Industry Insights & News

The best specialist recruitment businesses understand that real value extends beyond filling vacancies. It comes from understanding the markets they operate in, identifying emerging trends before they become obvious, and helping clients make better business decisions.

That thinking sits behind Tempting Talent's Staffing Compensation & Market Insights Report. Produced each year, the report has become one of the firm's most valuable industry resources, providing staffing leaders with independent market intelligence while reinforcing Tempting Talent's position as a trusted advisor to the sector.

For Meritaas Group, the report demonstrates how one of its specialist brands combines market expertise with proprietary research to educate clients, strengthen industry relationships, and create meaningful commercial conversations.

Listening to the Industry

Every edition of the report begins with the same principle: the best market intelligence comes directly from the people working within it.

Tempting Talent conducts an extensive industry survey covering compensation, commission structures, career progression, hiring activity, benefits, workplace preferences, and broader market sentiment. The 2026 report brings together insights from more than 500 staffing professionals across multiple industry verticals, business sizes, and levels of seniority.

The findings are then analyzed to produce more than salary benchmarks. By combining compensation data with commentary on hiring behavior and previous years’ results the report provides staffing firms with a practical view of where the industry stands today and where it is heading next.

For Tempting Talent, the process is equally valuable. Conducting the research each year ensures the business remains closely connected to changing market dynamics, allowing consultants to advise clients using current data rather than assumptions.

Looking Beyond Salary

One of the strongest messages from the 2026 report is that compensation has become more sophisticated than simple base salary comparisons.

While base salaries have largely stabilized, total compensation continues to rise as firms invest more heavily in commission structures and performance incentives. The report highlights a market that increasingly rewards productivity, with firms shifting investment toward higher earners and stronger individual performance rather than fixed salary growth.

The research also points to the continued evolution of the full-desk recruitment model. Better technology, improved operating systems, and leaner business structures have enabled consultants to manage the full recruitment lifecycle more effectively, resulting in stronger attributed billings and higher overall earnings for many recruiters.

For staffing firms, these findings provide important context. Benchmarking compensation on salary alone no longer reflects the reality of today's market. Understanding total earning potential has become essential when attracting and retaining experienced recruiters.

A Market Returning to Growth

The report also provides insight into the wider commercial landscape by industry.

After several challenging years, hiring activity is showing renewed momentum across financial services, technology, industrials, and energy. Investment in infrastructure, AI, and data centers is creating fresh demand across multiple sectors, while increasing capital activity has contributed to a more optimistic hiring environment.

At the same time, the report highlights an important contradiction. Candidate appetite to move has fallen, with more professionals choosing to build their careers within their current organizations. Although willingness to relocate has increased, firms now face a smaller pool of active talent despite stronger hiring demand.

This creates a more competitive recruitment landscape where firms must differentiate themselves through compelling compensation structures, defined career pathways, and clear organizational culture rather than relying solely on salary.

A Resource That Creates Commercial Value

While the report delivers meaningful insight for the staffing industry, it also plays an important strategic role within Tempting Talent.

For existing clients, it provides an objective benchmarking tool that supports hiring decisions, compensation reviews, and long-term workforce planning.

For prospective clients, it demonstrates the firm's depth of market knowledge before a commercial relationship has even begun. Rather than leading with recruitment services, Tempting Talent leads with insight. Sharing proprietary research creates opportunities for more informed conversations with business leaders while reinforcing the firm's consultative approach to talent acquisition. So whether it is via the site or direct outreach the report works as a no touch lead generation magnet.

It also strengthens relationships across the staffing community. Every annual edition expands Tempting Talent's understanding of the market while creating new opportunities to engage with leaders, gather fresh perspectives, and contribute meaningful intelligence back to the industry.

Demonstrating the Value of Specialist Expertise

Across the Meritaas Group, specialist knowledge is viewed as a strategic asset that should benefit clients as well as the wider markets each brand serves.

Tempting Talent's annual Staffing Compensation & Market Insights Report is a strong example of that philosophy in action. By investing in original research, the business helps staffing firms benchmark performance, understand changing market conditions, and make more informed decisions around talent and growth.

