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The uncertainty surrounding 2026 for the staffing and recruitment industry, and the world that it operates in, is being well documented.
However, the impact on owners and managers of recruitment agencies is not clear. Is this just a period to endure? Knuckle down and drive the best outcome possible from whatever the market throws at you?
Many are concluding that “we are at an inflection point in human history. The next decade will determine the trajectory of the next century” (Demis Hassabis, CEO Google DeepMind). Periods of uncertainty like this do not just test businesses — they lock in outcomes that are difficult to reverse.
Trying to sit on the sidelines on topics such as automation and AI, or services offered to clients, or staff structures, or any one of the other challenges on a leaders’ desk, will harm business in the short term and potentially in the longer term. The options in front of you need your attention.
In addition, the personal objectives and constraints of the founders and leaders is more tightly tied to their business than in previous times. Without clarity on personal constraints and objectives, business decisions tend to default to issues of momentum and circumstance.
Your personal constraints and objectives help you identify and understand your risk profile, and as a result force narrowing or expanding the choices available to the business. It is a time to realise that the world is not going to settle down just yet. The business needs attention and needs leadership with conviction.
Managing “just yesterday” seemed a little easier. The challenges had mostly been seen before, there was a playbook to execute, and decisions could be made within the warm envelope of experience and instinct. Those days do not appear to exist anymore. The future looks uncharted and circumstances are beyond what has personally been predicted and understood.
Many businesses will be driven by circumstance in this period, not by intention.
The industry is already full of recruitment agencies that have got to their current position without too much strategic thought. That sounds harsh but is revealed time and again. There is often great focus on the technical function of recruitment but little conscious determination of what the business is to look like in the medium term, and what that means for the shareholders in terms of personal objectives, wealth creation and future exit options.
This opens a broad range of topics for discussion in 2026.
HHMC Global operates within the staffing and recruitment industry on equity transactions, market valuations and business growth advisory. Contact us to discuss further.
