A review of 2024

Recently, the Melber Flinn team gathered for our annual review meeting—the time of year when we reflect on what we got right, what we got wrong, and what our strategy needs to look like moving forward. These meetings are always a highlight. As a virtual business, we don’t physically work together day to day, so it’s a rare chance to catch up in person.

Naturally, the conversation wasn’t *just* about work. Mel’s son is in the midst of loud (and occasionally hilarious) sleepwalking episodes, Rachel’s teenage son has turned down the temptations of alcohol in favour of making the Yorkshire rugby squad, and Steve’s eldest has managed to land both a girlfriend and a job at Cooplands—all in the same month. A whirlwind of milestones!

For those south of Sheffield who may be unfamiliar, Cooplands is a beloved northern bakery chain where you can feed a family of five on a weekend and still leave with change from a tenner. Of course, this presents me with a personal dilemma—how do I balance my goal of losing a stone in weight with the undeniable lure of free sausage rolls at weekends?

So, How Did We Do in 2024?

Well, that depends on your perspective.

Anyone working in the NHS will know that the past two years have been dominated by financial scrutiny and cost-cutting. Unsurprisingly, the interim market took a hit in 2024 as clients pulled back on spending. Over the year, the number of roles we handled was 60% less than 2022 when admittedly the market was in overdrive as the NHS was flooded with cash as it battled Covid.

Our conversion rate has remained fairly steady over time, so predictably, the number of placements we made was also down in line with that reduction in role. Fewer placements, of course, mean lower revenue. This led to some tough decisions—we had to make two redundancies, and another colleague reduced their hours from four days a week to two. These were incredibly difficult moments for me personally, but even harder for the colleagues affected.

A Shift in How We Work

Another major shift in 2024 was the growing proportion of our placements made on a fixed-term contract basis. Traditionally, our business model has been straightforward: candidates are paid a day rate, we add a margin, and that’s the charge rate to the client. Our revenue comes from that daily margin.

However, with financial pressures mounting, clients increasingly asked if we could source candidates open to fixed-term contracts instead—essentially, hiring directly onto the organisation’s payroll rather than working as an interim on a day rate. In 2021 9% of our placements were fixed term contracts, in 2022 it was 6%. In those years it was a seller’s market and any client coming to market wanting to recruit fixed term would struggle to attract interest to their role. I remember us politely declining this type of business, this was not because of a lack of willingness to help but because we knew we would struggle to attract candidate interest in a fixed term contract role whilst there were plenty of opportunities paying handsome day rates. Last year however, which came off the back of another year of weak demand in 2023 there was a growing sense of pragmatism amongst candidates. When you are not getting the calls about potential roles at your previous target day rate it is often not long before expectations are revised and a salaried and fixed term contract role is suddenly worthy of consideration. This was borne out by the figures in 2024 as 45% of our placements were on a fixed term contract basis.

 

The Silver Linings

It hasn’t all been doom and gloom, though. One big positive we took from the review meeting was that our 2024 client list included a lot of new names—organisations we’d never worked with before, including some we’d been hoping to partner with for years. We have also seen a significant rise in HR roles and a return of CIP and financial recovery roles, which had largely disappeared through Covid as efficiency fell down the agenda. We have also been pleased to see a change in the seniority mix of our work, with a greater concentration of our business coming through at bands 8d, 9 and VSM.

The other major development has been our push to diversify. More on that in a future blog, but personally, this has been hugely rejuvenating.

I won’t lie, having the same difficult conversations in the NHS market last year – with clients who need resource but can’t recruit, and with candidates who are desperate for work, is emotionally draining and it erodes your self of self worth as you feel you’re just not helping people in the same way that you used to. But speaking to candidates and clients in a new market has been refreshing, and it has created some balance and variation to my daily conversations which has been very welcome. To be clear, we won’t abandon the NHS interim market, it will always be our core business, but exploring new markets and types of roles will be a key plank of our future strategy.

 

But hopefully we have navigated the worst and I’m pleased to report that Q4 2024 was our best quarter for two years and we maintained the momentum into January, giving us a good 4 month block of business. This leaves us well positioned as we come into the next financial year and we have genuine optimism for continued market improvement, as new money comes into the system and the 10 year plan is set for publication. Labour will also have to start making their mark as we come into their first full fiscal year in power.

I hesitate to close in this way, but in the review I also made a commitment to write 12 blogs in 2025, and the penalty will be to drink one shot per missed blog as the 2025 Christmas party. I’m aware that in posting this on 14^th February I am already behind, but the upside to our candidates and clients is that you’ll see more frequent blog output over the remaining 46 weeks of the year, and if there are being penalty shots being drunk of the 2025, it will be recorded on video and posted on my Linkedin.