Protect Time: Introduce "no-meeting" days or protected focus hours. Actively discourage after-hours emails and lead by example.
• Promote Flexibility: Acknowledge that life happens. Offer flexible hours or remote work options to help your team manage personal commitments without sacrificing professional responsibilities. This builds trust and autonomy, which are powerful antidotes to burnout.

employee wellbeing is the new retention strategy.

In today's competitive talent market, you are not just competing on salary; you are competing on culture and employee health and wellbeing.

how burnout drives attrition in finance roles.

Top finance professionals are in high demand. When they feel undervalued, overworked, and unsupported, they will leave. In fact, achieving a better work-life balance is now one of the most powerful motivators for UK employees seeking new opportunities, proving to be as significant as pay for many. When a seasoned financial controller walks out the door, you don’t just lose a headcount; you lose invaluable institutional knowledge, relationships with stakeholders, and stability within the team. The cost of that loss is immense.

what actually retains top talent?

While competitive compensation is table stakes, the factors that truly retain talent are intrinsic.

• Autonomy: The freedom to manage their own time and projects.
• Career Pathing: Clear opportunities for growth and development.
• Recognition: Feeling seen and valued for their contributions.
• Flexibility: The ability to balance work with life's other demands.

These elements don't just improve team wellbeing; they are directly linked to higher engagement, better performance, and a healthier bottom line.

rebalance your burnout balance sheet.

In the UK, the conversation around mental wellness in the workplace is more than just a trend; it's a critical component of corporate governance. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides clear guidance on managing work-related stress, making it a legal as well as a moral duty for employers.

Ignoring burnout is no longer an option. It is a measurable threat to your team’s performance, your company's financial health, and your legal standing.

Your next step: Start by auditing your team’s current workload, turnover trends, and wellness investments. Then, identify one burnout risk factor you can begin to eliminate this quarter—whether it's an outdated manual process, unrealistic deadlines, or a lack of psychological safety.

The finance leaders of tomorrow won’t just optimise for performance—they will lead cultures that prioritise sustainability, well-being, and strategic resilience. It’s time to rebalance the burnout balance sheet.

FAQs.