BUSINESS JARGON THAT YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO FIND

Sharp Consultancy's Salary Survey 2025/26: Resetting the Landscape: Strategic Shifts in Finance Recruitment

It would be remiss not to start by addressing the elephant in the room — 2024 was a challenging year.While there were many reasons for this and numerous industries were affected, recruitment likely bore the brunt of it, particularly in the 6 months post-election(s).Whilst key roles and critical hires remained unaffected, certain head counts and processes were scrutinised and investment paused with internal restructures and automation utilised to reduce costs, in some instances, at the expense of employees. We subsequently saw an increase in candidate activity, with the talent pool strengthening. As those pressures eased in Quarter 4, recruitment processes saw improvement and green shoots have emerged. Optimism is on the rise in key hiring processes, albeit with a caveat. The cloud of additional cost increases in April, which is still dissipating. The senior finance and C-Suite market remains relatively unaffected, both regarding opportunities and candidates, it is the levels below that we have seen more change. In the evolving landscape of working dynamics, the volume of hybrid working is gradually waning despite sustained interest from candidates, presenting fewer job opportunities. While the blend of office and remote work remains desirable, it is no longer the predominant factor, indicating a notable shift in priorities for clients and candidates’ acceptance alike. Conversations with candidates underscore a growing desire around the importance of having a supportive mentor or manager and many professionals are increasingly open to a full-time return to the office if it guarantees enhanced guidance and avenues for professional advancement. "The salaries throughout transactional finance have stabilised across the region."Throughout the professional practice market, some similar trends have been observed but there have been noticeable differences in the past year. Salaries across the range of candidates in professional practice, from AAT to fully Qualified (ACA/ACCA) individuals are still rising and those firm’s able to offer competitive salaries alongside stronger training contracts are beating out the competition in a candidate market with a growing focus on study support packages and career advancement opportunities for Part-Qualified candidates, indicating an increase in demand from employers and the volume of available job seekers. The salaries throughout transactional finance have stabilised across the region, in what feels like the longest period of stability seen since Q4 2020 and we expect transactional finance salaries to remain stable throughout 2025/26, with anticipated salary increments to be moderate compared to the significant increases observed throughout the last 2 years. AI & Systems (process automation) continues to impact accountancy and finance, in particular, across larger functions but this has increased the need for wider interim support to assist with the transition and implementation especially with large, automated processes. Whilst 2025-26 will not be the same marketplace for recruitment as seen in previous years, there is certainly a growing level of optimism and whilst a more settled market may be seen as a negative in some areas, for those that have weathered the peaks and troughs over a longer period of time, it will feel very normal and a strong setting for both employees and employers to take advantage and thrive, with an increasing emphasis on growth and development.Download the full Salary Survey here!

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Whether you consider these to be jargon or clichés, there are some phrases that are used in every workplace which we guarantee that almost everyone will find annoying! Saying that, we imagine that you – like us – are guilty having used, or do use, many of these yourselves! Here are our favourite – or should that be least favourite – overused terms.

Thinking outside the box

How many times have you used or heard this when referring to creative or innovative thinking? Using it probably demonstrates a lack of creativity, or innovation – or maybe both!

Close of play

Often abbreviated to COP to mean the end of the day however the non-specific timeframe can lead to confusion and potentially missed deadlines – just say the time you are working towards!

Low hanging fruit

A term that refers to an easy target that does not require much effort. Do you really want to indicate to your colleagues that you are choosing to take the easy option?

It’s on my radar

This is an oldie – but not a goodie! Meaning that you are aware of something – but also that you haven’t quite got round to doing anything about it!

Let’s take this offline

How many times have you heard someone come out with this? Most likely to be used when someone feels a conversation is getting a little too heated or too close for comfort and attempts to change the subject!

Singing from the same hymn sheet

This is a very widely used phrase to try and cajole agreement and collective thinking. You will often hear this when someone is making an attempt to diffuse a disagreement or bring someone round to their way of thinking.

Blue sky thinking

Hands up, almost everyone is guilty of using this one! Whilst its intention is to be applauded – the creation of ideas that are free from the normal constraints – the reality is that such ideas are likely to be impractical to implement. Recognising the obstacles and developing feasible solutions is a far better use of one’s time.

Thought shower

The pressure of having to come up with many, many ideas (probably whilst using ‘blue sky thinking’) will more than likely bring you out in a cold sweat!

Going on a journey

This one ranks quite highly on our list of corporate bugbears. Again, its intention is correct – people do need to be brought along and be heading in the same direction – but the word ‘journey’ has us conjuring images of people making a trek to reach the South Pole!

Win-win situation

This particular nugget is most likely to be used by those attempting to save face when they’ve had to relent more than they would have ideally liked to in order to resolve a situation.

There’s no ‘I’ in team

This is a tricky one – and is generally used to address those who are perceived to not be pulling their weight or focussing upon their own interests. Being a good team player is an essential characteristic of almost every employee – we agree with the sentiment, but dislike the phrase!

Touch base

The reason why this one makes the list is because it is actually just as easy to say what the phrase itself means! Used when you want to catch up with someone about a particular matter, you can score extra annoyance points by inviting someone to ‘touch base offline’.

Sharp Consultancy specialises in the recruitment of temporary, interim and permanent finance professionals. With offices in Leeds and Sheffield our highly experienced team of consultants recruit for positions throughout Yorkshire and beyond. CONTACT US today to speak to a member of our team about your next career move.

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