Last summer, in advance of Brexit, uncertainty as to what the future financial, structural and legislative landscape would look like put the brakes on the City HR recruitment market – change programmes were put on hold as were new and replacement permanent hiring. This naturally persisted after the result, with the exception of BAU hiring in interim, which slowed down but didn’t stop, as the day to day needed to continue. Once the result was absorbed, organisations began cautiously to get back to business and we experienced a rebound in late 2016 as the backlog of hiring cleared. Into 2017 and hiring volumes have steadily increased as organisations strive to deliver on their existing commercial strategies. We have over 18 months still to go until Brexit so time to plan and to ‘make hay while the sun shines’.
These last few weeks, this overriding feeling seemed to cushion the markets from the worst of a pre-election slow down. Permanent hiring is and was strong and change programmes continue, with the emergence of interim backfills for staff moving internally onto Brexit projects. In the City, although the current uncertainty is not exactly welcome, the result would have meant a vastly different future should the opposition have triumphed. We suspect that we’ll see continued rebound of this year vs last whilst organisations try to secure the headcount they need whilst they can. A potentially ‘softer’ Brexit will of course have an impact on the projects and deliverables of the HR community, who have ownership of the resourcing and talent implications of guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens. After the ups and downs of the last three summers, uncertainty feels like the new normal. In their own ways, organisations must keep calm and carry on.
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