Organizational Culture and Retention in 2025: How We Rebuild Trust After Years of Professional Exhaustion

In recent years, the financial–banking industry in Romania and the region has gone through an unprecedented transformation. Mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, accelerated digitalization, commercial pressure, cost reduction, restructuring.

All of these have left behind tired teams, mixed cultures, and a high level of mistrust and demotivation. People who say they were involved in long and exhausting due-diligence processes, while still having to continue their daily activity, develop new persuasion skills to convince people in their teams not to leave (yet).

Many of them no longer had a place in the new entity, or even if they stayed, their roles and responsibilities are different from what they used to be.

If ten years ago we talked about retention as an administrative process, in 2025 we talk about emotional reconstruction. Because people do not leave only for a higher salary, they leave when they feel they no longer belong, are no longer valued, and no longer recognize themselves in what they do.

Professional exhaustion, the silent sign of eroded cultures

According to Gallup – State of the Global Workplace 2024, 41 percent of employees say they feel “constantly stressed”, and in Europe this figure is even higher in regulated industries such as banking.

In Romania, over the past months, I have met dozens of professionals through executive recruitment and coaching projects and I have noticed the same phenomenon: highly competent, highly committed people who are exhausted.
Not because of workload, but because of successive strategy changes, top-management turnover, cultures that never blended after mergers, or the absence of a clear sense of direction.

Glassdoor Workplace Trends 2025 confirms that trust in leadership is now the number one predictor of retention, surpassing compensation.

The mix of cultures after mergers: between opportunity and friction

The Romanian banking system has gone through numerous consolidations in the last 5–7 years. Every acquisition brings with it different management styles, distinct values, different working rhythms, and different perspectives on risk and compliance.

McKinsey (Organizational Health in M&A, 2024) shows that 70 percent of mergers fail to create a common culture for at least three years.

The reality is simple: processes unify faster than people — and that is precisely why leaders carry the biggest responsibility.

Lack of clarity: the real reason people leave

According to the Antal Europe Hiring Report 2025, based on responses from over 10,000 participants across 30+ countries, 37 percent of candidates withdraw from recruitment processes due to lack of clarity, and inside companies, 54 percent say they do not understand the organization’s direction.

In my conversations with professionals in banking, the same message constantly appears:
“I don’t know where the organization is heading.”
“I no longer know what is expected of me.”
“I don’t know if there is still a place for me in the next few years.”

The trigger mechanism for leaving an organization often appears when there is no clarity.
In its absence, fear emerges. When fear emerges, trust erodes. And when trust erodes, people leave.

On the other hand, the longer people stay in the same company or the same industry as they advance in age, the narrower their real opportunities for professional and personal development become.

Empathic leadership: the most valuable ‘asset’ in 2025

Empathy is becoming a management tool with direct business impact.
According to LinkedIn Global Talent Trends 2025, teams led by empathic leaders have 32 percent higher retention, 26 percent better engagement, and 18 percent superior results in periods of change.

Empathy in leadership does not mean being protective — it means being clear in direction, transparent in decisions (even when they are not popular), consistent in actions, and available to people in key moments.

How do we rebuild trust in organizations?

From the experience of executive search and consulting projects conducted for clients across CEE, trust is rebuilt through:
• radical clarity about strategy, roles, priorities, expectations
• real conversations, not presentations (1-to-1 meetings have returned as strategic tools, not formalities)
• returning to purpose (why we do what we do; why what you do matters to the organization)
• cultural alignment (we cannot glue two organizations together overnight, but we can create spaces for dialogue, co-creation, and redefining shared values)

And not least, by investing in middle management. They are the first to feel tension, pressure, and change. They are the ones who “carry” the entire organization through difficult periods.

Conclusion

2025 is not the year when we compete for talent.
It is the year when we compete for their trust.
And trust cannot be bought. It is built through clarity, coherence, authentic leadership, and honest conversations.

Antal International, with more than 130 offices in 35 countries, remains an active partner in this process — whether in executive recruitment, organisational culture consulting, or leadership development.

If you want to discuss what your retention and culture strategy should look like in 2025, you can find me here:

[email protected]
+40 721 264 477