News & Thoughts

Finding a leader who balances technical rigour with commercial vision requires more than a standard recruitment process; it demands a targeted, confidential approach.

Losing a perfect candidate at the final hurdle is frustrating. You've invested hours in interviews, the team loves them, and they seem keen - until the offer goes out. Then comes the silence, or worse, the rejection because a competitor offered 15% more. In the current market, relying on salary bands set two years ago is a guaranteed way to lose talent.

As we move further into 2026, you might be feeling like your organisation is facing a recruitment landscape that’s marked by rapid change and a bunch of uncertainty. Typically, permanent recruitment is the go-to, but what it can lack is the agility that businesses need at the moment to respond to the current market fluctuations we’re seeing. Temporary and contract hires can provide you with a powerful alternative; using interim talent can give you flexibility and control over the costs typically associated with hiring. They can also provide you with access to specialist skills that you might need to get through a specific project, or through a period of change in your organisation.

For years, hiring decisions been based on job titles, degrees, and predictable, usually linear, career paths. As we move into 2026, what our team here at Sewell Wallis is seeing is a shift. There’s pressure across the board – the business world is uncertain, and teams need to adapt quickly, which sometimes means they need to hire faster. This means that they need talent that can do the job, not just look good on paper. Enter skills-based hiring.

Discover proven strategies to retain women in senior workplace roles. Learn why outdated structures push women out, how allyship and flexibility boost retention, and why diversity drives better business outcomes. Practical, evidence-based insights for UK organisations aiming to improve gender balance and leadership diversity in 2026.

Hiring a part-qualified accountant can be one of the smartest long-term investments your finance team makes. But holding onto them in the long run can be where many businesses fall short.

We’ve all heard the terms ‘flexible working’ and ‘working flexibly’. Same thing, right? They sound like it, but they’re quite different, both from a legal standpoint and a cultural one. Many organisations often blur the lines around it, which creates confusion and can lead to mixed expectations for both employee and employer.

For years, accounting and finance have been held up as a reliable and balanced career path for anyone to take. But quietly, something has shifted, and across the UK, fewer women are entering the profession, and many are leaving mid-career for an alternative.