A new survey shows a lot of young Wall Streeters want out

Russell Reynolds Associates

This chart should concern Wall Street.

A survey of 300 finance professionals with six to 10 years of post-MBA experience by the Toigo Foundation and Russell Reynolds Associates, a New York-based executive-search firm, found 50% of finance employees want to leave their job in the next one to three years. And 20% are considering leaving finance all together.

The survey was conducted to shed light on the so-called talent crisis on Wall Street. Top students from America’s most prestigious MBA programs are increasingly seeking out careers outside of financial services, and voluntary turnover at some banks has reached peak levels, according to Business Insider’s Matt Turner.

The report identifies three core themes for firms to consider to help them attract and retain talent.

According to the report, they are as follows:

1. Work towards inclusion. Many financial firms have taken steps to diversify their ranks, according to the report, but not everyone feels welcomed and valued.
2. Stand for something. Some respondents said they didn’t feel as if their firm had a defined mission or strove towards something greater in the same way that tech firms do.
3. Easy fixes don’t go that far.Inauthentic attempts to change company culture will “fall flat.” That means, you can’t just make the dress code less formal and hold a minority employee dinner every year.