By Neil Hart, CEO at Bradley Hall

Winter 2025 is shaping up to be a testing time for the UK. Business leaders are exasperated by the current state of affairs from government policies and recruitment challenges to people problems and HR issues.

It is becoming more and more challenging to scale and actually make money. Add this to reports that the UK workforce doesn’t feel safe – with 39% of workers feeling insecure and it’s a cluster-headache of issues whichever way you look.

The unemployment rate has climbed to 5.0%, the highest since February 2021. The House of Commons recently reported that 1.79 million people are currently unemployed and looking for work in the UK – outweighing the current job vacancies at 723,000, which have fallen by 99,000 year-on-year.

The upcoming Employment Rights Bill will affect roughly 15 million workers, nearly half of the UK workforce, with 79% of employers expecting it to increase employment costs. Looming Budget changes, including potential tweaks to National Insurance and salary-sacrifice pension, threaten to push costs higher, strain growth and hiring plans and force employment package redesigns. Employers are bracing for tighter margins, rising compliance burdens and a more challenging hiring landscape.

This pressure is causing organisations, I would say particularly in the professional services industry, to look at how lean their workforce is and how efficiently profits are being delivered. It is thought that redundancies and hiring freezes at corporate companies are driven by bloated structures, inefficiency and fear of risk. Sluggish growth, inflationary pressures, and rising interest rates have forced corporates to cut overheads, while wage growth and NI contributions make large-scale employment increasingly expensive.

I’ve spoken openly via LinkedIn and in thought leadership articles about how challenging it is for employers and at what point business operators consolidate to protect profit. In this market, there are so many business owners reaching the point of ‘is all of the hassle actually worth it?’. We think so, but many others don’t.

But what does this all mean for our workforce? Corporate jobs were always seen as a safe bet, but now there’s more risk than ever of employees of big firms suddenly finding themselves out of a job, particularly with the rise of technology, AI and its capabilities.

Not only are employees nervous about the basics of remaining employed, but large corporations suffer with a paralysis caused by risk committees, endless sign-offs, red tape, box-ticking that slows down decision-making. An environment which many workers find frustrating and de-motivating.

Real, commercially minded, driven talent is walking away from big firms, local authorities and third sector organisations – face-less organisations which can only move like an oil tanker because of bureaucracy. Corporate loyalty has collapsed because people value being seen, heard and appreciated. The career-driven workforce want opportunity to grow personally and professionally, to be apply a commercially minded attitude, an opportunity to apply an entrepreneurial passion to a role and to be creative with no glass ceiling. People want to be able to see into the engine room. There’s been a huge cultural shift post-COVID: our people value autonomy, respect, flexibility, and visible impact.

True talent is leaning towards mid-size, owner-led businesses which have visible leaders, not remote executives. The team see who makes decisions, they understand why and what the goal is. It is said that younger professionals, including Gen Z and Millennials don’t want to work for faceless organisations. In a tight labour market, firms that offer meaning, recognition, and pace win.

This means that, on both sides of the coin, there’s been changes. Employers are having to run a tighter ship than ever, while employees are looking for more than ‘just a job’. Generally people who work in the industry which Bradley Hall operates, property and related professional services, are driven by wanting more. More money, more opportunity, more flexibility, the opportunity to make an impact. The Bradley Hall team doesn’t want to settle for mediocrity.

Since Covid hit in 2020, mid-size firms have had to sink or swim. We’ve had to fight to survive, be responsive, creative and move quickly. I have often spent sleepless nights coming up with solutions, thinking on my feet and having to make quick decisions before the wheels fall off – as will have many other owner-managed firms. We have our own capital, credibility and people on the line – we simply must deliver.

We talk about the crisis of political leadership, but large corporate leadership isn’t much better. Look at Westminster; weak governance, poor decision-making, lack of conviction and no real accountability – the same symptoms plague corporates. The problem lies in people making decisions which will directly not impact them and therefore a lack of care.

The future winners will be firms that combine entrepreneurial ownership with professional execution. Since I took over as managing director in 2015, I’ve encouraged our entrepreneurial team members to take their own ‘piece of the pie’. We support, nurture and create opportunities for our leaders to become shareholders in their own businesses. We’ve successfully delivered this in Sunderland, Teesside, Northumberland and are in the process of rolling this model out nationally.

Our SPV directors are Chartered Surveyors who can deliver General Practice Services, often starting with RICS Valuations, followed by commercial agency and our growing national Auctions offer – with potential to expand the other services which we offer including Commercial Agency, Building Surveying and Property Management.

Since 2015 our turnover has increased steadily by almost 400%. Our brand has over 100million views per month, we have built a central infrastructure and dedicated operational, HR, finance and marketing team to support our team from any location in the country. We are developing technology to deliver a quality service efficiently and are recruiting for over a dozen roles across the UK.

We do this by taking risks and caring deeply. We are agile, move quickly and efficiently when we see an opportunity and make difficult decisions swiftly. We spot talent, provide opportunities, give people room to grow and define their own fate. We’ve always said we’re small enough to care, and big enough to deliver, and even though we’ve grown from 15 people to 82 in the last ten years that still stands to this day.

For ambitious professionals, the safest move now is joining a business where leadership is visible, values are clear and success is shared. We’re seeing a return to capitalism with a human face, where success is valued no matter how its defined. These are the people who we want to work with and the clients we want to attract, people who want the best results, who care and are driven simply by ‘more.’

Corporate comfort is dead. The future belongs to the relentless.

For more information on Bradley Hall’s vacancies, visit https://bradleyhall.teamtailor.com/