So here we go with the traditional review of the year that was, and consider what clues it offers for the year ahead, writes Clive Jefferys, Managing Director of telco recruiter JMA Network.
It was a strange year in telecoms recruitment as placements and revenues produced an exact reverse of the traditional hiring calendar.
Normally we expect peak flow between February and June of each year, but here at JMA and across the recruitment industry sales performance ambled along with no particularly outstanding months.
At the time, a lot of wise heads in HR and Recruitment (myself included) took this as a sign of growth petering out.
There was plenty of anecdotal evidence to support this, what with falling joblessness and an all-time peak in the employed workforce in the UK. There were a lot of tyre-kickers out there too, clients and candidates that looked, but didn't buy.
Then it all changed in July with double activity in interviews and cash, repeated in August, September, October and November.
A key factor had changed - the salaries secured for new hires went up significantly. It became apparent that many of our clients got sick of losing out to counter-offers.
So they upped the ante in advance and counter-offered the counter-offer, before the counter-offer even came about.
They demonstrated how much they really wanted the lucky candidate by taking into account the going rate for a job, not the salary a person was already on.
Here's the proof - our fastest growing clients this year have enjoyed short lead times to filled jobs because they offered the highest salaries.
This applies to billings, support, engineering as well as those pushy sales people.
Conversely, we still have January and February vacancies live on our books, with companies that have been less flexible with the cash.
So there's an important message in this about recruitment and growth plans for 2016. It's not rocket science, and I am not the one pulling the levers. As ever, it's all about you!