Hiring Is Starting to Recover. Are Managers Ready for What Comes Next?

For the first time in almost four years, UK permanent staff appointments have increased.

The latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs recorded a small increase in permanent placements during August, alongside a fifth consecutive month of growth in temporary billings.

It's an encouraging sign for businesses.

But recruitment is only the beginning of the employment relationship.

And as organisations begin hiring again, another question becomes increasingly important:

Are the managers responsible for those employees equipped to deal with the people issues that follow?

Growth creates HR questions

Every new employee potentially brings dozens of everyday management decisions.

• Can I extend someone's probation?

• How should I deal with repeated absence?

• Can I refuse a flexible working request?

• How should I respond to a grievance?

• When does poor performance become a formal capability issue?

• What should I do if someone alleges discrimination?

Traditionally, managers faced with questions like these either contacted HR, searched online or sometimes simply made a judgement call. The quality and consistency of the answer could therefore depend upon which manager was dealing with the situation.

AI offers organisations another option.

Giving managers access to HR guidance when they actually need it

Phronesis has been developed specifically to help organisations deal with everyday UK employment and people-management questions. Managers can describe the situation they're facing in plain English and receive structured HR guidance within seconds.

That means support can be available when the question arises rather than simply when somebody from HR is available. For smaller organisations without an internal HR team, that can provide access to a level of day-to-day HR guidance that would previously have been difficult to achieve.

For larger organisations, the opportunity is different. It can help create greater consistency in the guidance managers receive across different teams, departments and locations.

AI shouldn't replace judgement

There is, however, an important distinction between making HR knowledge more accessible and trying to automate every employment decision.

Some situations require human judgement.

• Discrimination.

• Whistleblowing.

• Safeguarding.

• Collective redundancy.

• TUPE.

• Complex grievances or potential litigation.

Phronesis is designed to recognise higher-risk situations and indicate when human HR or legal expertise should become involved. The objective isn't to remove HR professionals from the process.

It's to allow technology to handle more of the routine questions so that human expertise can be focused where it adds the greatest value.

The workforce may be changing. HR support needs to change with it.

The KPMG and REC figures still show an uncertain labour market. Overall vacancies fell for the 34th consecutive month in August, while candidate availability continued to increase markedly.

So this isn't a return to a booming jobs market.

But the first increase in permanent placements since September 2022 could be an early indication that employers are beginning to move again. If organisations start recruiting and growing, they won't just have more employees. They'll have more managers making everyday people decisions. The opportunity for AI in HR isn't simply to reduce administration. It's to put reliable HR guidance closer to the point where decisions are actually being made.

That's the problem Phronesis was created to solve.

Better HR guidance. Available 24/7. With humans there when they're really needed.

Source

This article draws on the KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs, September 2026, compiled by S&P Global using responses from around 400 UK recruitment and employment consultancies.

The report found that permanent placements increased in August for the first time since September 2022, temporary billings increased for a fifth consecutive month, candidate availability continued to rise markedly and overall vacancies declined for a 34th consecutive month.

KPMG: KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs September 2026 – Permanent placements increase for first time in nearly four years.

REC: Report on Jobs: Permanent placements increase for first time in nearly four years.