I’ve been with Michael Page all my working life. I joined back in the day when Michael Page was a privately owned £30m turnover company.

I’m with the business 20 years this year and it’s been an awesome journey growing up and seeing it evolve to a global FTSE 250 plc.

The HR world has changed immensely over the years and it continues to evolve.

It has grown from a typical personnel role back in the day to a much more strategic function which can enhance a business’ performance through effective hiring, the diversification of its people and their development.

The industry has become a lot more sophisticated and the demands from clients and candidates have become greater. Recruitment today is seen a lot more as an added value area of support to an organisation rather than a necessary evil.

While we’re seeing a more positive environment, there's continued pressure within a lot of organisations to find high calibre talent.

Over the last three years the candidate population hasn’t been as transient as in previous years. Candidates are much more hesitant to move due to uncertainty, while clients haven’t been able to invest in sophisticated recruitment processes unless there are people ready and available on the market.

Organisations face the further challenge of continually improving and investing in HR to ensure best practice and effective policies with limited available funds.

There are continued efforts to drive down costs, and headcount and structure still represents a way to achieve this which tends to fall to the HR team.

However we expect most business to come full circle as the market continues to improve and the pressure to deliver results in line with a recovering economy will demand investment in headcount.

Increasing efficiency and productivity is also key on most organisations’ agenda and the HR function plays a key role in ensuring a company gets the best out of its employees through investment and engagement. 

There will be a lot of change in the marketplace. The key agenda for most HR directors will be driving added value initiatives within their organisations as conditions continue to improve and funds become available.

Projects such as diversity, CSR, employee engagement, L&D to name just a few will come back to the top of the agenda over the next couple of years.

There’s also the issue of globalisation which will continue to increase in its profile as organisations apply global strategies across markets with different growth rates and cultural practices.