If you watched Succession, you’ll remember the brutal tension at the heart of the story. Not the boardroom theatrics or the headline-grabbing scandals – but the simple question underneath everything: who comes next?
Brian Cox’s Logan Roy built an empire, but the chaos came from what he didn’t build: a clear, credible pipeline of leadership. He didn’t just risk losing power. He risked leaving a vacuum.
It’s a fictional drama, but in 2026 it feels quite similar to what we have seen unfold in recent months – not just at executive level, but right across the workforce.
Because the labour market has shifted. And the decisions businesses are making today are shaping what kind of organisation they will be in five years’ time.
This year we’ve published two reports – our 2026 Salary Guide and our first Workplace Benefits Survey – and together they tell a clear story: employers are still hiring, but they’re hiring differently.
SHIFTING TRENDS
The post-COVID bounce years of 2022 and 2023 were defined by growth hiring, candidate shortages, salary inflation and the return of the counter-offer. Employers were recruiting for expansion, salaries were being realigned, and for many businesses, the priority was simple – secure talent before someone else does.
That is not the market we’re in now, as our recently released 2026 Salary Guide shows.
It tells us that from 2025 and into 2026, economic pressures have flowed directly into hiring decisions. Across North-east Scotland – and this is mirrored across the UK – many employers are navigating consolidation, restructuring, muted salary growth, fewer vacancies and recruitment activity that is predominantly backfill rather than new headcount.
Hiring is still happening, but headcount growth has flatlined – and this is where the succession problem starts.
If employers respond to cost pressure by reducing hiring, delaying junior recruitment, and relying on AI technology to absorb entry-level work, they may create short-term savings while hollowing out their future talent pipeline.
AI is reshaping work at speed. It’s improving productivity, changing job design, and removing certain tasks altogether. But if that leads to fewer junior hires and fewer entry-level roles, we could be creating the next skills crisis before we’ve even solved the current one.
This shift is deeply concerning because junior roles underpin your future succession pipeline. Reduce them now, and in five years you may face a shortage of experienced professionals. It’s the real-life version of Succession: if you don’t develop people underneath you, you don’t have a credible “next”. And unlike television, you don’t get multiple seasons to fix it.
Amanda McCulloch, CEO of TMM Recruitment
At the other end of the career ladder, demand for leadership capability and niche technical expertise remains a challenge. At the same time, many senior professionals who are in roles they perceive as secure are sitting tight, even if they are disengaged, because job security is now a primary motivator.
WHY FLEXIBILITY STILL MATTERS
At the other end of the market, competitive pay still matters – but flexibility matters too, a key theme from our Employer Benefits survey, which has also just been released.
Applicants are selective about where they go next, and they are quick to walk away from job offers that don’t meet their expectations, particularly around working arrangements.
That is why flexibility should be seen not as a concession, but as competitive currency, because benefits are no longer an afterthought.
For many candidates, they are a deciding factor in whether they accept a role, and for many employees, they are a key driver of loyalty. Yet too often, benefits are underused because they are poorly communicated.
In a market where salary growth is muted and cost pressures are real, employers can make meaningful gains by communicating benefits better, showcasing them consistently, and ensuring they reflect what employees genuinely value.
The volume of roles may be lower in 2026. But the importance of workplace strategy, selective hiring and long-term thinking will only increase.
Because the organisations that win won’t be the ones who simply cut and wait for stability to return.
They’ll be the ones who make smart, intentional decisions now – protecting today’s performance without sacrificing tomorrow’s pipeline.
In Succession, the tragedy wasn’t that Logan Roy lost control. It was that he never truly prepared anyone to take it. That’s a lesson every employer should take seriously