Your Quarterly Round Up for July to September 2026
A note from the founders
July to September was our best quarter of the year, and one of the strongest we’ve had.
We weren’t alone in that. KPMG and REC’s jobs report had permanent placements rising in August for the first time since September 2022, and temp billings growing at close to their fastest rate in three years. So employers are hiring again. They’re just careful about it. In finance and HR, a lot of them are taking interim or contract cover before they add permanent headcount. At the senior end it’s going the other way, with boards moving from interim arrangements back to permanent appointments. We see both because we’re a small team that cover a lot of ground, recruiting from board level down through finance, HR, legal and marketing teams, in practice and in industry.
We’ve also seen a lot more bad AI. You can knock out a CV or a sales email in seconds now, and it shows. Our inboxes are full of messages that sound identical and tell you nothing. We spent a whole Talent Talks morning on AI last month and we use it ourselves, so we’re in no position to lecture. But the more of it we see, the more time we put into the things a machine can’t do. You learn more from an hour in a room with someone than from anything they send you. That’s what lets us give advice people can trust, and we think it’s what they’re paying us for.
If you run a business, you’ll know this next bit. It isn’t glamorous, and recruitment definitely isn’t. On any given day there are a hundred things we could be doing, so we usually start by asking what problem we’re solving today. There’s never a shortage, we’re spoilt for choice! You can only get so far on your own ideas and graft, and what made this quarter was the people we have around us. This quarter was the team’s results.
And now it’s October. The holidays are over, the nights are drawing in and 2027 is three months away, which doesn’t seem right. The Budget is on 28 October and we know plenty of you are holding next year’s headcount plans until you’ve heard it. Fair enough. But if you already know you need someone in the seat by January, the Budget won’t change that, and with notice periods the search has to start now. And if you’re the one looking at your own job a bit harder than you did in July, give us a call.
Hannah & Lauren
Client Spotlight
Divisional updates
Six market updates for the quarter, written by the consultants who work each desk.
Accountancy & Finance: read here
Accountancy Practice & Advisory: read here
HR: read here
Legal: read here
Marketing: read here
Executive Search: read here
Talent Talks: AI in talent acquisition
Talent Talks number four ran in September at The Garment Factory and was our most popular session so far. Adam Gordon and Euan McNair led the discussion, with Emma Pringle hosting.
The topic was AI across the hiring process: where it earns its place, where a person still has to be in the conversation, and how to decide based on your own organisation.
Several people told us afterwards that it felt like a room where they could speak openly, helped by the fact that many of them already knew each other. There was more to cover than one morning allowed, so we may well come back to AI at a future event.
Number five is planned for December and may swap the morning coffee for evening drinks, to be confirmed. Mornings return in the new year. If you lead or work in talent acquisition and want to be in the room, speak to Emma Pringle or Shelley Smith.
Happenings at Iconic
A new Operations Manager. Christine Knox joined us in July. Her remit is the part of recruitment nobody sees: compliance, contractor onboarding, systems and process. For clients and candidates that means fewer delays between a yes and a start date.
She also won September’s Iconic Avatar award. The Avatar is something the team built together: a profile of the colleague everyone would want to work alongside, made up of the qualities and merits the team chose themselves. Each month everyone votes for the person who came closest to it. We’ve never mentioned it outside the office before. If you’d like to know how we run it, ask. We’re happy to share.
A promotion. Cameron Brown has moved from Senior Consultant to Principal Consultant on our Accountancy & Finance desk. It recognises the consistency of service his network of clients and candidates gets from him.
Two first Iconiversaries. Jeff McCaskill and Connie Nimmo both reach one year with us this month. Others on the team passed bigger milestones this quarter, but the first year is the one we’re marking here.
Three challenges for The House of Hope. The whole team took on at least one of three fundraisers for the Edinburgh breast cancer support charity: climbing Ben Lomond, an ice-water dip, and the Great Scottish Run 10K. The dip had about four inches of ice cubes floating on top, so nobody could claim it was just cold water. Becky Taylor did the Munro and the run in the same week. The total stands at £3,000.
Next: the charity pub quiz. Thursday 29 October at Arta, Glasgow, with a raffle on the night. It falls the day after the Budget, so there will be plenty to discuss between rounds. To book a table or seats, email christine.knox@iconicresourcing.com or ask any of the team.
Planning for 2027
Most of our clients are now in end of year planning. If a hire needs to start before Christmas, this is the month to brief it.
Our 2026 Salary Guide covers Executive Search, Finance, HR, Legal and Marketing salaries across Scotland, and it’s the same data our consultants price roles with. Useful if you’re setting next year’s budgets. Download it here.
Thank you
To the clients who briefed us, the candidates who trusted us with a move, and everyone who sent someone our way this quarter: thank you. You’ll see us at events across Glasgow and Edinburgh over the next couple of months, so say hello.
0141 486 8888 | hello@iconicresourcing.com