During the festive season, our thoughts turn gratefully to those who have made our success possible. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank every partner who trusted the deverellsmith group with their hiring and career needs throughout 2024.
It’s been a steady but balanced year of hiring considering 49% of the people in the world held national elections (according to Time Magazine), the result of which, for many will prove consequential for years to come. The latest data highlights a stable but evolving job market, where the dynamics of talent acquisition and retention are being shaped by both external forces and internal corporate strategies.
Unlike earlier in the year, when the market was employer-driven following the wave of redundancies of the former 6 months, the environment in recent months has shifted towards a more neutral stance. You can read my full commentary on the market which has been published on Prime Resi.
Market activity and the change of taxation regulations have continued to encourage talent (largely in leadership teams) to seek employment outside of the UK where the economic climate is considerably stronger. The investment and confidence in the Saudi Arabian market particularly have opened numerous doors for homegrown talent to strengthen their experience on unparalleled projects.
AI has shaken up the sector, enabling businesses to streamline their customer service line and provoke higher rates of productivity across their workforce and technology stack. I’m optimistic that the market will reap the rewards of this digital transformation as it provides a valuable resource to relieve some of the pressures and stresses of workloads.
As we look forward to 2025, I expect hiring and recruitment may remain cautious for many, especially within larger corporations. However, January marks the peak recruitment month as talent seeks new opportunities aligned with the season of fresh starts. To help businesses stay ahead of the January rush, we are offering complimentary Salary Benchmarking Snapshots to all businesses that register a vacancy before the New Year. You can request yours here.
We very much have a ‘glass half full’ perspective and as we approach 2025, we reflect on what else the deverellsmith group has achieved in 2024 and how we aided our network. I hope you find some of the below useful, and potentially stimulate a few ideas or prompt a conversation in the New Year.
Our delivery team contacted over 50,000 candidates and 10,000 clients this year, helping our partners build new teams and professionals find the next step in their career.
Hintel, deverellsmith’s outsourcing brand, signed 3 new partners as we support their long-term vision with achieving sustainable talent attraction and retention strategies.
Hintel successfully launched into the Middle East market, already helping with a number of outsourcing and Executive Search projects, helping build leadership teams and support on organisational design.
Along with releasing our ‘Hiring for the Future’ annual report and providing integral snapshot reports throughout the year, we provided 5 benchmarking reports for our partners to provide a data-driven approach to employee remuneration.
The deverellsmith group was awarded for the 7th consecutive year a place on The Sunday Times Best Medium Companies ranking
We raised over £10,000 for our charity partners; including a charity football match at Fulham Football Club in support of Joe’s Buddy Line.
We hosted the eighth and ninth editions of Banking on the Future featuring the Bank of England, L&Q, Greystar, Birchgrove, John D Wood, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and CBRE, which were both sold-out events!
We introduced our deverellsmith vs… video series where we requested professionals of the property industry to compete with our directors against sports, these included football drills at QPR’s football ground, an afternoon at Lee Valley Park Velodrome and a morning at Lords Cricket ground with none other than former England Cricketers Chris Tremlett and Monty Panesar. You can watch all the episodes n our youtube channel here.
I was delighted to hand the baton of hosting our podcast series to my esteemed colleagues as I relocated full-time to the Middle East, which called for an upgrade in production levels and most importantly, welcomed new guests from Canary Wharf Group, Fruition Properties and Manchester City Football Club.
We continued our partnership with Programme One, which aims to address the underrepresentation of Black talent within recruitment, and recently made our fourth hire through the initiative.
We planted 1,250 trees in our UK forest in a bid to become more climate-positive, offsetting 40 tonnes of carbon.
And finally…we look forward to sharing more news regarding the deverellsmith’s groups international footprint and ongoing growth for our brands in 2025.
We’re excited with the prospect of supporting your business and teams in preparing for the future, hosting more podcasts and industry-leading events, and stimulating positive change. It is in this spirit that we say thank you and send best wishes for the holidays and New Year.
I wish you a well-deserved, restful break over the festive season, and I look forward to working with you to achieve continued success throughout 2025 and beyond.
Warmest wishes,
Andrew Deverell-Smith
Founder & Group CEO
