Thu, 15 Nov 2012

> More articles on the HOT 100

The public sector category boasts at least 13 constituents in the HOT 100, compared with 12 last year. 

Several others have well above average public sector business. However, there has been material slippage seen down the HOT 100 by several companies with further general losses of productivity and margin.

The November 2012 print issue of Recruiter features the annual HOT 100 survey of the 100 UK recruitment companies who have balanced their people costs with productivity and delivered the most efficient performances in terms of net fee income. The HOT 100 is researched on behalf of Recruiter by Agile Intelligence and sponsored by Microdec.

Public sector specialists began to report a flattening out in sales by late 2011 but business levels may have bottomed out as much as 60% below peak levels. Front-line services were finally affected as healthcare saw substantial cuts in net fees for locum doctor suppliers in particular. Education was less severely affected after a tough previous year. Social care remains under pressure from local authority budgets with managed service operators holding down prices. Most constituents report lower gross profit than the prior year.

In the Hot 10, once again five entries are taken up by health & social care specialists. However, executive specialist Morgan Law is the leader as it trimmed its employee numbers in response to market conditions while benefiting from the demand for skilled management. 

• Mayday, RIG and Healthcare Locums (despite its own challenges) all feature in the Hot 10. Social care specialist Caritas retains its presence, while Fawkes & Reece moves into the shortlist.  

• Randstad Education still retains highest in its class but has slipped further down the overall ranks; Mark Education and Protocol both drop out of the HOT 100 but New Directions has entered at 96th. Gross margin is holding well in education but the volume of business has been under pressure from school budgets and there have been extensive changes in education delivery. An improvement is anticipated in the coming years as pupil numbers rise again.

• The Hot 10 represents £527.1m in turnover, generating £119.4m in net fees.  

• Net fees total from the Hot 10 fell by 3.2%, reflecting a more stable picture than portrayed by the 14.5% decline in last year’s Hot 10. This relative stability confirms evidence from agencies that report a flatter performance this year from the public sector.

• Average GP/head declined 7%. Again all but two companies reported decline.

• Only three out of the 10 expanded their workforce and three also increased gross profit but absolutely none expanded GP/head and employee numbers. Eight companies saw GP/head contract.

Turning to gross margin trends: 

• all are predominantly temporary staff suppliers

• average gross margin at 22.7%, a decline of 100 basis points

• six companies report an increase in gross margin 

• the greatest loss of margin was again seen at Healthcare Locums totalling 440 basis points. 

Hot 10 public sector recruiters

1. Morgan Law Partners

2. Mayday Healthcare

3. Resourcing Group

4. RIG Medical Recruit

5. Caritas Recruitment

6. Eden Brown

7. Fawkes & Reece

8. Morgan Hunt UK

9. Randstad Education

10. Healthcare Locums

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