Robert Walters LON: RWA reported a modest year-on-year decline in first-quarter net fees but pointed to improving trends across parts of its portfolio, including a return to growth in its recruitment outsourcing business for the first time since late 2022.
On the company’s Q1 trading update call, Chief Executive Officer Toby Fowlston said trading in the quarter was in line with expectations, while Interim Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Solesbury highlighted sequential improvement compared with what he described as the trend “seen throughout 2025.”
Group performance and cost discipline
Solesbury said group net fees in Q1 were down 2% year-on-year in constant currency terms. He added that the company saw a “notable step-up” in the proportion of the specialist recruitment portfolio delivering growth: countries in growth represented half of specialist recruitment net fees in the quarter, up from a fifth in the second half of 2025.
He also pointed to continued productivity improvement, saying the business delivered a third consecutive quarter of growth in “perm placements per perm fee earner per month,” which increased 6% versus the prior year. Solesbury noted it was “particularly pleasing to see certain markets drive higher perm placements year-on-year, despite a lower fee earner headcount.”
On headcount and expenses, Solesbury said fee earner headcount rose 3% from the prior quarter as management continued to “closely” manage staffing levels, while total headcount was flat quarter-on-quarter. He added that the “underlying cost rate per month” was below £23.5 million during the quarter.
On the balance sheet, Solesbury reported period-end net cash “over £20 million,” consistent with board expectations. He said the first-quarter cash outflow followed the typical seasonal pattern due to annual bonus payments for fee earners, with an outflow of £6 million compared with £11 million in the first quarter of the prior year. He added that measures to optimize cash levels remained a key focus.
Specialist recruitment: growth in Asia-Pacific, pressure in Northern Europe
Fowlston broke down performance across the company’s four specialist recruitment regions, starting with Asia Pacific, where specialist recruitment net fees rose 4% year-on-year in Q1.
- Japan: Net fees increased 13%, with Fowlston attributing the improvement to better performance in permanent recruitment “driven by higher productivity.” He referenced actions taken late last year to improve perm performance and said it was “pleasing to see these beginning to bear fruit.”
- Australia and New Zealand: Fowlston said there was “further momentum in temp volumes,” with Q1 ending at the highest volume levels since Q1 2024 in Australia and Q2 2024 in New Zealand. New Zealand net fees grew 12%, while Australia declined 7% due to softer perm performance in a market where permanent recruitment is a larger share of the mix.
- Greater China: Net fees rose 2%.
- Southeast Asia: Net fees fell 7%, which Fowlston described as reflecting mixed country-level performance.
In Europe, specialist recruitment net fees fell 16%, with Fowlston stating that Northern Europe remained the company’s toughest region for hiring conditions. He cited a mix of regulatory and macro factors contributing to uncertainty among hiring organizations.
- France: Net fees declined 21% year-on-year, which Fowlston said was sequentially stable versus the second half of 2025.
- Netherlands: Net fees fell 10%, with Fowlston pointing to sequential improvement driven by a “notably better performance in perm.”
- Belgium: Net fees dropped 36%, and Fowlston said performance was weaker than expected and “we have work to do there.”
- Spain: Net fees rose 13%, continuing momentum that emerged during the second half of 2025. Fowlston noted Spain is “over 90% perm.”
In the U.K., net fees increased 1%. Fowlston said the company had seen external indicators of labor demand, particularly job vacancies, stabilizing month-to-month for some time and said that had continued.
In the “Rest of the World” segment, net fees fell 16%. However, excluding Brazil, Canada and the U.S. West Coast—offices the company closed last year—Fowlston said net fees were down 3% on a like-for-like basis. In the Middle East, net fees declined 15% amid what he called a backdrop of geopolitical tension, though he said the decline was more moderate than in the fourth quarter of 2025. In the Americas (U.S., Mexico and Chile), net fees rose 11%.
Recruitment outsourcing returns to growth
Fowlston said recruitment outsourcing net fees rose 13% in Q1, marking the segment’s first return to growth since late 2022. He said performance among retained clients—which he described as “well over 90% of the book”—was resilient, and he highlighted “a very good contribution from a perm volume hiring contract expansion” announced late last year.
He also said the company’s consultancy offering continued to build momentum, driven by public sector clients.
Management commentary: productivity leverage, hiring discipline, and market tone
During Q&A, Investec analyst Tom Callan asked about the economic impact of improving placement volumes. Fowlston said perm placements per fee earner per month in 2025 had been around 0.84, compared with a pre-COVID average of about 1 and a peak of about 1.2 during the post-COVID surge. He said the company still has “headroom capacity to grow from where we are today.”
Fowlston estimated that a 10% uplift in that perm productivity metric in specialist recruitment alone could generate “probably north of £100 million worth of net fees,” adding that benefits could be larger if the uplift extended to temporary recruitment. On profitability, he said that if headcount remains flat, “there’s no reason why we shouldn’t see a drop through of around 70%-80%” to EBIT.
Deutsche Bank analyst Steve Woolf asked about management’s comment that there was “incrementally greater resolve among both clients and candidates to get recruitment processes over the line,” which Woolf contrasted with peers reporting more protracted hiring processes. Fowlston said conditions vary by market and noted Northern Europe remained more difficult. However, he added he was sensing increased willingness among candidates in some markets to move, citing the passage of time since the post-COVID hiring surge and a potential role for cost-of-living pressures in motivating job changes, particularly in the U.K.
On headcount, Fowlston said the company is focused on productivity gains and is selectively investing in fee earner headcount where it believes teams are at capacity, while other markets remain below that level.
Outlook and guidance
Fowlston said the company had not seen a “material uptick” in new job flow year-on-year, but it was seeing “incrementally greater resolve” in parts of the market. He highlighted continued momentum from the second half of last year into Q1 in the U.K., Spain and New Zealand, and said Japan’s return to growth meant four of the company’s top eight markets were in growth during the quarter.
He added that while the Middle East conflict appeared limited to the region, the company remained mindful of potential broader macro impacts if tensions became protracted. Taking all factors into account, Fowlston said guidance for 2026 group net fees was unchanged, and he said the group is building out its “Total Talent Solutions” offering.
About Robert Walters LON: RWA
Established in 1985, Robert Walters is a global talent solutions business operating in 31 countries across the globe. We support organisations to build high-performing teams, and help professionals to grow meaningful careers. Our client base ranges from the world's leading blue-chip corporates through to SMEs and start-ups.
We deliver three core services:
• Specialist recruitment - encompassing permanent and temporary recruitment, executive search and interim management.
• Recruitment outsourcing - enabling organisations to transfer all, or part of, their recruitment needs to us either through recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) or contingent workforce solutions (CWS).
• Talent Advisory - supporting the growth of organisations through market intelligence, talent development, and future of work consultancy.
Our employees are passionate about powering people and organisations to fulfil their unique potential.
See Also
This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.
Before you consider Robert Walters, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Robert Walters wasn't on the list.
While Robert Walters currently has a Hold rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Nuclear energy is entering a new growth cycle as rising power demand, expanding data centers, and renewed policy support bring the sector back into focus. After strong gains in recent years, the most impactful phase of nuclear investment may still be ahead.
This report highlights seven nuclear energy stocks positioned across the value chain—combining near-term revenue with long-term upside as next-generation technologies scale. Click the link below to unlock the full list.
Get This Free Report
