RECRUITER HOT 100 COMPANIES 2021
021 has seen a sea change in recruitment fortunes. On the back of a brutal year in 2020, as evidenced in this report, the recruitment market turned from a lack of vacancies to a lack of candidates across several large sectors – for many in the space of just a few weeks during Q1 2021. This rebound has continued until late 2021 and should be well reflected in these columns next year. The ability to adapt to new working practices was a learning curve through 2020 and finely honed by this year, enabling full benefit from such a market turnaround. However, a word of caution – it has also become a race to resource experienced consultants and, anecdotally, capacity is now holding back so many companies. This situation should partly improve as trainees mature so, if economic challenges do not de-rail the labour market recovery in the UK, a strong outcome is anticipated not only for next year’s HOT 100 but in years to come. But any future success of these recruiters is the direct result of their good decision-making during the depth of this pandemic and still now, together with the foundations of these past years. As usual, this 2021 HOT 100 reflects past performance, either in 2020 or early 2021, and most companies’ accounts are mainly affected by the Covid-impacted
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period. The HOT 100 could have been changed or even abandoned for the year but the results prove the decision to carry on was vindicated. Yes, there was a sharp drop, a step change, in the entry level and no, we could not easily account for headcount on furlough (and we explored all options) but the best companies still rose to the top. Once again, best practice and ethics have shone through – all good for the stature of the recruitment industry on the national stage. Despite the clear impact of Covid during 2020 on most recruiters’ financial results, specific sectors such as IT, logistics, food and life sciences – with STEM and IT especially taking a materially increased share in the HOT 100 – have made significant gains. Evidence also suggests in the following analysis that the smaller companies making up the bulk of the HOT 100 have moderately out-performed their larger peers during this period, making measurable progress certainly. So, despite the unprecedented restrictions on trade and loss of activity precipitated by the Covid pandemic during 2020 and beyond, just how well did this ‘best in class’ excel? To answer this, here is the 2021 HOT 100.
Key findings 2021 HOT 100 group sales turnover declined by 12%, closely in line with the wider UK recruitment industry sales turnover drop of 12.7% reported for calendar 2020 by the Office of National Statistics. Like for like, comparing this group against their own figures for the previous year: ● The 2021 HOT 100 companies collectively reported a sales decline from their previous year in latest available accounts of 12% to around £19.6bn. ● HOT 100 combined gross profit (GP) reached £3.7bn, a decline of 17% versus their prior year. ● HOT 100 companies’ in-house headcount fell 10.3% to total 39,791 employees. Important to note that furloughed employees remained on the headcount (and payroll) but may have been stood down for several weeks or months, thus inevitably reducing overall company productivity. ● Productivity (GP per employee) for this group of HOT 100 companies fell by 7.4% over the year to an aggregated average of £93,984. A simple average of each of the GP/ head figures, neutralising the heavily weighted skew of the larger employers across both years, stood at £107,570, nevertheless still 5.1% below their 2019 level.
Covid impact and its limitations on this HOT 100 Whilst many companies resumed their previous filing timetable with Companies House, some companies appeared still to have a three month extension. So last year’s challenges for the HOT 100 production team have not entirely disappeared. Inevitably, some accounts were not yet filed when this report went to press, meaning a handful of companies are excluded from the ranking. Despite examining a variety of methods to mitigate for furloughed employees and sharply reduced business levels, none were sufficiently rigourous so we have proceeded as normal, measuring gross profit (GP) per head to provide consistent comparison. Thus, while a downward step change has been seen through a much lower entry threshold, the integrity of the HOT 100 is preserved. We are grateful to the wider recruitment community that helps to make this possible, often by providing advance copies of accounts.
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06/01/2022 14:36