Orientation: High turnover rates have negative repercussions for organisations, such as increases in costs related to the orientation, hiring and training of new employees. Insight into the factors that contribute to employees’ retention therefore remains a critical concern for organisations.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to gain in-depth insights into senior female employees’ views of the factors that either enable or impede their retention.Motivation for the study: Presently, there seems to be a dearth of retention studies among women in the financial services sector.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative approach was utilised to obtain semi-structured interview data from a purposive sample of senior female employees in a South African financial services organisation. The Atlas.tiTM Version 8 data analysis programme assisted in inductively eliciting the higher-order themes that emerged from the interviews.Main findings: The qualitative thematic data analysis revealed rich insight into (1) senior female employees’ employment experiences in the organisation; (2) the objective and subjective factors that enable their retention and (3) the objective and subjective factors that impede their retention.Practical/managerial implications: The findings highlighted formalised consistency in the application of human resource policies and procedures, fair, competitive compensation and benefits, training and development, managerial support, opportunities for career development, as well as work–life balance in workload and deadlines as core factors to address in a retention strategy.Contribution/value-add: The insights gained regarding female staff members’ parameters for their retention may inform retention practices and prevent staff turnover among valuable talents.