DEFINING TECH-ENABLED Vs TECH-LED

Not all tech adoption is equal.

TECH-ENABLED FIRMS

These are firms that use technology to support their existing processes and enhance consultant productivity. The business model remains largely unchanged, but tech is layered in to improve speed, visibility, and consistency.

Characteristics:

  • Fully-adopted, end-to-end CRM and ATS for tracking activity
  • Workflow automation
  • Data dashboards to monitor KPIs
  • Tools like LinkedIn Recruiter & Sales Navigator, scheduling assistants, or basic AI matching
  • Manual processes still dominate, but tech reduces admin and enhances output

IMPACT

Tech-enabled firms improve how they do what they already do. They become more efficient, consistent, and scalable, but they still rely heavily on human effort.

TECH-LED FIRMS

These are businesses where technology is a core part of the operating model. They use tech to redesign how they deliver value, scale operations, and create a differentiated client and candidate experience.

Characteristics:

  • Deep connectivity across systems: Customer management, application process, marketing automation, finance, comms
  • Agentic AI tools performing autonomous tasks
  • Predictive analytics driving decisions and resource allocation
  • Scalable digital assets: self-serve portals, programmatic processes, automation loops
  • Consultant activity is focused on relationships, strategy, and high-value work

IMPACT

Tech-led firms don’t just work better, they work differently. They can scale faster without linear cost increases, achieve greater profitability per head, and adapt quickly to market shifts. Crucially, they are more attractive to investors due to their operational leverage and tech maturity.

This distinction matters not just in daily operations, but in how the business is perceived by the market. Tech-led businesses are seen as modern, future-proof, and high-growth - the kind of organisations that attract better clients, better consultants, and higher valuation multiples.

“In reality, most firms sit somewhere along a spectrum - the goal is not to conform to a label, but to move deliberately toward greater tech maturity.”

Chris Kendrick, Mercury Founder and CEO

THE TECH BUSINESS

There is a third category - businesses where technology is the product, and recruitment is the outcome. These companies often originate as software or data platforms and use automation, AI, or, in the case of staffing, talent marketplaces to deliver hiring solutions with minimal human involvement.

Think programmatic staffing platforms, automated sourcing engines, or talent-as-a-service models built entirely on tech. Unlike tech-led staffing and recruitment firms, where people are still central, these businesses scale through tech, not consultants.

They represent a different kind of competitor: one that can undercut on cost, offer instant scalability, and attract investors looking for SaaS-like margins. While not all recruitment businesses will (or should) follow this model, understanding its emergence is key to recognising where the industry is heading, and why evolving your own tech maturity is so essential.