Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Hays PLC trading update for the three months ending 31st December 2024 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be the question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star one one on your telephone keypad. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw a question, please press star one one again.
Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to our first speaker today, Kean Marden, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Nadia. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on a particularly busy day and Happy New Year. I'm Kean Marden, Head of Investor Relations, and I'm joined here today by James Hilton, Chief Financial Officer, to present Hays Q2 2025 results. Before we begin, please be aware that this call is being recorded and the replay is accessible using the number and code provided in the release. Please be aware that our discussions may contain forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions on future events.
There are risk factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. Hays disclaims any intention or obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements that have been made during this call, regardless of whether these statements are affected by new information, future events, or otherwise. I'll now hand you over to James.
Thank you, Kean. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. I'll present the key points and regional details of today's trading update before taking questions. As usual, all net fee growth percentages are on a like-for-like basis versus prior year unless stated otherwise. Group fees decreased by 12%, Temp and Contracting down 7% and Perm down 19%. The group's December growth rate was in line with the quarter overall at minus 12%, and Perm slowed through the quarter and exited at 20% down, Temp and Contracting was more resilient and exited at minus 5%.
I'd highlight the following key items from the results. In our Temp business, fees decreased by 7%, with activity levels sequentially stable through the quarter. Group average Temp volumes decreased by 6% year-on-year, including Germany down 8%, ANZ down 15%, UK& I down 12%, and EMEA up 3%. Perm fees decreased by 19%, driven by volumes down 21%. This was partially offset by an increase in our average Perm fee of 2%. Perm markets in EMEA, U.K. and Ireland, and Germany became more challenging through the quarter, and markets were subdued but stable elsewhere.
Our enterprise business was strong, and net fee growth accelerated to 12% in Q2, driven by resilient performances in MSP contracts and several new client wins. Consultant productivity was up 4% year-on-year, driven by our continued focus on operational rigor and resource allocation. Consultant headcount reduced by 2% in the quarter and is now down 15% versus prior year.
Our initiatives to deliver structural savings of circa GBP 30 million per annum by the end of FY 2027 are progressing well, and consequently, our periodic cost basis improved to circa GBP 77 million from around GBP 80 million in Q1, representing a circa GBP 2 million underlying reduction and a modest benefit from exchange rate movements.
The group's net cash position of around GBP 25 million, in line with our expectations, was after paying a GBP 33 million dividend in the quarter, a GBP 13 million upfront cash contribution related to the defined benefit pension buy-in, and a circa GBP 5 million cash impact from exceptionals. I'll now comment on performance by each division in more detail. Our largest market of Germany saw fees down 13% year-on-year. Temp and Contracting fees decreased by 10% in line with our expectations.
We continue to see greater resilience in contracting, where we believe we are taking market share, but more challenging markets in Temp, where we have a greater exposure to the automotive sector. Temp margin and mix was up 3% versus prior year, and as I mentioned earlier, volumes declined 8%. Client cost controls once again drove a 5% reduction in average hours worked, but the comparable eases in the next quarter.
In Perm, activity levels remained subdued, and fees decreased by 27% as client decision-making slowed through the quarter, and at the specialism level, technology and engineering, our two largest specialisms were down 13% and 18% respectively. Accounting and finance was more resilient and down 3%, and construction and property was up 12%. Consultant headcount decreased by 3% in the quarter and by 13% year-on-year. In U.K. and Ireland, fees decreased by 14%.
Temp decreased 11% but was sequentially stable, and Perm slowed through the quarter with fees down 19%. Fees in the private sector declined by 10%, while public sector was tougher with fees down 21%. At the specialism level, accounting and finance and technology decreased by 13% and 22% respectively. Construction and property was down 5%, although enterprise performed strongly and was up 11%, driven by volume growth in existing contracts and new wins.
In Ireland, our fees decreased by 30% against the challenging markets, and our consultant headcount decreased by 6% in the quarter and 17% year-on-year. In ANZ, fees decreased by 14% year-on-year. While market conditions remained challenging, activity levels were sequentially stable through the quarter. Temp decreased by 9% with Perm down 23%. The private sector decreased by 11% with the public sector down 18%.
At the specialism level, construction and property decreased 13%, while accountancy and finance and technology decreased by 20% and 10% respectively. ANZ consultant headcount was down 2% in the quarter and down 20% year-on-year. In our Rest of World division, comprising 28 countries, fees decreased by 9%. Temp fees were down 3%, but Perm declined 16%. In EMEA ex Temp and Contracting fees declined by 1% year-on-year and were sequentially stable, but Perm down 21% slowed in several countries through the quarter.
In France, our largest Rest of World country, fees were down 21%, and we saw a clear step down in Perm activity during the quarter. In Americas, fees increased by 2%. We saw returns to growth in the U.S. of 7% and accelerating growth in Canada of 10%. Both businesses are seeing improving momentum, particularly in the enterprise market.
LATAM was down 26% and was more challenging. Asia net fees decreased by 6% with mixed but overall stable activity through the quarter. Net fee growth in Mainland China continued to accelerate, increasing by 18% in the quarter, although Hong Kong remained tough, down 38%. For Rest of World as a whole, consultant headcount increased by 1% in the quarter, although it is down 13% year-on-year.
Before moving to current trading, I wanted to take a few moments to update you on our initiatives to build a structurally more profitable and resilient business underpinned by our culture and talented colleagues worldwide. Through our five levers, we'll achieve this by increasing our exposure to the most in-demand future job categories, growing industries and end markets, higher skilled and higher paid roles, non-permanent recruitment, and large enterprise clients.
Our strategy is not one-size-fits-all, and we will tailor each region and country to its market and customer needs. Despite challenging markets, we are delivering on our strategy and have made good progress in the quarter. Consultant fee productivity increased by 4% year-on-year. Net fee growth in enterprise accelerated to 12%, and our structural cost-saving initiatives are progressing well. Temp and Contracting, net fee growth exited the quarter at -5%, and year-on-year growth was positive in five of our eight focus countries in Q2.
Business line prioritization, optimized resource allocation, and scaling our eight focus countries will establish a broader base and enable the group to return to and then exceed our previous peak profits of GBP 250 million. Moving to current trading and guidance, and I would highlight the following. We expect H1 pre-exceptional operating profit of circa £25 million towards the lower end of the consensus range.
Given ongoing economic uncertainty, our new Temp and Contracting return to work will again be particularly important in FY 2025, and we are closely monitoring activity levels, but it is too early at this stage to gain meaningful trends. It is also too early to say a Perm weakness in EMEA, U.K. and Ireland, and Germany through the quarter reflects a more sustained market slowdown or shorter-term deferral of client and candidate decision-making.
However, we expect near-term market conditions to remain subdued. In countries where we see headwinds to net fees, we will continue to focus on improving productivity. Elsewhere, we are modestly adding headcount in North America and parts of Asia where activity levels and net fees are increasing. Overall, we expect consultant headcounts to remain broadly stable in Q3, and we continue to work on our back-office efficiency programs. At a group level, there are no material working day effects in H2 2025. However, Easter falls entirely in Q4, while in FY 2024 it was split evenly between Q3 and Q4.
We expect this to have around a 1% positive impact year-on-year on fee growth in Q3, with a corresponding circa 1% headwind to Q4. Overall, while it is difficult to predict timing, we know our markets will recover, and when they do, we'll be firmly focused on delivering a high drop-through of fee growth to profit growth. I'll now hand you back to the administrator, and we're happy to take your questions.
Thank you, dear participants. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad and wait for a name to be announced. To withdraw a question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster . This will take a few moments. And now we're going to take up the first question. And it comes from the line of Simon LeChipre from Jefferies. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Yes, good morning. Three questions, if I may. First of all, on the fee rate, so it seems it's still holding up well overall, but could you comment on the trends across your key markets? And is there any countries actually showing a different pattern, or is the trends probably the same across the board? Secondly, across Europe, so obviously still a tough backdrop, but could you perhaps comment from a sector perspective on the trend you're seeing across your key markets, and particularly any market facing any incremental weakness through the quarter?
And lastly, could you comment in a bit more detail on the U.S. performance? And I mean, you mentioned the enterprise business doing well, but did you see any key moments of the underlying trends outside of this enterprise business as well? Thank you.
Right. Thank you, Simon, so I'll start off with the fee trends across our key markets, and I guess I'll try to be sort of consistent, I guess, on Temp and Contracting theme that we're seeing across the group, which is a stable quarter overall, so if I look at the Temp volumes and also the Temp fees across the quarter, we're pretty much in line with where we were in Q1 and pretty much in line with where we were in Q4 of the previous financial year. That hasn't changed that much by region.
If I just pick them up, our major markets in turn, Germany is our largest business, and as you know, we've had negative hours issue in Germany now. This is the fourth quarter we've had that, but it is a pretty stable trend, and we had a 5% headwind there. Volumes are down 8% in Germany, which is consistent with where we were in the previous quarter. I'd say overall, the contracting business continues to outperform the Temp business, but both of them felt pretty stable through the quarter and in line with our expectations.
We're continuing to see the benefit of improved mix and margin and day rates overall as well. Australia and New Zealand was pretty. I'd say the other thing about Germany, we saw a decline in the Perm through the quarter as well, consistent with what we saw in Europe and in the U.K. Australia and New Zealand stable, so pretty stable trends overall, both in Temp and in Perm. In the U.K., stable trends Temp and Contracting, but clearly Perm slowed through the quarter. An element of that slowdown was in the public sector, where markets are pretty challenging.
So I mean, those are our three major markets, and hopefully it gives you a feel for how the Temp versus contracting overall. What I would highlight is in some of our eight focus countries, so outside of the three key markets, we're continuing to see really good progress overall in Temp and Contracting businesses. So five of our eight countries, of our eight focus countries, were in year-on-year growth in the quarter Temp and Contracting. I think that's a pretty good performance overall in this market.
So we're pleased with the progress that the teams are making around the world, and that's, as you know, part of our key strategy. Actually, just picking up the second question on Europe, what are the key themes we've seen there? I think actually, if I look across our European business, our Temp business is performing well.
It's not as we're still heavily weighted towards Perm, but that Temp business is growing quite well, and as I said before, a number of our countries are moving forward Temp and Contracting, which is important, but Perm did get more challenging through the quarter in a number of markets, notably France. We saw a slowdown in November and into December there. As I mentioned before, Germany got tougher in Perm. Another pocket of northern and eastern Europe were more challenging through the quarter in Perm.
Actually, southern Europe continues to be pretty resilient, and Spain, for example, was in year-on-year growth. We continue to perform well in Italy, Portugal, so southern Europe continues to be more resilient, and the business is performing really well there. Happy with that. Northern Europe and eastern Europe more challenging, and the final question was on the U.S. performance.
Pleasing that we're back in year-on-year growth in the U.S., and that's important. Where are we seeing the improvement is in our Temp and Contracting business, where we're up 7%. That's encouraging. Our Perm business is pretty flat. It's a pretty stable trend in Perm, but it's certainly bumpy, and it's not a clear sign yet that we're seeing improving momentum. And within Temp and Contracting, we're seeing more of the growth in our enterprise accounts, which performed strongly through the quarter, and less momentum in spot and the SME land.
But overall, I'm pleased with where the U.S. business has gone. Very pleased at how that business was performed at the bottom line. We've had a year-on-year improvement of about GBP 5.5 million. So this time last year, that business wasn't making money. This time this year, we're making good amounts of money in that business. So we've had a really good improvement there under management, really good focus on the business. We've retrenched the operations and really doubled down on our core business there. And I think the guys have done a great job.
Great. Thanks for the follow-up.
Thank you. Now we're going to take up the next question. And the question comes to the line of Rémi Grenu from Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions, if I may. So the first one is on the additional weakness in Q2, which seems to be concerned mainly Perm in Europe, concentrated on that. Can you add anything, whether this is data points, discussions with clients, consultancy pipeline of activity, or anything else which would give more information on really this debate on whether this is a near-term bump or more structural decline, which we should extrapolate over the coming quarters? I appreciate it's a tough question, but yeah, still.
Similar question on what you're referring to in the press release to the return to work in Temp and Contracting and later in the year, but if you could elaborate on that, how you're monitoring it and what you're seeing there, and any indication on how things are evolving going into 2025.