The report also reinforces Tempting Talent's a position as a trusted advisor. It reflects the firm's commitment to understanding the market at a deeper level, sharing that knowledge openly, and building relationships through expertise rather than promotion.

For staffing leaders navigating an increasingly competitive market, the latest Staffing Compensation & Market Insights Report provides valuable perspective on the trends shaping compensation, hiring, and business performance across the industry.

In 2025, root/edge, the Group's specialist energy, power, and infrastructure recruitment and advisory brand, partnered with Women of Renewable Industries and Sustainable Energy (WRISE) to develop the Clean Energy & Sustainability Salary and Sentiments Report. The project demonstrated far more than salary benchmarking. It showcased how deep market expertise and industry relationships can produce intelligence that creates value across an entire sector.

As the clean energy industry entered a period of slower growth and greater market uncertainty, employers faced increasingly complex workforce decisions. Compensation expectations were evolving and organizations needed reliable data to inform hiring, retention, and workforce planning.

Having recognizing this challenge, WRISE engaged root/edge to deliver an independent market study that would provide greater transparency while supporting its mission to advance equity across the renewable energy industry.

Delivering Research That Matters

Rather than producing a traditional compensation survey, root/edge designed a research program that examined both workforce data and the experiences behind it.

More than 500 professionals from across the U.S.clean energy and sustainability sector participated in an anonymous survey covering compensation, career progression, benefits, workforce sentiment, and diversity.
Responses were analyzed using percentile-based salary benchmarking alongside qualitative sentiment analysis, creating a report that reflected not only what professionals were earning but how they viewed their careers, employers, and the future of the industry.

This approach illustrates the difference between collecting data and generating market intelligence. By combining recruitment expertise with structured research, root/edge produced a resource capable of informing strategic workforce decisions across the industry.

Insights That Extend Beyond Compensation

The report confirmed that the clean energy workforce remained optimistic despite a more challenging commercial environment.

Two-thirds of respondents expressed confidence in their long-term careers within the sector, highlighting continued belief in the industry's future even as organizations navigated changing economic conditions.

The research also highlighted a market entering a more mature phase. Salary growth had moderated, with organizations increasingly balancing competitive base pay alongside bonuses and broader reward strategies.

Perhaps more importantly, the findings demonstrated that attracting talent is only part of the challenge. While most professionals believed they could build long-term careers within their organizations, relatively few had formal development plans in place. The data reinforced a growing reality across the sector that career development and workplace culture have become critical drivers of retention.

Supporting Commercial Performance and Industry Equity

The partnership also reflected WRISE's wider mission to build a more equitable renewable energy workforce.

By providing an independent benchmark for compensation and workforce trends, the report equips employers to make more informed decisions around pay and talent strategy. At the same time, it gives professionals greater transparency around career progression and market expectations.

Importantly, the research explored gender pay differences alongside broader diversity and inclusion trends, providing objective data that supports more informed conversations around workplace equity.

For WRISE, these insights strengthen its ability to advocate for meaningful change across the industry. For employers, they provide evidence that commercial success and inclusive workplaces are increasingly interconnected rather than competing priorities.

Demonstrating Specialist Expertise

Projects of this nature demonstrate the value of specialist expertise applied beyond traditional recruitment.

Root/edge produced research that has become a practical resource for employers and industry leaders alike. The report reinforces the brand's position as a trusted advisor within the clean energy sector, capable of delivering strategic insight as well as talent solutions.

The success of the inaugural report has also established the foundation for the 2026 edition, which will continue tracking workforce trends as the clean energy market evolves.

For organizations seeking a deeper understanding of the industry's workforce, the 2025 Clean Energy & Sustainability Salary and Sentiments Report remains a valuable reference. The full report provides a comprehensive view of the future of talent across the clean energy sector.

Our businesses don't simply participate in their industries. They help shape them.

