Turning Recruitment Data into Revenue: Market Trends and Business Development with Gagan Sidhu, Senior Mid Market Business Partner at Firefish Software

Welcome to the latest episode of the Recruitment Leadership Podcast, hosted by Alison Humphries.   Recruitment leaders are surrounded by market opinions, predictions and headlines. But what happens when you compare those expectations with real recruitment data?   In this episode, Alison is joined by Gagan Sidhu, Senior Mid Market Business Partner at Firefish Software, to explore the findings from Firefish's latest recruitment industry reports and discuss what they're revealing about the market in 2026.   Drawing on anonymised data from more than 720 recruitment businesses, they examine where growth is happening, how recruiter behaviour is changing, and why the agencies seeing the strongest results are focusing less on job boards and more on relationships, business development and making better use of their existing databases.   Together, they discuss:   💡 What Firefish's latest recruitment data reveals about the market in 2026 💡 Why business development remains the biggest priority for recruitment leaders 💡 The shift away from advert-led recruitment towards sourcing and relationship-led hiring 💡 Why your existing database could be your biggest commercial asset 💡 The continued growth of contract and temporary recruitment 💡 How recruitment businesses can turn data into revenue through better client and candidate engagement   During the episode, Gagan references Firefish's latest recruitment industry research, including the FARR Report 2026 and the Job Flow Index. We've included links to these resources below for anyone who'd like to explore the findings in more detail.   If you're looking to understand what the recruitment market is really doing and how the most successful agencies are adapting, this episode is packed with practical insight backed by real industry data.   👉 Download the Firefish reports:   https://www.firefishsoftware.com/agency-report   https://www.firefishsoftware.com/job-flow-index/results   Connect with Gagan Sidhu on LinkedIn.   Want to discuss this topic further with Alison?    💬 Email her at [email protected].