If you asked me for one word to sum up the recruitment market in 2025 it would be “challenging”! 

As a business we had started to feel the pinch in the last quarter of 2024 and this persisted into this year, with far less job opportunities available on the market and a general sentiment that companies were being cautious around growth and hiring plans.  The Autumn budget of 2024 is continuing to hamper employment growth and there weren’t many positive messages coming out of the same budget in 2025!  The Employer’s National Insurance increases, considerable uplifts to National Minimum Wage and rising taxes do not encourage growth or investment, which is frustrating.

However, Think Specialist Recruitment has still performed well this year and our results have been relatively consistent. Like many other businesses, we haven’t grown our employee numbers but are concentrating on maximising performance from the existing teams and providing the best possible service to our customers.

We’ve had some exceptional results from our Recruiters and they have all worked extremely hard in challenging conditions.  It’s certainly not all doom and gloom when it comes to the local business community and we have worked with over 130 companies this year to support their recruitment – pretty impressive for a small independent like us!

We welcomed Vicky Baxter to the company in June who is working closely with Bobby to support clients in Hemel Hempstead and the surrounding areas with their permanent hires. Our team has otherwise been stable and we’ve been pleased to retain our experienced Recruiters. Vicky has made a great start to her career with Think and we look forward to seeing her continued growth and success in 2026!  The permanent team have had some strong success with Sophie, Clare and Casey making great contributions. Ryan has continued to build his area and has finished the year well!

Our temporary services have been in demand this year with some brilliant results from Bobby and Beth in our Business Support division, plus Casey in our Accountancy & Finance team. More businesses are turning to flexible, interim solutions whilst deciding on permanent hiring and to plug gaps in workforces, assist with projects or cover long-term absences. We expect to see a rise in businesses using a temporary to permanent hiring strategy in 2026 to help navigate changes to employment law and provide a “try before you buy” option for both the hiring company and the employee.

Like in 2024, we have been pleased to onboard and work with lots of new clients this year! Through word of mouth and recommendations, building our reputation over the last 15 years, plus our sales and outreach strategy, we have successfully built new partnerships and hope to work with those businesses again in 2026. We do have capacity for new clients and would welcome any further referrals or contact from companies looking for a new Recruiter to partner with!

We continued our long-standing partnership with The Pepper Foundation (www.pepper.org.uk/) who we have now been supporting for 12+ years. We sponsored their golf day in September at Berkhamsted Golf Club, with over 75 golfers coming together to raise £10,000 on the day! Through our work with this amazing charity we are proud to have now raised over £50,000 and we are looking forward to undertaking lots of fundraising in 2026. If you are interested in joining us, we are pleased to be sponsoring their golf day again next September – keep an eye out for further information on our social media channels and website.

In March 2024 we officially became an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). Now 18 months into this journey, we are pleased to report fantastic staff engagement and a committed, motivated team that are all working closely to achieve a common goal. Despite challenging market conditions, moral has been high and team collaboration impressive. On top of the changes to staff benefits we brought in in 2024, we officially launched our salary sacrifice pension scheme this year which has led to significantly higher contributions to our staff pensions.

For anybody who might be interested in joining Think, we also offer 26 days holiday (+ bank hols) with an opportunity to increase this to 32 days through performance incentives, an individual annual bonus scheme, excellent commission and potential for EOT bonus after 12 months service with the business. We’d love to hear from any experienced Recruiters who might like to join us on our journey, or trainees with an interest in working in recruitment! Please contact me for more information – [email protected]

Whilst we await to see how the UK economy performs in 2026, we remain quietly confident in what the year will look like for us and hope that confidence to invest and hire returns to UK based companies.

We know of a LOT of employees who have remained in their current position in 2025 but with a keen desire to move on when they are more confident in the market.  So we might well see some significant movement when momentum eventually builds and vacancies are more plentiful.  In the meantime, we will continue to cement our existing client relationships and work hard to bring new companies on board who would like to benefit from working with our fantastic team and the amazing service that they offer.

In January we reach our 15^th birthday so there will be lots of celebrations in place across 2026 to commemorate this milestone!

As always, I would like to say a HUGE “Thank You” to our loyal clients who have given us the opportunity to recruit for their businesses this year, and all of the committed and reliable candidates that we have placed into temporary or permanent assignments in 2025.

We are very fortunate to have some amazing relationships and connections who are always quick to help, recommend our services and pass business our way. It is VERY appreciated and means a lot to a small business like us!

A big “well done” to our team for their efforts and contributions across the year. It hasn’t been easy but our results have been very strong so this pays testimony to how hard you all work.

Lastly my thanks and appreciation to my amazing family who are always so supportive and keep me driven and focused.

Here’s hoping 2026 brings some positivity and a return to a more buoyant economy and market!

Have a great Christmas.

Kind regards

Chris

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