Across the 2025 to 2026 financial year, both external HR hiring data and our own insights highlight a market that is selective, capability driven and shaped increasingly by organisational transformation. Demand is being influenced far more by specialist expertise and targeted investment than by broad increases in headcount.
Clear Shifts in HR Discipline Demand
On employer career sites (source: Vacancysoft), Talent Acquisition continues to be one of the most frequently advertised areas of HR demand. This is particularly evident in the technology and fintech sectors where requirements for talent partners, GTM (go to market) recruiters and senior talent acquisition partners remain prominent.
HR Business Partnering continues to be one of the most consistent and stable areas of demand across all industries. Our own data reinforces this picture, with more than one third of the roles we have supported falling within the generalist and business partnering space.
Employee Relations demand continues to increase, especially in media, telecommunications, and financial and professional services. Many organisations are choosing to establish specialist employee relations capability for the first time, moving away from broader business partner led models. Others are expanding their teams to manage rising case volumes and the increased complexity associated with hybrid working arrangements. This trend mirrors what we see internally, where numbers of employee relations roles show a clear upward trajectory.
Digital and data enabled HR roles are expanding rapidly. Externally, roles linked to HR systems, HR analytics and digital learning are among the fastest growing categories. This is aligned with our own activity, where requirements relating to HR technology, HRIS, people analytics and digital capability continue to rise as organisations modernise their HR infrastructure.
Reward and Payroll demand remains extremely strong. Across the external market and within our own placements, these disciplines account for close to 30% of the roles we have worked on this year. Key drivers include pay transparency initiatives, payroll transformation programmes, global harmonisation and greater focus on governance.
Diverging Sector Priorities
Sector trends continue to show clear differences in where organisations are choosing to invest. Externally, the technology sector remains the most significant generator of HR hiring, covering talent acquisition, business partnering, reward, analytics and HR systems. While technology roles remain prominent according to our own insights, a substantial proportion of demand also comes from financial services and professional services, which together account for around a third of the roles we support.
Within these sectors, we continue to see strong demand for HR Business Partners, reward specialists, employee relations professionals and HR operations leaders. Many of these roles involve change programmes, target operating model design and a significant increase in merger and acquisition activity as firms respond to regulatory pressures and cost optimisation.
Professional services firms, including legal, accountancy and consultancy organisations, continue to prioritise generalist HR, business partnering, employee relations, learning and development and recruitment capability. These patterns closely reflect what we are seeing across our own markets. Retail, technology, legal and insurance organisations also feature prominently across both external and internal datasets.
The Bigger Picture
Overall, the combined data tells a clear story. HR hiring in the UK and Europe 2025-26 is being driven by digital transformation, organisational redesign, reward and payroll modernisation and the development of specialist expertise. Growth in employee relations reflects the increasing complexity of people risk, while talent acquisition demand is recovering but concentrated in specialist areas such as engineering, product, go to market and early careers. Learning and development is regaining prominence as capability building becomes a renewed strategic priority.
Fixed term and project related hiring continues to be widespread, particularly in technology, media, financial services and professional services. This is largely linked to transformation work, restructuring programmes, integration activity and maternity leave cover.
We will share specialist insight from our division leads in the forthcoming weeks. If you would like to discuss what these trends mean for your organisation or benchmark the structure of your HR function against the wider market, our team would be pleased to support you.
(Direct market source: Vacancysoft)
Article by: Gareth Evans, Group Chief Operating Officer – Oakleaf Group
