Hiring in London
Recruitment and RPO in London
Fractional talent, retained projects, contingent search and hiring training for London businesses — from Shoreditch startups to City professional services firms.
New to this? Read the plain-English guide to what RPO is
What makes London hiring different
London has the deepest candidate pool in the country and the most competition for it. Strong candidates are typically in multiple processes at once, which means the winner is rarely the employer with the best role — it's the one that moves decisively. Slow feedback loops and multi-week gaps between interview stages lose more London hires than salary does.
Cost is the other constant. Salary expectations sit above the national benchmark across almost every discipline, and candidates weigh commute time and hybrid policy as seriously as pay. Being clear and honest about office expectations up front removes a large share of the drop-offs that happen at offer stage.
The sectors are dense and distinct: technology and fintech clustered around Shoreditch, King's Cross and Canary Wharf; professional services in the City and Midtown; and one of the largest hospitality markets in Europe spread across every borough. Each has its own norms on notice periods, interview formats and what candidates expect from a process.
We're a remote-first UK team rather than a high-street office, so you get people who know the local market without paying for a shopfront in it. Where meeting in person matters — an opening, an assessment day, an on-site calibration session — we come to you.
How it works
What an engagement actually looks like
Benchmark
Where your roles sit against current London salary and hybrid-policy expectations, before you go to market with something that won't land.
Tighten the process
Compress the interview loop. In London, a two-week decision cycle loses candidates to employers running one.
Source directly
Direct approaches into the London market under your brand, rather than recycled agency shortlists.
Run it end to end
Screening, scheduling, feedback and offer management, inside your systems and your ATS.
Hand it back
The process, templates and benchmarks stay with you when the engagement ends.
What's included
- London salary and hybrid-policy benchmarking
- Direct sourcing across Greater London
- Embedded RPO or role-by-role contingent hiring
- Structured interview design and scorecards
- Scheduling and candidate communications
- Offer and counter-offer management
- Technology, hospitality and professional services coverage
- Reporting on pipeline, conversion and time to hire
A good fit if
- You're hiring in London and losing candidates to faster processes
- Your salary bands were set outside London and aren't landing
- You're scaling a team without an internal talent function
- You want candidates to hear from you, not from three agencies
Probably not if
- You need a CV shortlist today with no process work
- The role is priced well below the current London market and can't move
FAQs
Common questions
We're a remote-first UK team, so there isn't a high-street office to visit. We work on-site with London clients whenever the work calls for it — calibration sessions, assessment days and openings — and the rest runs remotely, which is how most London hiring teams operate anyway.
Technology, hospitality and multi-site, professional services, and commercial and support roles. Those are the markets we work in day to day rather than a list of everything we could theoretically attempt.
Yes. We'll tell you where your bands sit against what candidates are currently accepting — including where a role is priced below the market and what that will cost you in time.
Yes. Commuter-belt hiring across the South East is part of the same market, and for many roles the realistic candidate pool sits outside zone 2 entirely.
We offer four models. Contingent Search fits an individual permanent or fixed-term hire; Fractional support can embed ongoing hiring capability; Retained / Project work fits a defined critical outcome; and Training Delivery builds capability inside your team. We'll recommend the model that fits the need.
We can usually be briefed and approaching candidates within a week. The bigger constraint is your side: London candidates drop out when interview slots are a fortnight away, so we agree availability for the first two stages before we open the search.
Contingent Search is success-only, while Fractional, Retained / Project and Training Delivery are scoped around the support or outcome required. We keep rates private and explain the recommended commercial structure after reviewing your hiring plan.
Yes, and it's worth being specific in the advert. Two fixed days in the office attracts a different pool to "hybrid, flexible", and candidates screen on it before salary. We benchmark your pattern against comparable London employers and tell you what it's costing or saving you.
Yes. Fast-scaling teams with no internal talent function are a large part of what we do — usually embedded, so the hiring process, scorecards and templates stay with you when the engagement ends rather than leaving with an agency.
Other ways we work
Fractional talent
Flexible capability embedded in your team or working alongside it.
Learn moreTechnology RPO
Engineering, product and data hiring — the largest single demand in the London market.
Learn moreContingent search
Success-only search for individual permanent or fixed-term London hires.
Learn moreRetained / Project
Defined search, process or technology outcomes with dedicated capacity.
Learn moreWhat is RPO?
A plain-English explainer of recruitment process outsourcing and when it fits.
Learn moreHiring in Manchester
How the North West market differs, and what that means for your process.
Learn moreNot sure this is the right model?
Tell us what you're hiring for and we'll tell you honestly which approach fits — even when the answer isn't us.