In accountancy firms, recruitment rarely fails spectacularly. It falters subtly.
A hire appears competent. Clients are serviced. Work is delivered. Yet something does not quite align. Energy is misjudged. Leadership presence is thinner than expected. Commercial instinct proves narrower than hoped.
Nothing dramatic occurs, but something valuable is lost.
The cost of getting recruitment slightly wrong is seldom immediate. It reveals itself in slower team development, muted growth, or succession that feels perpetually one year away.
At senior level, the margin between “capable” and “right” is significant.
Hiring for capacity solves today’s workload. Hiring for capability shapes tomorrow’s firm.
Yet under time pressure, firms often optimise for availability. The market appears tight. A strong-enough candidate emerges. Momentum builds. The appointment feels prudent.
What is less visible is the opportunity cost: the candidate who was not visible, the conversation not yet had, the strategic hire deferred.
From the candidate’s perspective, the cost of a near-miss is equally real. A move that is 80% aligned can feel sensible, until two years later when progression is slower than expected or influence narrower than implied.
Because Public Practice Recruitment Ltd works solely within accountancy firms across the UK, we observe outcomes over time. We see which appointments flourish and which underdeliver quietly. Patterns emerge: cultural misalignment, underestimated ambition, mismatched growth expectations.
The lesson is not to delay hiring indefinitely. It is to broaden the lens before committing.
Often, a short, informed discussion about the wider market changes the calibre of decision-making materially. Assumptions are tested. Alternatives surface. Timing improves.
For firms approaching a key hire, and for accountants weighing a significant move, Public Practice Recruitment Ltd offers discreet, commercially grounded perspective before decisions become irreversible.
The difference between a good decision and a lasting one is rarely luck. It is context.
About Public Practice Recruitment Ltd
Public Practice Recruitment Ltd supports accountants at all levels across the UK, offering insight, guidance and access to opportunities that align with long-term career goals, not short-term pressure. Get in touch.
