Market Overview
Scotland has moved through the first quarter of the financial year on steadier ground than much of last year. Hiring is still happening, but vacancy volumes have softened slightly and what’s replaced it is something more deliberate, with organisations making fewer moves, but thinking harder about each one.
The broader UK picture reflects this too and the strategic priority for most businesses has shifted from growth to efficiency. Cost control, productivity and organisational effectiveness are dominating boardroom conversations and that’s shaping every people decision that follows.
Permanent HR Recruitment
Permanent hiring is continuing but the bar has risen. Approval processes are longer, scrutiny is greater and organisations are increasingly asking not just whether they need a hire, but what measurable impact it will deliver.
What’s driving this isn’t a lack of confidence in HR as a function, it’s the opposite. After several years of significant change, businesses want HR professionals who can operate independently from day one, challenge constructively and add value quickly. The appetite for risk in hiring has fallen sharply, and that’s pushing demand toward experienced professionals at Advisor level and above who can demonstrate immediate impact.
Beyond generalist hiring, we’ve continued to see strong demand for specialist expertise, particularly in Employee Relations, where the complexity and volume of casework across many organisations shows no sign of abating. Learning and Development also remains a consistent focus, with businesses recognising that capability building is one of the levers they can pull without significantly increasing headcount. Interestingly, we’ve also seen a rise in combined HR and Payroll roles, reflecting a broader drive toward operational efficiency and the blurring of functional boundaries in leaner people teams.
For HR leaders, this creates both a challenge and an opportunity, the market is competitive for strong candidates and those who can articulate their commercial contribution clearly are moving fastest.
Interim & Temporary Market
The interim market continues to carry significant weight and for good reason. Organisations navigating change, restructuring or peaks in operational demand are increasingly turning to flexible resource as a strategic tool rather than a stopgap measure.
At the transactional end of the market, demand remains consistently high. HR Coordinators/Assistants/Advisors continue to be among the most requested profiles as organisations manage day-to-day people operations with leaner permanent teams. But the more notable shift this quarter has been the rise in demand for specialist interim expertise, particularly around organisational change, restructuring and TUPE. As businesses continue to reshape their operating models, the need for experienced professionals who can navigate complex people processes with confidence and minimal oversight has grown considerably.
We’re also seeing a notable rise in ‘try before you buy’ approaches, using interim or temporary appointments as a structured route into permanent roles. This reflects both the caution around permanent headcount and a broader shift in how organisations are thinking about workforce flexibility.
What The Team Have Been Up To
It’s been a busy quarter beyond the desk.
Shelley recently hosted a thought leadership discussion alongside Age Scotland and Blackadders, exploring social value as a retention tool. The conversation challenged some of the assumptions organisations make about CSR and purpose and generated some genuinely practical thinking about engagement and long term retention. More information below:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/retention-tool-nobody-mentioned-shelley-smith-8zhqe
We also hosted Talent Talks #3: focused around Marketing and Talent Acquisition – Building the Best Employer Brand. It was great to have Bernadette Johnston, Head of Talent Acquisition at Gleneagles and Yvette Wilkie, Senior Marketing Consultant at Flourish Marketing, sharing honest and practical insight into what is genuinely working, and where organisations need to be braver. Another great session with the feedback being that there were a lot of practical takeaways. Keep an eye on our Talent Talks page for details of our next session.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/talent-talks-iconic/
Looking Ahead | Q2, 2026-27
The themes shaping Q1 are unlikely to ease significantly in the months ahead, but there are reasons for cautious optimism.
As organisations move further into the financial year and budgets become clearer, we’d expect to see some loosening of the grip on permanent hiring, particularly where growth plans have been deferred rather than cancelled. The pressure to deliver on productivity and transformation agendas will also start to force some hiring decisions that have been sitting in approval queues for longer than intended.
The Employment Rights Bill continues to create genuine uncertainty for HR leaders around workforce planning, flexible working and employee relations. Organisations that haven’t yet stress-tested their people policies against the incoming changes should be doing so now, with many expected to turn to interim support or employment law specialists.
AI Adoption is accelerating fast. The gap between what technology can do and what organisations are ready for, culturally, structurally and from a capability perspective, is one the defining challenges for HR right now. How people functions respond to that will shape their credibility for years to come.
What’s been particularly interesting this quarter is the volume of senior HR appointments we’ve been aware of across the public sector, and this is a genuinely positive development. After a prolonged period of stagnation at the most senior levels of the HR market, it’s encouraging to see movement. Organisations including Police Scotland, NHS Scotland, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service, Scottish Canals, the University of the West of Scotland, Healthcare Improvement Scotland, Lothian Group, Scottish Ambulance Service and Zero Waste Scotland have all been active at a senior people leadership level during the quarter, a strong signal of the increasing expectation being placed on HR leadership.
As always, if you’d like to talk through what any of this means for your organisation specifically, whether you’re planning a hire, thinking about your people strategy, or simply want a market perspective, we’d love to chat!