Adapting talent strategies to meet quality demands and not volume

As the payments job market shifts from growth to efficiency, firms must rethink hiring strategies to compete in a saturated, high-stakes landscape.

Payment candidates consistently tell us that it’s the most challenging market to find a job since the onset of COVID-19. With fierce competition for roles, the landscape feels unrelenting for many job seekers.

At the same time, HR Directors are sharing that they’re inundated with applications, with the number of active candidates creating a market that has not been this saturated since 2021. Many HR professionals see the previous saturated job market of 2021 as a precedent to follow and are using this as an opportunity to implement cost efficiencies. In doing so, many are losing sight of the fact that this is a completely different job market from four years ago.

The misguided legacy of pandemic-era hiring

Let’s take a step back to 2021. The aftermath of the pandemic shifted the employment landscape. Redundancies left the market flooded with professionals seeking work. At the same time, businesses enjoyed a surge in funding from the e-commerce explosion and the digitisation of payments during lockdown. It was the perfect storm for hiring at scale.

Organisations scrambled to capitalise on booming markets, prioritising quantity hiring to meet high demand. Companies had the budget and confidence to onboard rapidly, placing growth above all. While the market shares similarities in the abundance of available candidates, the landscape today reflects a different reality.

Investment in UK fintech has hit a four-year low, with funding falling from £100 billion in 2021 down to £7.97 billion in 2024, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report. This huge deduction signals a shift in priorities across the sector. Businesses are no longer buoyed by abundant capital and growth-focused strategies; profitability has become the cornerstone of decision-making. A short-term focus on achieving sustainable growth is now favoured over riskier approaches that could lead to losses.

This recalibration is forcing firms to concentrate resources on efficiency and careful talent deployment. The days of volume hiring to chase massive expansion are behind us.

From growth at all costs to profit-first thinking and why talent strategies need to catch up

The rapid expansion earmarked for 2021 has given way to a new paradigm. Particularly in the payments sector, businesses are shifting their focus from expansion to prioritising efficiency and leveraging AI. In spite of this, some businesses are still following the same talent practices as five years ago or using the candidate-rich market as a lever to cut costs.

In a market that demands profitability, there’s a heightened need to make each hiring decision count. Each new candidate must hit the ground running, and each internal promotion needs to over-deliver against expectations. Every workforce decision needs to have the bottom-line numbers in mind.

With less capital flowing freely into businesses, the days of expansive hiring should be behind us. In 2021, the luxury of ample private equity funding and demand for growth meant mistakes were easily forgotten. In 2025, companies must be precise, aware that a failed hire or botched promotion will impact their long-term goals.

From what we are observing and hearing from candidates. Hiring processes have yet to fully adapt to this. The overwhelming quantity of candidate applications is stretching talent teams thin. In some cases resulting in them not providing feedback or delivering bad candidate experiences. Similarly, an increased number of quality candidates at the interview stage is causing hiring managers to add extra hiring stages, taking their time to make the right decision.

Quality over convenience—raising the bar on talent decision making

The job market in payments will always be volatile, and there will always be cycles. The last five years have shown us that. But what is the key to adapting to the current candidate-rich market and ensuring quality hiring?

Ultimately, I think it’s about keeping a balanced approach. It is easy to think about cutting costs when the candidate market is saturated. Likewise, when talent attraction becomes harder, engaging third parties is much more palatable.

For lower-to-mid-level hiring, it is absolutely the right time to consider cost-cutting. It is also a great time to use job postings, whether through a website, social media, or a job board. The key is getting full market coverage and maximising quality applications. Some fixed-fee job board providers will even support the filtering and screening of CVs.

For senior and high-skilled roles, businesses should contemplate the potential long-term consequences for each individual hire. What are the financial/operational implications of hiring/promoting the wrong person? Is it good enough to hire the best available person, or would hiring the absolute best be more prudent?

When considering using third parties, consider the value of potential partners. Most search firms allow access to a world of passive candidates, who may not be actively seeking roles but are potential game-changers. Most are also proficient at narrowing down a shortlist, matching candidates based on skill, experience, and culture fit.

Similarly, a third-party provider might allow your executives to spend more time working on valuable business projects and less time interviewing. It is also worth asking whether the very best will be on the open market, particularly in high-value roles like sales.

Building a hiring engine that supports strategic growth

Beyond this, monitor candidate satisfaction levels, implement structured interview processes, train managers to make better hiring decisions and build better onboarding. The goal is to attract the best talent and retain them, turning recruitment into a strategic asset for long-term goals.

Leveraging the candidate-rich market can certainly help organisations control costs. But long-term success comes from hiring the best individuals for the job. Ultimately, quality hiring, balanced with sustainable strategies, will allow businesses to future-proof their success. The payment job market will change—it always does—and when this happens, businesses with a balanced talent strategy will be the ones to capitalise.