Do not build 2027 around what you bought in 2026. Build it around what you learned.
It is that time of year.
Budget spreadsheets are open.
Renewal dates are being checked.
Somebody has already asked what we are renewing, what we are keeping and what needs budget next year.
And suddenly “2027 recruitment strategy” risks becoming:
2026, but with new dates.
That is not a strategy. It is admin with a new year on it.
Because before you renew the same channels, increase the same budgets or copy last year’s plan into a fresh spreadsheet, there is a much more useful question to ask:
What did 2026 actually teach you about how your organisation hires?
Start with what changed
The recruitment market has not stood still.
The latest ONS data estimated 702,000 UK vacancies between June and August 2026, the lowest level since early 2021, while there were 2.5 unemployed people for every vacancy.
On paper, that sounds like hiring should be easier.
Recruiters currently opening another hard-to-fill vacancy might disagree.
The KPMG and REC Report on Jobs found permanent placements increased slightly in August for the first time since late 2022, while candidate availability continued to rise strongly even as overall vacancies fell.
More candidates in the market does not automatically mean more of the candidates you need.
They still need the right:
- Skills
- Experience
- Location
- Availability
- Salary expectations
- Motivation to actually take your job
Candidate availability and candidate suitability are still two very different things.
So if 2027 planning starts with “there are more candidates now, we should need less support”, I would probably keep digging.
Do not start with the renewal list
This is one of the easiest traps to fall into.
You open the spreadsheet.
Indeed renews in January.
CV-Library in March.
LinkedIn in June.
Right, what are we keeping?
But renewal dates are not a recruitment strategy.
Before deciding what stays, look at what each channel actually did for you in 2026.
Not just:
How many applications did it generate?
Look at:
- Which roles it worked for
- Which locations performed well
- Candidate quality
- Interviews
- Hires
- Cost per hire where available
- Recruiter feedback
- Whether the platform was actually being used properly
- Whether you were paying for functionality nobody touched
That last one happens more than people like to admit.
The licence exists.
The logins exist.
Usage?
Different conversation.
If a platform worked, keep it.
If it did not, understand why before renewing it.
And if you genuinely do not know whether it worked, that is probably the first thing to fix for 2027.
Look at the roles that caused the most pain
Every recruitment team has them.
The role everybody recognises as soon as it appears on the vacancy list.
Not that one again.
Before deciding your 2027 channel mix, identify the jobs and locations that repeatedly caused problems this year.
Were they hard because:
- Nobody saw them?
- Plenty of people saw them but did not apply?
- Applicants were unsuitable?
- The salary was off?
- The location was difficult?
- Candidates dropped out?
- Hiring managers took too long?
- The employer brand was not strong enough?
- You were relying on active candidates for a role that needed sourcing?
Different problem.
Different answer.
A vacancy that consistently struggles should not automatically get another £500 of job board budget just because that is what happened last time.
Sometimes the answer is advertising.
Sometimes it is sourcing.
Sometimes it is Google or Meta.
Sometimes it is employer brand.
Sometimes it is fixing the job.
Look at what your recruiters spent their time doing
This one matters more heading into 2027.
Where did recruiter time go this year?
Screening hundreds of poor applications?
Manually sourcing candidates?
Chasing hiring managers?
Updating spreadsheets because the ATS cannot produce the report?
Posting the same job in six places?
Trying to work out where the eventual hire originally came from?
Technology is changing quickly, and tools such as Indeed Smart Screening and LinkedIn Hiring Assistant are designed to reduce some of that repetitive work.
The question for 2027 is not: “How much AI can we add?”
Please don’t.
It is: “Where is our recruitment team doing work that technology could reasonably help with?”
That might mean better screening.
Better sourcing.
Better automation.
Better reporting.
Or simply using the technology you are already paying for properly.
Decide what success looks like before setting the budget
A recruitment budget without a hiring objective is just a number.
Before finalising 2027 spend, be clear about what you are trying to improve.
Maybe it is:
- Reducing cost per hire
- Improving candidate quality
- Filling particular locations faster
- Reducing reliance on one channel
- Building talent pools
- Increasing direct hires
- Improving employer awareness
- Reducing recruiter admin
- Getting better source and funnel data
Once you know the outcome, you can decide what investment supports it.
That is very different from:
“We spent £200k last year, so we’ll budget £200k again.”
Your 2027 plan should not look identical everywhere
One of the biggest lessons from recruitment advertising is that performance is rarely consistent across every role, location and audience.
So why would the strategy be?
Your high-volume roles might need one approach.
Specialist vacancies another.
A difficult regional location might need more employer brand activity.
A role with plenty of applicants but poor quality may need less reach and better targeting.
Consistency in strategy does not mean doing the same thing everywhere.
It means having a consistent way of deciding what each hiring problem needs.
Before you sign anything for 2027
Ask:
- What actually produced hires in 2026?
- Which roles and locations struggled repeatedly?
- Where did we waste recruiter time?
- Which platforms were genuinely used?
- Which channels produced quality rather than just volume?
- Where did candidates drop out?
- What do we still not have enough data to answer?
- What are we trying to improve next year?
Then build the plan.
Not the other way around.
Because the smartest 2027 recruitment strategy probably is not a completely new one.
It is one that has actually learned something from 2026.
How Artfully helps
At Artfully, we help clients review what is actually working before deciding what should happen next.
That can mean looking at recruitment media, contracts, channel performance, candidate quality, hiring data, employer brand, sourcing and internal recruitment capability.
Sometimes the recommendation is to invest differently.
Sometimes it is to spend less.
Sometimes it is to keep exactly what is already working and fix something elsewhere.
For clients who need a deeper strategic review, Artfully Elevate gives us the framework to look across the wider recruitment picture and turn what happened this year into a clearer plan for the next one.
Do not build 2027 around what you bought in 2026. Build it around what you learned.
Planning next year now? Ask us to review what earned its place before you renew it.