The Talent Current, the podcast created and hosted by Mindy Prefling, Managing Partner at root/edge, Meritaas Group's specialist clean energy and infrastructure talent business. While the series explores leadership, hiring, and the future of work, its purpose extends well beyond producing content.

The podcast reflects root/edge's belief that meaningful conversations create stronger industries. By bringing together industry advocates, The Talent Current provides a platform for ideas that often don't surface in conference presentations or corporate announcements.

For Meritaas Group, it is another example of how specialist expertise can be used to create value beyond the services a business provides.

Creating a Platform for Industry Voices

Every episode is built around conversations with people leading change across the energy and infrastructure sectors.

Hosted by Mindy Prefling, the series explores topics including leadership, talent strategy, workplace culture, diversity, executive hiring, and the evolving skills required to build the future energy workforce. Rather than focusing on technical market updates, the discussions examine the people behind the projects and the decisions shaping organizations across the industry.

This people-first perspective reflects root/edge's position within the market. As a specialist executive search and recruitment business, the team spends every day speaking with hiring managers and technical professionals. The podcast creates an opportunity to extend those conversations, sharing insights that benefit a much wider audience while highlighting voices that deserve greater visibility.

Bringing Together Industry Leaders

One of the podcast's greatest strengths is the caliber of its guests.

Episodes have featured Noelle Paige, Vice President of Project Development at Aspen Power, discussing leadership in one of the fastest-growing sectors of renewable energy.

Kyle Lockhouse, a respected renewable energy executive, shared his perspective on relationship building, execution, and the role curiosity plays in developing successful careers across infrastructure and clean energy.

The series has also welcomed Aaron Nichols, Chief Marketing Officer at Exact Solar, for a conversation about why storytelling is becoming an increasingly important leadership skill within clean energy, particularly as organizations seek to connect complex technical work with broader public understanding.

Mindy dived into top of sector leadership with Abby Hopper, former CEO of SEIA. They hold nothing back when discussing what is really required to get industry defining projects over the line and getting the best out of fragmented teams.

The podcast has also strengthened root/edge's partnership with WRISE, featuring Executive Director Doseke Akporiaye, Board President Constance Thompson, and board member Zoe Berkery in discussions around workforce trends, diversity, and the findings from the Clean Energy & Sustainability Salary and Sentiments Report.

Collectively, these conversations demonstrate the breadth of expertise that exists across the sector while providing listeners with practical perspectives from leaders actively shaping its future.

Building Relationships Through Conversation

While The Talent Current delivers valuable insight for listeners, it also serves an important strategic purpose.

The podcast enables root/edge to engage with influential leaders in an authentic way, creating relationships that often continue long after the recording has finished. Those conversations deepen the team's understanding of emerging market challenges while expanding connections across the clean energy ecosystem.

This reflects a broader philosophy shared across the Meritaas Group. Expertise is built through continuous engagement with the markets we serve, not only through delivering client work.

A Different Kind of Thought Leadership

Many organizations produce content to promote their services. The Talent Current takes a different approach.

By creating a platform that amplifies industry voices, encourages honest discussion, and shares practical leadership insight, root/edge contributes to the ongoing development of the clean energy sector while continuing to build meaningful relationships across it.

The result is thought leadership with genuine purpose. Listeners gain access to conversations with experienced leaders, guests have an opportunity to share their expertise with a wider audience, and root/edge continues to strengthen the trusted relationships that underpin its work.

For Meritaas Group, the podcast is another example of how its specialist brands create lasting value. Through research, community initiatives, or conversations that bring industries together, each brand is committed to making a meaningful contribution to the markets it serves.

To explore the latest episodes of The Talent Current and hear directly from the leaders shaping the future of energy and infrastructure, visit root/edge's website or search for it on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts.

The most effective specialist businesses don't rely solely on experience. They create knowledge that benefits their clients and helps shape the industries they serve.

Tempting Talent’s Executive Search Compensation & Market Insights Report is an annual research study with data procured, presented and distributed by Meritaas Group's specialist executive search brand.

