People & Talent
Hiring, culture and the skills the industry needs next.
One letter a year: UK tech employers’ Employment Rights Act test
From January 2027 every employer must tell every worker, in the government’s words, that they may join a union. For a technology sector where 5.9% of staff are members, the hard part is the calendar, not the content
Meta gives Prospect access to 5,000 UK staff ahead of October law change
Meta says the voluntary agreement covers its London sites, ahead of a 30 October statutory right that lets unions request access at any UK employer, with terms imposed on those with 21 or more workers if talks fail
Top-end AI and data architect pay in London rises 20%, says Michael Page
The recruiter’s 2027 UK Salary Guides show pay concentrating in applied AI, data and security roles while only 38% of technology professionals want to move and most hiring managers say the people they need are scarce
The £26,000 apprentice is still the cheapest engineer an MSP will hire
Louise Campton told IT Channel Oxygen that smaller MSPs can no longer afford an £8-an-hour apprentice. The arithmetic is right and the conclusion is wrong: the missing ingredient is supervision, not subsidy
Every channel board should be able to name tomorrow’s chief executive
Node4 named a group chief executive on 1 June and a second chief executive on 15 September. A board that can only describe a search process does not have a succession plan, only a chair
Advania’s interim year was a hiring window, not a holding pattern
Advania UK spent most of 2026 without a permanent chief executive and emerged with half a new top table and a telco boss. It hired through the gap, and the boss it chose says where MSP margin is heading
GCSE computer science entries fall 7% as the digital pipeline narrows
Entries for GCSE computer science in England fell again in 2026, even as A-level entries and the longest-running digital T Level grew. The gap matters most to employers that hire school leavers
Shortage list advice keeps data analysts and drops sales hires
The Migration Advisory Committee wants three tech roles on the Temporary Shortage List for 18 months. Sales and marketing jobs, which employers sponsored far more often, would get no place on the list
UK funds £20m alliance to track AI’s impact on entry-level tech jobs
Digital and tech goes first because it is so exposed to AI, putting its entry-level roles under joint study by employers, unions and government
Skills England’s digital jobs forecast comes with an AI warning
Digital priority roles could need almost 490,000 workers by 2035. But Skills England concedes AI may make that forecast too high, and small employers struggle to use the training system
Six months to decide: the unfair dismissal change tech employers face
Unfair dismissal rights are set to start at six months from January 2027, and the compensation cap goes. But for small tech employers the bigger change is that probation becomes the hiring decision
FluidOne names Neil Kay CFO as restructuring gives way to growth
Graham Dickie steps down after steering the Livingbridge-backed provider through what it calls a challenging trading environment. His successor brings corporate development and private equity experience