Investment in recruitment and retention is a key priority for UK businesses in 2017, according to a study from American Express.

The American Express study, ‘2017 Global Business and Spending Outlook’, gathered opinions from 100  senior financial leaders in the UK, more than half of whom work for companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

The study found that 89% of the UK’s top CFOs expect the number of employees in their businesses to increase over the next 12 months and 48% are planning to boost investment in headcount.

Meanwhile, the study also revealed that 65% of Finance Directors plan to use more temporary and contract workers to meet staffing needs over the next year, with 59% saying that this is an important or central part of their business’ employment practices. To help develop remote working capabilities, nearly a quarter (24%) of CFOs say they plan to increase spending on mobile technology over the next 12 months.

According to the study, this commitment to talent appears driven by a renewed focus on customer service and a lack of talent to help drive business performance.

Meanwhile, 67% of CFOs say that remaining competitive is one of their most important priorities over the coming year, while 84% say that pressure to compete on the quality of customer service has increased over the past two years. The biggest challenge in delivering great service was cited as retaining great staff (35%) and almost half (48%) of CFOs say that adding more customer service and support staff would have the biggest benefit to the company.

 CFOs also cite challenges with hiring and retention as having a major impact on their companies’ ability to meet performance goals – particularly in sales and marketing, administration and support, and operations. To help mitigate challenges attracting and retaining employees over the next year, 62% of CFOs said that their business is making improvements to flexible working, while 55% are focused on improving the work environment, and 45% on developing training benefits.

 “We work with businesses across the country to make sure they are set up for success today and in the future – and we know that people are paramount to this,” Jose Carvalho, Senior Vice President, Global Commercial Payments Europe at American Express said. “With changing times ahead it’s going to be more important than ever for companies to have the right people with the right skills in place to push their businesses forward. It would be easy for CFOs to tighten the purse strings until the economic landscape becomes clearer, so it’s positive to see that far from cutting jobs, they’re investing in both new and existing people.’’