Same as it ever was: What has changed in the last 20 years?

2026 marks twenty years since one of our founders, Adam Evans, started working in recruitment. This milestone has prompted us to reflect on just how much the world of work has changed in that time – not just in the mechanics of hiring, but in how people communicate, what they want from their careers, and how organisations think about their teams.  

This is our attempt to name what we are seeing, and to offer something useful to both the people looking for their next role, and the teams trying to hire in a market that keeps shifting.  

We are talking less than we used to  

A study published in Perspectives on Psychological Science found that people speak, on average, 3,000 fewer words a day than they did in 2005. That’s a 28% drop in spoken communication over twenty years. For people under 23, it’s even more pronounced – 44% fewer spoken words than the same age group two decades ago.  

Twenty years ago, relationships were built on the phone, over coffee, at events. The informal chat, at the start of a meeting or on the way out of a building, was where trust was actually made. And that’s just not how most professional communication works now, with channels like WhatsApp, Teams and email replacing face to face conversation. While it can be more efficient, it can produce a real challenge for anyone running a change programme.  

Shula Kerr, Head of Projects at PPL, touched on this during her Change Makers conversation with Adam. During the Pandemic, she led the implementation of Workday, entirely remotely. Some of the people on the project team had never met each other face to face. Her approach was to invest in individual relationships alongside the formal governance. Rather than relying solely on the big group sessions, she made a deliberate effort to connect one to one.  

“If you want to get full engagement and buy-in when you’re implementing change, you have to speak to people as individuals, not just as a group.” 

The lesson isn’t that remote working can’t support major transformation – Shula delivered a complex, multi-workstream programme that way. It’s more that you have to be intentional about the moments that used to happen naturally. If people are coming together, make sure it counts. You can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.

Where people work has become a hiring decision 

Twenty years ago, location was simple. A job was in a set place, and you either lived nearby, commuted daily or moved to be closer. The pandemic changed that permanently, even if some organisations are still working out what the new normal looks like for them.  

The pushback towards office working is real, and for many teams, it does make sense. Being together in person changes how people collaborate, how quickly they build trust, and how well they onboard into a culture. But the location requirement that is written into a job description has a direct impact on the number and quality of candidates who will consider it. Requiring even two to three days a week in the office, especially if that’s outside a major city, will narrow your pool significantly. It’s worth being honest about what the role really needs before that goes into the spec.  

Most of the roles we work on are UK-based, and candidates will need the right to work here. Where relocation is part of the picture, as it sometimes can be, we’re used to working through that with both sides. 

Five generations + one workforce = no single answer 

Right now, organisations have Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millenials, Generation Z and the earliest members of Generation Alpha all working alongside each other. This has never happened before at this scale. The expectations these groups bring, around things like flexibility, communication, career progression and what loyalty to an employer means, are genuinely different. What retains someone with thirty years of institutional knowledge is not the same as what attracts someone evaluating their second job. Effectively managing that range is increasingly a core leadership skill, rather than a secondary consideration.  

It’s also one of the reasons we’re speaking with clients about permanent, fixed term contract and Day rate contractors / consultants most days now, where twenty years ago the conversation was almost always about permanent hires. Different people want different things from work at different stages of their lives. An experienced specialist might want to come in, deliver something specific, and move on. Someone earlier in their career might want the structure and development that a permanent role offers. Increasingly, organisations are recognising that building a workforce that accommodates those differences, rather than insisting everyone fits the same model, gives them access to better talent. 

UK employment law changes have also played a part. Hiring is more expensive and parting ways more complicated than it used to be, which has made organisations more cautious about permanent headcount. Contracting works well when you need specialist skills for a defined piece of work. Interim can be the right answer when you’ve made a permanent hire but need to bridge a gap while they work through a long notice period. And agile teaming, bringing people together around specific projects rather than maintaining static long-term departments, is increasingly how change and transformation work actually gets structured. 

For anyone leading change across a generationally diverse workforce, this complexity matters. There’s no single channel, no single message format, and no single pace of adoption that works for everyone. The organisations that navigate it well tend to be the ones that have thought about it deliberately, rather than assumed one approach covers all. 

Sector loyalty has loosened 

Twenty years ago, careers were more linear. You started somewhere, built expertise in that world, and largely stayed in it. Moving sectors was seen by some hiring teams as a sign that someone hadn’t really committed to anything.  

Now, we are seeing more people with varied career histories, across different sectors, types of organisations and scales of challenge. In change and transformation, someone who has delivered programmes in a different industry could bring something an internal candidate can’t: fresh perspectives, new methods, and a willingness to question assumptions that have become invisible to the people inside.  

 Alastair Woods, who joined char.gy as COO last year after more than two decades at BT and OpenReach, summarised it perfectly: if you surround yourself with people that look like Alistair Woods, you’re going to get an Alastair Woods outcome. Cognitive diversity products better decisions, even when it’s occasionally more uncomfortable. Head to our YouTube channel to watch the full conversation.   

For candidates considering a move between sectors: your transferable skills are more valuable than you might think and your network is a more reliable route to making it happen. The right introduction opens doors that a cold application rarely does. 

The middle manager squeeze 

Organisations looking to reduce costs are reviewing management layers. Tech companies are implementing AI tools to take on functions that previously required a layer of management – tracking progress, surfacing information, producing reports. And the people left in middle management roles are increasingly expected to manage their teams and carry a delivery role of their own.  
Removing management layers can accelerate decision making. But it can also create new bottlenecks, reduce the quality of support people receive, and put unsustainable pressure on capable people who aren’t resourced to do two jobs at once.  
The profile that seems to thrive in this environment is someone who can move between strategic thinking and hands-on delivery, who leads through influence rather than relying on positional authority, and who is comfortable with the tools and pace of a leaner organisation. Increasingly, that’s what our clients describe when we ask what they are really looking for, even if the job title still says something more traditional.  

One thing that hasn’t changed 

Twenty years in, one thing remains the same. The right conversation, at the right moment, with the right person can still make all the difference. That’s as true for a candidate figuring out their next move as it is for a hiring team trying to build something that lasts.  

If this resonates with you, whether you’re job hunting, hiring or just trying to make sense of what is happening in the market, we’re always happy to talk. Alternatively, follow us on LinkedIn, or you can sign up for Job Alerts on our website.