We can see that the UK economy is hanging on, but not without strain. In 2025, headlines were filled with stories of rising inflation, labour shortages across key sectors, unexpected shifts in business regulations, and businesses tightening budgets just to stay afloat. You can’t deny the trickle-down effects these events are having on SMEs and startups, especially when it comes to hiring.
Due to the fact that operating costs are rising faster than revenue for many businesses, salaries, benefits, and recruitment expenses have become major pressure points. Business owners are being forced to rethink the traditional hiring model as they struggle to balance the need for skilled talent with the reality of limited budgets.
At the same time, remote work has become fully normalised, removing the geographic barriers that once limited access to talent. This shift has opened the door to a growing solution: offshore staffing. More UK businesses are exploring offshore teams not just for cost reduction, but for faster hiring cycles, and greater flexibility.
As we step into 2026, the question isn’t whether offshore talent will play a role, it’s how UK businesses can tap into it strategically to stay competitive. This article breaks down what you can expect in the year ahead, how offshore hiring compares to UK costs, and where the biggest opportunities lie.
The Current State of UK Hiring
Hiring in the UK has become materially more expensive over the past few years, and by 2025, the pressure was impossible for most businesses to ignore. According to UK labour market data, average regular earnings grew by just over 4.6% year-on-year, driven by inflation, skills shortages, and increased competition for experienced talent. This upward trend has been especially noticeable in digital, technology, and professional services roles.
Salary benchmarks reflect this shift. In 2025, the average advertised salary in the UK reached over £40,000, the highest level on record. Marketing roles now command higher pay as businesses compete for performance-driven skills, while technology roles remain among the most expensive to fill. Even administrative and operational roles have seen wage increases.
However, salaries alone do not reflect the true cost of hiring. Employers must also account for National Insurance contributions, which increased in 2025, pension contributions, paid leave, training, equipment, and ongoing HR administration. Recruitment agency fees typically range between 15–25% of a candidate’s first-year salary, meaning a single £40,000 hire can cost an additional £6,000–£10,000 before the employee even starts. When onboarding time, internal management effort, equipment & overhead, and potential early turnover are factored in, the first-year cost of a UK hire can comfortably exceed £60,000.
For founders and SMEs, these costs create real friction. Hiring mistakes are expensive, roles take longer to fill, and teams are often forced to operate under-resourced while recruitment drags on. In fact, employer confidence in hiring fell throughout 2025, with many businesses delaying recruitment altogether due to rising employment costs and economic uncertainty.
Looking ahead to 2026, wage expectations are unlikely to soften, and skills shortages remain unresolved. For UK businesses, this reality is forcing a rethink of traditional hiring models, and opening the door to more flexible, cost-efficient alternatives.
Offshore Staffing Overview
In simple terms, offshore staffing is the practice of hiring skilled professionals based outside of your country to work as an integrated part of your team and business. Rather than outsourcing tasks to anonymous agencies, modern offshore hiring allows companies to build dedicated remote team members who operate within their systems, culture, and workflows. Through offshore staffing partners like Arwana, UK companies are able to hire offshore talent while avoiding the physical, administrative, legal, and financial burden of local employment.
Over the past few years, UK businesses have increasingly looked to offshore markets with strong education systems, growing digital economies, and English-speaking workforces. Countries such as India, the Philippines, Eastern Europe, and increasingly Nigeria have emerged as reliable talent hubs. The underdog in this case, Nigeria offers a compelling advantage. With a large, and highly educated workforce, the country produces thousands of professionals each year across technology, digital marketing, creative disciplines, and administration. Many Nigerian professionals have remote international work experience, are familiar with UK business culture, and operate perfectly within UK working hours.
Offshore staffing works best for digital-first roles where output, and skill matter more than physical location. These include full-stack developers, UI/UX designers, data analysts, digital marketers, social media managers, content strategists, graphic designers, virtual assistants, and administrative assistant roles. As businesses continue to digitise operations, the pool of roles suitable for offshore hiring is expanding rapidly.
Importantly, the benefits of offshore talent go beyond cost savings. Businesses gain access to experienced professionals who may be difficult or expensive to hire locally, while enjoying greater flexibility to scale teams up or down as needs change. In a hiring climate defined by rising UK costs and talent shortages, offshore staffing offers UK businesses a more resilient way to build teams for 2026 and beyond.
Cost Comparison: UK vs Offshore Staffing
The real question is no longer whether offshore hiring saves money, but how much it changes the economics of growth.
Let’s start with a common role: a junior digital marketer based in London. In 2025, salaries for this role typically fall between £28,000 and £32,000. But salary is only the headline number. Once employer National Insurance, pension contributions, paid leave, recruitment time, equipment, and onboarding are included, the true annual cost often rises to £40,000 or more. If a recruitment agency is involved, an additional 15–25% of first-year salary is added before the hire even starts.
There’s also risk baked into the model. Notice periods slow down exits, replacing a hire can take months, and if the role is mis-hired, the financial impact compounds quickly especially for SMEs operating with tight margins.
Now compare this with hiring a junior full-time digital marketer through Arwana. Instead of a variable cost structure, businesses pay a clear, fixed monthly fee. In practice, this typically works out to £900 per month, equivalent to £10,800 per year. This figure includes salary, local employment compliance, administrative support, and ongoing talent management without UK pension obligations, employer National Insurance, or long-term contractual exposure.
A role that could cost over £40,000 annually in the UK can be filled offshore for just over £10,000, creating a net saving of nearly £30,000 per hire, per year.
Beyond headline savings, offshore hiring reduces risk. There are no long notice periods, fewer hidden costs, and greater flexibility to adjust team structures as business needs evolve. This matters in an environment where founders need to stay agile and cash-conscious.
Crucially, lower cost does not mean lower output. Digital-first roles such as marketing, tech, creative, and administrative support, performance is measured by results, not location. Offshore professionals working through Arwana are already accustomed to UK workflows, and expectations, allowing businesses to maintain quality while operating far more efficiently.
Case Study
Last year, a UK marketing agency approached Arwana seeking support with a single role: a junior account manager. The agency was looking for cost-effective help without compromising quality, and Arwana delivered a full-time professional for just £900 per month.
With the junior account manager handling client coordination, reporting, and day-to-day operations, the agency found its internal teams freed up to focus on strategy and client growth. The success of this first placement led the agency to request another full-time role, a junior digital marketing executive, to manage campaigns, and content scheduling. The role further boosted their marketing output and allowed the agency to take on more clients without expanding its in-house team.
As the agency gained more clients, it added two part-time offshore roles: an ad specialist and a content writer, each for £699 per month. This allowed them to scale their creative output without the high costs of UK hires.
In less than a year, this agency had built a flexible, high-performing team offshore, delivering the same impact as multiple UK hires at a fraction of the cost. By using Arwana, they not only cut overheads dramatically but also gained the agility to scale quickly as demand grew
Work With Arwana
Hiring in the UK is only getting more expensive. Offshore staffing offers a smarter way forward: skilled professionals who deliver results, and cost a fraction of traditional UK hires.
With Arwana, UK businesses can build flexible, high-performing teams that scale with demand, reduce financial risk, and give room for growth opportunities that would be impossible with local hiring alone.
Book a discovery call to cut your hiring costs in 2026 and hire top offshore talent, and start building a team that drives growth without breaking your budget.
