For the first time since September 2022, UK recruiters report a rise in permanent placements. It is a small improvement with an awkward companion: starting pay is picking up too. A founder reopening a senior search this autumn should check the salary budget before dusting off the job description.
What changed in the September hiring figures
The KPMG and REC report published on 7 September covers August. Placements rose marginally, but vacancies fell again and candidate availability increased. Starting salaries grew at their fastest rate since January. Permanent vacancies increased in accounting and finance and in engineering; the other eight categories recorded falls.
S&P Global compiles the survey from a panel of about 400 recruitment consultancies. It tracks changes reported by agencies, so it cannot tell us how many UK startup leadership jobs have been created.
That distinction matters when you are approving one hire. A business can find more people willing to talk and still struggle to find someone who has done the particular job it needs. A larger pool gives you a reason to search carefully. It gives you very little evidence about what an experienced commercial director will accept.
Four in ten employers plan to grow staffing this autumn
ManpowerGroup's survey, released on 8 September, looks ahead to October through December. Forty per cent of UK employers surveyed expect staffing to increase; 17 per cent expect it to fall. The reported Net Employment Outlook is +23%, compared with +36% for the previous quarter and +11% a year earlier.
That outlook is the balance between employers planning increases and reductions. It is not a forecast that employment will grow by 23 per cent. These are intentions, and neither survey isolates startups or senior appointments.
Our reading is that a funded, necessary hire deserves preparation now. The surveys cannot choose your next hire for you. They do suggest it would be unwise to assume that every other employer has stopped looking.
Give the salary range another look
If a search was paused in spring, start with the assumptions made then. Has the role gained a team? Does it now include another country, a larger revenue target or responsibility for a funding round? A budget agreed for a smaller job may no longer fit the person you are trying to attract.
Use the UK salary benchmark as a starting point, then compare the actual mandate, location and working pattern. Published ranges cover different kinds of business. They cannot settle the salary for your exact vacancy, and a national pay trend does not justify adding an arbitrary percentage to an offer.
Agree the range you can pay before approaching candidates, including who can authorise an exception. Keep base salary, variable pay and equity separate in the conversation. If the budget cannot stretch, decide which responsibilities can change. Quietly expecting the same person to accept less is a poor search plan.
Write down the job you can fund, the decisions that person will own and the evidence you need to see.
Make the seniority earn its place
Consider a founder deciding between a head of sales and a chief revenue officer. If the immediate work is coaching a small sales team and getting a repeatable sales process running, say so. If the role also owns pricing, customer retention and the commercial plan presented to the board, that is a different brief. A grander title will not resolve an unclear division of responsibility.
For finance leadership, be equally precise about whether the work centres on financial control, cash planning or a wider strategic remit. Do you need someone to build the reporting process personally, or to lead an established team? A candidate who has excelled in one setting needs to be assessed for the other.
Our sales leadership guide sets out the differences in commercial scope. Before choosing a title, name the first decisions you want to hand over and what a good first six months would look like. Then ask candidates for examples of comparable work, including what they personally did and the resources they had.
Put interview time in the diary before you search
A credible shortlist is of limited use if nobody can interview it. Agree who makes the final decision and reserve time for the people who need to meet candidates. Decide what each conversation should establish, so applicants do not spend four meetings answering the same questions.
You can keep a process thorough without leaving long, unexplained gaps. Our guide to interviewing a senior leader gives each stage a purpose. Where a work sample is useful, make the task relevant and proportionate. Tell candidates how it will be assessed.
Ask about notice periods and other active processes early. A date in your business plan is an intended start date, not evidence that a candidate can meet it. Work backwards through interviews, references and the offer discussion, and tell people promptly if the timetable changes.
For a September hiring meeting, bring a brief with an approved salary range, an accountable decision maker and booked interview time. If the hire is justified and affordable, that is enough to begin the search. If the brief still depends on unapproved spending or responsibilities nobody has agreed, settle those points first.