Here we are, 6 Fridays into 2025 and, without jinxing it, doing pretty well. You never really know what “things are starting to pick up” means, and up until the very last week of December, I don’t think it meant much. But fast forward a month, and we are seeing dozens of branded ads, people buzzing around to various client meetings and job briefings, and you can truly feel the positivity coming back to the industry. If you made it this far and are still in the agency world, then congratulations! You’re about to enter some of the best and most successful years in recruitment. Now, in saying that, there will be some dips. The industry is full of highs and lows, but I think we are over the worst of it.
Anyway, less of that and more about the topic at hand: internal recruiters coming back to agency, which relates quite well to my initial spiel of things starting to pick up – a very convenient time to make a return to ‘the dark side’ (yes I went for a Star Wars theme, don’t ask me why but I’ve committed to it now). In my own personal opinion, being an internal recruiter sounds like a different kind of hell compared to agency recruitment. For one thing, your ‘clients’ (hiring managers) can follow you around all day, harassing you about a role or candidate because you work in the same space. There’s also lower earning potential, a lower ceiling for growth, and internal politics galore. This is why I always find it interesting when recruiters view internal recruitment as the ‘natural’ next step in their career. To me, the two are chalk and cheese. Then again, I’m a highly extroverted, sales-driven, and money-motivated recruiter, so my opinion is subjective. Plus, I’ve never actually done internal recruitment. But seeing this trend reverse, recruiters going BACK to agency? That’s fascinating.
Over the last 12–18 months, we’ve seen some clear trends:
- 2022-2023: Salary increases to retain high billers
- Late 2023 – Early 2024: Redundancies of candidate and talent managers
- Mid 2024: Redundancies of low billers and internal recruiters starting to be made redundant
- Mid 2024: Salary increases for high performers
- Late 2024: Another round of redundancies
- 2025: Convenient promotions in January
And more recently, a wave of internal recruiters looking to go into agency.
Over the past few months, I’ve been inundated with applications, emails, phone calls, LinkedIn requests, and messages from, yep, you guessed it, internal recruiters. We had seen internal recruiters applying for roles in 2024, but that was more because we were in the thick of the recession, they didn’t have a job and didn’t have much of a choice… But internal recruitment roles are making a comeback, why are we still seeing them wanting to make the move back to agency? As I’ve spent time with these expert recruiters (most of them highly impressive), the truth is they’ve been treated like crap, and were discarded by their employers during the recession. 2024 was tough on agencies, but even tougher for internal recruiters. They were the first to go and witnessed restructures across businesses that devastated and ruined people’s careers. Most of these redundancies came from roles considered less critical, such as HR, L&D, P&C, and, of course, Talent Acquisition.
Such a shame, because at the height of the economy, they were seen as the pillars of a business, upholding culture, developing staff, and finding the perfect people for the company’s teams (all of whom have been since let go).
The reason I felt the need to write about this topic is threefold:
A) To let our clients know that we will likely be representing internal recruiters to them.
B) To provide an outline of what we’re seeing from this side of the desk.
C) To encourage agencies to consider internal recruiters when they see their applications, rather than hitting the reject button.
For the past 10+ months, my focus has been (and will continue to be) on hunting down candidates with impressive annual billings, people who not only have a strong client focus but also the ability to bring on, nurture, and develop client relationships in a recession. My interview process has been straightforward: if you’re not billing, we likely can’t help.
I do however have the mindset of giving people the chance to prove themselves in an in-person interview. If you impress me, I’ll work to get you in front of my clients. I won’t lie, 95% of the internal recruiters I’ve interviewed over the last few weeks/months have impressed me. Most have had agency experience along the way and are fully aware of what the expectations are going back to agency.
Where am I going with this? After a lot of thinking and plenty of interviews, I’ve realised these candidates might just be what agencies need in 2025. I wouldn’t have said the same for 2023 or 2024, but these recruitment experts, armed with a solid understanding of internal hiring and strong relationships with internal recruitment teams, could be exactly what agencies need.
This is a trend we had predicted but didn’t expect clients to embrace. However, with two placements of internal recruiters into agency roles in January alone (which is unusual), we’ve already seen success in placing internal recruiters back into agencies.
Anyway, just peak into what we are seeing from this side of the desk.
Bring on 2025 and may the billings be with you.
^CDJ
