Chair’s report

David Brewin, Chair

This time 12 months ago, I recall the cautious optimism we felt emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with a real sense of pride and achievement for the tough decisions we made, both as individuals and as a business, resulting in a financially successful year despite the challenges we faced.

We have a strong, diversified business and the economic challenges our clients face should be met with innovative and creative solutions devised by our talented teams. The opportunities are there for us to seize.”

I am certain that the way we do business now has changed for the better. We made the bold decision to reorganise our business in April 2021 and as a result, we are now able to bring the full strength of the firm to our clients, deploying expertise where it is needed most across four specialist, national divisions. No longer bound by regional territories, we are enjoying the flexibility and freedom of working in a national marketplace with a more diverse and exciting client base than ever before.

The year to March 2022 has been another strong year for performance, both financially and in recruitment. Our workforce has expanded organically by more than 10% to around 650 colleagues as a result of winning and renewing high-value contract work across all specialisms. I was particularly pleased to see that our divisions outperformed against budget, confirming that our multidisciplinary offering is resonating in the market. Our challenge this year is to retain this impressive growth in a particularly tough recruitment market. Whether or not you believe in The Great Resignation, the pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work, and employees hold substantially more control over their employment choices now compared to two years ago.

At Fisher German, we have a compelling and inclusive culture which empowers ambitious people to flourish and develop their careers; we need to take this offer to the market and communicate it clearly and positively to attract the very best in the industry to join us, and stay with us. I was delighted to hear that our Graduate Recruitment team were Highly Commended in the recent Institute of Student Employers Awards for Best Development Programme, in the first year of entering. This positions us very well to win the war for talent as we seek to continue our growth trajectory.

The economic challenges we currently face in the rising cost of living and record-breaking inflation rates are ones we must watch with caution. Nevertheless, we have a strong, diversified business and the economic challenges our clients face should be met with innovative and creative solutions devised by our talented teams. The opportunities are there for us to seize.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it must be that the more time we can spend with our clients, and the deeper understanding we can gain of their issues, the better positioned we can be to support them in being resilient, flexible and profitable businesses in the face of economic adversity. As long as we continue to work together and support each other as one team over the next 12 months, I am confident that we will not only continue to meet our ambitious projections, but comfortably surpass them.