Published each year, the report has become far more than a compensation guide. It provides a comprehensive view of the executive search market, helping firms benchmark themselves against competitors and make more informed decisions around hiring, retention, and growth.

For Tempting Talent, the report is equally valuable. It keeps the business closely connected to the market, reinforces its position as a leading voice within executive search, gives added value to existing clients to reduce churn, and acts as lead magnet for new prospective clients.

Research That Starts with the Market

The report is built on the belief that meaningful insight starts anonymously. It’s one thing to read a search firms company values but another to receive anonymous facts from their top billers.

Each edition is developed through an industry-wide survey of executive search professionals, capturing data across compensation, commission structures, hiring activity, career mobility, learning and development, benefits, and workplace trends. The 2026 report draws on insights from more than 400 professionals representing a broad cross section of the executive search industry.

Responses are analyzed using percentile-based compensation benchmarking alongside broader market trends, allowing Tempting Talent to present findings that go well beyond salary figures. The result is a practical resource that reflects how firms are operating today and where the market is heading tomorrow.

This process delivers value in two directions. It gives clients access to independent market intelligence while ensuring Tempting Talent maintains an up-to-date understanding of the challenges facing executive search firms across multiple sectors.

Turning Data into Practical Insight

The 2026 report highlights an executive search market that has entered a new phase of maturity.

One of the most significant findings is a clear shift toward high-performance operating models. Firms are investing in technology, leaner structures, and operational efficiency while rewarding top performers with increasingly competitive commission structures. Average take-home earnings have increased, with higher-performing consultants benefiting from stronger payout percentages than in previous years.

The research also revealed an interesting contrast between hiring demand and candidate movement. While only 40% of executive search professionals reported actively considering a move, down from 63% the previous year, nearly two-thirds of firms planned to hire more than 11 people during the coming year.

For clients, that creates a clear message. Competition for experienced talent is intensifying, making well-informed compensation strategies and compelling employee value propositions more important than ever.

The report also identified continued demand for leaders capable of driving technology adoption and AI transformation, reflecting the increasing influence of digital capability across the executive search profession.

Creating Value for Clients

For executive search firms, access to independent market data has become an increasingly valuable strategic resource.

The report enables business leaders to benchmark salaries, commission structures, benefits, and hiring practices against their peers while identifying where they remain competitive and where adjustments may be needed.

It also provides context behind the numbers. Rather than presenting compensation data in isolation, Tempting Talent analyzes the commercial factors influencing the market, helping firms understand why trends are emerging and how they may affect future hiring decisions.

This advisory approach reflects the way Tempting Talent works with clients every day. The report is not simply a piece of research. It becomes an extension of the firm's consultative service, supporting workforce planning, leadership hiring, and long-term business growth.

Strengthening Industry Leadership

Producing annual market research also creates value for Tempting Talent itself.

Every survey expands the firm's understanding of the executive search landscape while strengthening relationships across the industry. The report provides a reason to engage with senior leaders, gather fresh perspectives, and contribute meaningful insight back to the market.

That continuous cycle of research and analysis helps establish Tempting Talent as more than a recruitment specialist. It reinforces the firm's position as a trusted advisor with a genuine understanding of the commercial challenges facing executive search businesses.

For prospective clients, the report often becomes the first introduction to the business. By sharing valuable market intelligence before any commercial conversation begins, Tempting Talent demonstrates the depth of its expertise and the value it brings as a long-term talent partner.

Expertise That Creates Lasting Value

Across the Meritaas Group, specialist knowledge is viewed as something to be shared as well as applied.

Tempting Talent's annual Executive Search Compensation & Market Insights Report demonstrates how proprietary research can strengthen client relationships and elevate industry standards at the same time.

By investing in research that educates the market and drives meaningful conversations, Tempting Talent continues to demonstrate the consultative approach that defines the Meritaas portfolio.

For executive search firms looking to benchmark performance, understand emerging market trends, or prepare for future growth, the latest Executive Search Compensation & Market Insights Report provides an invaluable perspective on one of the industry's most dynamic markets.