At Grey Matter our focus is predominantly working with B2B Software companies in the ad tech, mar tech and wider SaaS space including data analytics, cyber security, fin tech, AI, HR and Dev Ops tech to name a few.
After a bumpy ride of the last two years for VC backed tech companies, and despite layoffs continuing to happen at some companies, we are feeling positive about the outlook for H2 2024.
72% of our surveyed clients have said Q1 & Q2 have been pretty good with a healthy pipeline for Q3 or Q4 and feeling clients are expecting to make decisions about their tech in the second half of the year.
While today there is still a feeling of trying to do ‘more with less’ and hiring ‘only when absolutely necessary’ many of our clients expect this to change as we head towards Q4 with a strong outlook for 2025.
As we come to the end of Q2 we have reflected on the how the recruitment landscape has changed since Q1. Here is what we found:
Q1 vs Q2
New job flow: increased by 24% compared to Q1. A positive sign that demand in growing.
- 154% increase in B2B SaaS
- 104% increase in Mar Tech
- 20% decrease in AdTech
Most notable new vacancy increases have been in Sales and Technical disciplines
- Sales 59% increase
- Technical 43% increase
Average time to fill a job has decreased by 30%
Candidate interviews:
- 1st Interviews Arranged: Increased by 7%. This increase suggesting there are more opportunities out there and clients are outsourcing their hiring to recruitment agencies
- Subsequent Interviews Arranged: Increased by 20%. A significant increase suggesting companies are not just ‘see what’s out there’ but are more serious about making key hires .
- Placements: Remained stable, indicating that hiring has been consistent but the process is taking less time
What’s Behind These Trends?
What we are hearing from our clients:
- Despite having the Easter holidays and other bank holidays, we are seeing that clients want to have their hires in place going into the second half of the year, which they are expecting to remain healthy
- Urgency to Hire: We have seen that clients are being more proactive in getting interviews scheduled and making offers, showing an increased urgency to hire, which is also shown by the 30% decrease in time to fill a role.
- Quicker Decision Making: We have noticed that when clients are looking to hire, they seem to be more serious about it, with less roles going on hold. We tend to fill the roles that clients are unable to fill themselves, so while we are still seeing this a bit, we are seeing less of it in Q2 than we have in previous quarters.
If you would like to see our Q2 vacancy data in more detail, please view the links here: