The most common conversation we have with SME clients in the South East: “We need to hire a [senior commercial / finance / technology] person, but we can’t compete with London salaries.”

The premise is half right. You can’t pay £130k for a Senior Engineer when your local labour market and your company P&L don’t support it. But the conclusion people often draw — that they’re therefore stuck with weak candidates — is wrong. We see firms in this position make great hires regularly. Here’s what they do differently.

Three things that genuinely work

1. Be specific about who you’re not for.

The strongest regional hires we make are with candidates who have explicitly decided they don’t want the London commute, or who have moved out of London for life reasons, or whose families are rooted in the South. They are not London-comparable talent who’ll accept a discount; they are people for whom the trade-off is genuinely worth it.

Your job description should make this explicit. “Reading-based, hybrid two days, life outside the M25 a meaningful part of the role” filters in the right candidates and filters out the wrong ones.

2. Pay genuinely competitively for your market — not nationally.

There is a real regional market for talent and it has real numbers. Pay at or above the 75th percentile for your region and sector. Most firms over-index on London comparators and end up at the 40th percentile regionally, which is the worst of both worlds.

If you don’t know what the regional market pays, ask us. We’ll send the data over.

3. Invest in the non-cash differentiators that matter.

The biggest differentiators we see in actual closed candidate decisions: hybrid flexibility, the quality of the leadership, the genuine substance of the role. None of those cost money. All of them require deliberate work.

A senior candidate choosing between a £85k role in Reading and a £105k role in London will often pick the £85k one — if the role is more substantive, the team is better, and the working pattern is more humane.

Three things that don’t

Headline-grabbing perks. Ping pong tables, in-office breakfast, generous holiday allowances. Candidates appreciate them at the margin but they’re never the deciding factor. Firms that lean heavily on these usually have problems with the substantive things.

Big titles. A “Head of” title with the same responsibilities as a “Manager” doesn’t fool experienced candidates. Senior people see straight through inflation.

Vague promises about progression. “Lots of growth opportunity” is the recruitment equivalent of “needs work” on an estate-agent listing. If progression is real, name it concretely — “the previous person in this role is now our Operations Director” is the kind of thing that lands.

If you’re hiring at the senior end and worried about competing for talent, we’d be happy to walk through what’s worked for similar firms. Get in touch.