UK's HR appointments show companies re-evaluating priorities

11 September 2024 Consultancy.uk

Recruitment for HR posts has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new study. At the same time, the UK market has seen a noticeable shift towards roles focused on employee relations.

New research from Hiring Hub and Vacancysoft, a provider of labour market data and analytics, has found that while jobs in the HR sector have been relatively stable – if subdued – in the first half of the year, there has been a marked change in the roles firms are prioritising. Information used to compile the report was gathered from the career centres of company websites and relates to unique job postings only – and found that on these terms, there has been a huge drop in talent acquisition roles since 2022.

Amid the so-called Great Resignation, companies were scrambling to fill vacant roles that had stood empty for extended periods of time. Since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in 2020, millions of workers had left their jobs. Many were frustrated following a period in which their work – and their willingness to make sacrifices – had been shown so overtly to be crucial for the success of their employers; yet many employers still expected them to settle for ‘business as usual.’

UK's HR appointments show companies re-evaluating priorities

To help companies cop with unusually high attrition rates, many drafted in hiring experts, to help find new talent. But in the time since 2022’s high-point, the number of advertised roles for this kind of work has fallen from thousands, to hundreds.

According to the researchers, this could reflect a change in plans, responding to the UK election. Much of the first-half of 2024 would have been spent in wait-and-see mode, wondering which direction potential regulatory changes lay in wait. At the same time, those potential changes may have resulted in a firms looking to adapt their HR strategies toward employee relations and retention. Roles relating to that rose made up 21.2% of the overall market in 2024 – up from 17.5% the year before.

Hiring Hub founder Simon Swan commented to that end, “While there have been fewer HR vacancies in 2024 than during the same period in 2023, now that the Labour Party is in power, and given their plans to reform employment law, businesses are likely to begin scaling their HR teams once the new government’s policies have been confirmed, especially the proposed changes around ‘hire and fire’.”

This may still change again, though. The new government is also seen by some businesses as presenting new opportunities to unlock productivity in their areas – and a new hiring surge could soon emerge in regions beyond London.

Swan added, “While London is broadly on track to match vacancy levels seen last year, every single other region has seen a decline, with the north west and the north east suffering the sharpest drops. However, given these are Labour heartlands, it’s to be expected the new government will boost investment in these areas, driving an increase in job volumes into next year.”