1、1Salary BenchmarkReport 2026Leadership,Technology and Change2Ollie Whiting|Group CEOKey findings for 2026:Benefits have overtaken base salary as the primary driver for senior talent decisionsAI,data and cyber security roles continue to see salary inflation above 12%42%of hiring managers cite retenti
2、on as their biggest challengeOnly 28%of women in tech see a clear path to C-suiteTime to hire for senior product leadership roles has increased to an average of 7 weeks14%of new hires in tech leadership leave within six months due to misaligned expectations50%of the workforce will need to be upskill
3、ed or reskilled over the next five yearsThis report draws on live placement data from our CRM platform across more than 5,000 roles,combined with expert insight from our specialist consultants across every practice.It provides the salary benchmarks,hiring trends and capability insights organisations
4、 need to plan effectively for the year ahead.Executive SummaryExecutive SummaryTalent Solutions for Today and TomorrowContentsTechnology and ITData,Engineering and DigitalProjects and ProgrammesCorporate FunctionsAbout La FosseAs we look forward into 2026,the focus for organisations has shifted deci
5、sively from reactive hiring to building long term capability.Businesses are placing greater emphasis on resilience,efficiency and future readiness,with specialist talent remaining difficult to secure across data,AI,cloud engineering,security and digital product roles.Salary inflation has moderated i
6、n most generalist functions,but targeted increases continue where the commercial impact is clear.Candidates are approaching the market with more considered expectations.While salary remains a major factor,our data shows that benefits are ahead of base salary as the number one driver for senior talen