Sheffield Haworth’s latest UK&I Consulting Market Insight Report analyses Partner-level hiring trends to reveal our top predictions for 2025 and beyond.

Which firms are still hiring? Where is growth coming from, and what does this mean for leadership pipelines in consulting? Our latest research tracks how senior hiring patterns are evolving across the UK and Ireland, providing intelligence to help firms adapt their strategies.

Drawing on data from 17 global consulting firms across the Big 4, Strategy, Technology, and Financial Advisory subsectors, the report explores:

• How overall Partner-level hiring volumes have shifted compared to previous years
• The changing dynamics between the Big 4, Financial Advisory, and challenger firms
• The continued evolution of gender diversity across Partner-level hires
• Our predictions for the UK&I consulting market in 2026 and beyond

Whether you’re planning senior hires or benchmarking against competitors, this report provides the strategic insight you need to stay ahead in a shifting consulting landscape.

This report provides an in-depth overview of the current executive interim landscape in 2025, particularly within the private equity space. By combining up-to-date industry insights with our proprietary market research and market conversations, we examine significant market trends, the demand for various functions, compensation patterns, and strategic factors for clients utilising interim leadership.

Today’s executive interims have transformed from mere placeholders or caretakers into vital change agents within high-pressure private equity environments. They are adept at navigating complexities and driving impactful results. The analysis sheds light on the evolving role of interim leaders in 2025 and illustrates why savvy investors are increasingly tapping into flexible leadership to harness value during turbulent times.

Sheffield Haworth’s CISO Insight Report examines the evolving role of Chief Information Security Officers and uncovers the skills and strategies they need to drive board-level influence.
Which capabilities elevate CISOs from technical experts to strategic advisors? How is Generative AI reshaping the security leadership landscape? Our report reveals the emerging playbook for navigating these challenges.

Drawing on conversations with 30 leading cybersecurity leaders across Consulting, Technology, Financial Services, Telecoms, and Consumer Goods, the report explores:

• The competencies that build boardroom credibility
• Generative AI’s impact on the CISO remit and security posture
• Sector-specific trends in risk management and governance
• Strategies for translating technical insights into executive decision-making

Whether you’re planning your next CISO appointment or aiming to strengthen your security governance, this report provides the insights you need to stay ahead.

The PRA stresses the importance of Boards and senior management actively supervising the implementation of the firm’s operational resilience program.

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) or Chief Information Officer (CIO) should prioritise operational resilience and compliance, being responsible for the approach.

Taking a proactive stance is crucial for firms to meet regulatory standards.

Sheffield Haworth offers support to firms by:

-ensuring the effective implementation of the resilience program plan in compliance with PRA guidelines and continuously enhancing it.

-identifying operational resilience gaps and suggesting areas for improvement.

-keeping operational resilience policies and procedures current and well-tested.

Regulators are now emphasising the urgency for Financial Services firms to enhance their response capabilities to various operational events that could potentially disrupt their operations due to increasing concerns about operational continuity failures.

This shift is noticeable in supervisory statements and expectations released since 2015. Recent engagements between regulatory bodies like the PRA and FCA and firms highlight the growing focus on operational resilience. Furthermore, regulations such as the discussion paper on Critical third parties in the UK financial sector and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) in the EU have become crucial guidelines actively followed by firms within their jurisdiction.

The operational resilience policy, jointly introduced by the Bank, PRA, and FCA, requires firms to identify critical business services, set impact tolerances, and proactively ensure the continuous delivery of these services during severe disruptions. This policy, along with updates on outsourcing and third-party risk management, acknowledges firms’ increasing reliance on third parties, including cloud service providers. The PRA is committed to evaluating firms’ progress against its policy expectations, ensuring the ability to deliver essential business services within established impact tolerances by March 31, 2025.

The review has been written by Charles Matthee​, Risk Advisory Lead. To discuss the review further, reach out to Charles or Adriaan Hugo, Executive Director, Change Consulting.

Welcome to the Sheffield Haworth Inclusive Insurance report 2024, where the Insurance and InsurTech team examines the industry’s major talent trends for the remainder of the year ahead.

2023 has been a tough year for the economy, but not so much for Insurance. With insurers enjoying a hard market that looks set to continue into 2024, and broking undergoing a period of intense investment, firms were more reticent to hire than we might have expected. Yet this reticence can’t last. In fact, the signs point to a more buoyant talent market in 2024, and this is where firms must take diversity more seriously in their hiring.

In our article “10 ways for insurance firms to increase diversity” Mark Lomas, Head of Culture at Lloyd’s, discusses cultural diversity principally regarding ethnicity and gender. Yet, his words could equally apply to any form of diversity, from the need to bring in and develop new skills (discussed in our article “Future skills: challenges and solutions for the insurance industry in 2024”) to the need to consider roles and responsibilities across organisations in a more holistic way (which we touch upon in our piece “Bringing fresh skills to insurance clients”).

We hope this Outlook will provide helpful insights as you develop talent strategies to achieve success in 2024 and beyond.