Haia Aaraj
Recruitment Consultant
When I approach treasury professionals in Belgium about a new role, the answer is not always driven by salary or job title. Many decide to stay because their current employer still gives them good reasons to do so.
That deserves more attention. Recruitment conversations often focus on why people leave: a difficult manager, limited progression, a long commute or a better offer elsewhere. But employers can learn just as much by looking at the people who are approached and decide that moving would not improve their situation.
From my conversations with treasury professionals in Belgium, four reasons come up regularly: confidence in the company, the working environment and relationship with the manager, flexibility, and the opportunity to grow and have an impact.
Confidence in the company
Stability is often misunderstood as a preference for safety. For many treasury professionals, it is more specific. They have confidence in the company they work for, they understand its direction, trust its leadership and believe the business is in a sound position.
The function has close contact with liquidity, funding, banking relationships and financial risk. Treasury professionals often have a clearer view of a company’s financial position than many other employees. When they believe in the business and its plans, leaving for an unfamiliar organisation can feel like giving up something valuable.
A new role may offer a higher salary, but candidates also ask questions about the company behind it. How stable is the business? How seriously does management take treasury? Will planned investments go ahead? Is the role supported, or was it created to solve a problem without enough resources?
Employers retain people when they give clear answers through their actions. A credible strategy, sensible investment decisions and open communication give employees reasons to stay.
The manager and working environment
The relationship with the manager carries a lot of weight. Treasury teams are often small, which makes the quality of day-to-day working relationships hard to ignore. One difficult relationship can affect the whole role. A good one can make an external opportunity much less attractive.
Professionals tend to value managers who give them room to do their job, involve them in decisions and remain available when support is needed. They also notice whether credit is shared and whether mistakes can be discussed without blame.
The wider working environment matters too. People build knowledge of the business and relationships with colleagues in finance, tax, accounting, legal and operations. Those relationships make the work easier and often more interesting. Starting elsewhere means rebuilding that internal network.
This is one reason retention cannot sit with HR alone. The experience of working for a company is influenced heavily by the direct manager and the team around them.
Flexibility that works in daily life
Flexibility has become part of how any professional assess an opportunity. They look beyond the number of home-working days in a vacancy text. They want to know how the arrangement works in the team.
Can people plan office days around meetings that benefit from being face to face? Is flexibility treated as normal, or does using it come with an unspoken penalty? How much commuting time will the role add each week?
These questions are practical. A job can be attractive in content and salary, yet still be a poor move if it makes daily life harder. An employer that offers workable flexibility has a strong retention advantage, especially when the employee already knows and trusts the arrangement.
Consistency matters here. Employees are more likely to value flexibility when expectations are clear and managers apply them fairly.
Growth without waiting for a new title
Belgium has a limited number of senior treasury roles. According to our recent report, in the first half of 2026, only 28% were senior roles and 7% Executive/VP roles. That does not mean treasury professionals can only develop by waiting for the next Head of Treasury or Group Treasurer vacancy.
The employers that retain good people find ways to expand the role itself. Someone may take ownership of a TMS implementation, lead a refinancing workstream, improve cash forecasting or gain more exposure to senior management. A treasury professional can also grow by taking responsibility for a new region, mentoring a colleague or becoming more involved in policy and decision-making.
This kind of development is especially relevant in smaller teams, where formal promotion steps may be limited. An employee may keep the same title while their judgement, influence and range of responsibilities increase considerably.
For employers, this requires active attention. Extra work alone is not development. The employee needs ownership, visibility and a clear sense that their contribution is recognised. Managers should discuss what growth means to the individual rather than assuming that everyone wants the same career path.
What employers can take from this
Salary still matters.It can prompt someone to listen to an approach and can make an offer difficult to refuse. But it is not often the only factor considered by experienced treasury professionals.
A person who trusts the company, works well with their manager, has useful flexibility and can keep developing already has a strong reason to stay. A new employer must offer enough improvement to justify giving up all four.
For Belgian treasury teams, retention starts well before an employee resigns. It is built through everyday management, credible company decisions and conversations about how someone’s role can develop. In a market with limited senior positions, giving people more influence may be more meaningful than giving them a new title.
