News & Thoughts

Hiring may be picking up in 2026, but so is risk. As confidence returns to the market, your best people have more options than ever. This blog explores why staff retention must sit alongside attraction, and how salary benchmarking, structured onboarding and proactive development conversations can protect the team you have already built.

AI is no longer an experiment for UK businesses. It is a fast-moving investment priority. From record private funding to sharp rises in public sector contracts, AI spend is accelerating across industries and organisation sizes. But behind the headline growth figures sit important questions about ROI, talent, governance and long term value. In this article, we break down what AI spend looks like in the UK right now, where it is heading next, and the risks businesses need to navigate to make it pay off.

As we move further into 2026, you might be feeling like your organisation is facing a recruitment landscape that’s marked by rapid change and a bunch of uncertainty. Typically, permanent recruitment is the go-to, but what it can lack is the agility that businesses need at the moment to respond to the current market fluctuations we’re seeing. Temporary and contract hires can provide you with a powerful alternative; using interim talent can give you flexibility and control over the costs typically associated with hiring. They can also provide you with access to specialist skills that you might need to get through a specific project, or through a period of change in your organisation.

Discover proven strategies to retain women in senior workplace roles. Learn why outdated structures push women out, how allyship and flexibility boost retention, and why diversity drives better business outcomes. Practical, evidence-based insights for UK organisations aiming to improve gender balance and leadership diversity in 2026.

We’ve all heard the terms ‘flexible working’ and ‘working flexibly’. Same thing, right? They sound like it, but they’re quite different, both from a legal standpoint and a cultural one. Many organisations often blur the lines around it, which creates confusion and can lead to mixed expectations for both employee and employer.

For years, accounting and finance have been held up as a reliable and balanced career path for anyone to take. But quietly, something has shifted, and across the UK, fewer women are entering the profession, and many are leaving mid-career for an alternative.