And the last one is on the enterprise business, which has grown nicely. Can you just remind us how much of group nets it represents? And on the comment, what's driving that? Is it really only the MSP contract driving the delta versus the rest of the group, or are there any other factors in there? And the contract wins you're referring to, are these from competitors or first-time MSP contract or outsourcing?
Right. Okay. I'll start off then in Europe on the question on Perm weakness and what's really behind that, well, I mean, it's different in each country is the honest answer, and also, the trends are different in each country, but I think what we have seen is a sensitive economic environment. I think it's clear to see across the Eurozone that the economic data is fragile, and I think we've seen relatively fragile data in PMI and some of the other consumer confidence indices, and I don't think that's changed dramatically over the last six or nine months.
I think we've seen areas of political instability, and that, again, for us, always has an impact in our Perm business as companies really stop, slow down, or stop making their decision-making, and that is a challenge. So getting deals over the line has been increasingly more difficult in, as I say, northern and eastern Europe through the quarter. There's still good levels of activity going on, though. So if I look at the number of jobs that are coming in through the quarter, it was down a little bit in November, and as you'd expect in December, that comes down anyway.
And I wouldn't say the decline in December was any more than I would normally expect. What we're seeing is getting those deals over the line is taking longer because of slowdown in decision-making. And that's what leads into the uncertainty and the other part of your question, which is the outlook. And how much of that business has been deferred and will come back in the new year? Maybe a bit of it, but I do think some of it has gone.
But then the broader question is, are we going to see a more sustained lower level of demand and activity and placements going through into the new year? And I think that's where I don't have a full view really at this stage. I think we'll probably pick that up and have a better discussion in February at our half-year on, okay, how did January pan out, and how does February look, and what's the outlook for March? And I think at this stage, I don't really have a view on whether we're at a newer lower level of activity in Europe.
Return to work, second question is, again, we're at an early point really for me to be making a call. I've only got one week of timesheet data this year, that Christmas was slightly later. That first week back is probably a little bit clouded by the timing of when people are actually at work and not. I think what I could say at this point is, obviously, we look at the number of finishers, and we have a view on how many people finish their contracts at Christmas because a lot of our businesses have breaks. That's in line. Nothing unusual there.
I'm not seeing a difference in trend on the people that finished at the end of December. That's the first data point I look at. Clearly, the second data point we look at is week on week on week. What's the rebuild in the volumes? Normally, we'd expect to get to pre-Christmas levels by mid to late March. At this stage, I've got one week of data, and I just don't have a view yet how that pans out. So again, I'll talk about that a bit more in February. And the final question was on Enterprise and overall, what are the trends we're seeing in the Enterprise business?
And our Enterprise business is about 20% broadly of our group net fee. So it's a material part of our business and also an important part of our strategy and business going forward. And it's good to see that we're on year-on-year growth. So what's driving that? I think there's three factors. First of all, we're seeing resilience in MSP and in larger end-of-town generally. So our large corporates are more resilient than the SME markets in the majority of the markets we're operating in.
I think secondly, we're starting to see some real progress and benefits from taking market share within our large MSP accounts. And I've spoken before about when you take on a new MSP, you get a large supply chain, which is largely third-party. And our task is to then convert as many of those Temps over time to be our own direct supply. And clearly, on day one, you can have a large supply chain, which is going from another agency. And over time, you'd expect to gain a lot of traction and build up your market share within that specific time. I think the team have done a really good job of that.
Heavy levels of focus on improving our market share on the existing accounts. And the third factor is we've won a number of new accounts as well in the last 12 months, which have been coming online. That's clearly been positive for the performance in the quarter as well. And we've got a number of deals in the pipeline as well, which I'm confident about. So I think overall, that business has performed well. It's a core part of our strategy, so pleasing that it's moving forward.
Understood. Thanks very much.
Thanks.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from Line of Afonso Osório from Barclays. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. I just have three as well, if I can. The first one is on Germany. You mentioned in your remarks automotive being one of the key drivers of the weakness in the country. Can you just disclose your exposure to that in Germany? And obviously, with elections there soon, how do you see growth in the second half? That's the first question. The second question is on your exceptional costs and the GBP 25 million outlook in the first half.
Maybe I missed this, but have you disclosed the P&L exceptional charge for the half? You mentioned the GBP 5 million cash exceptional. I'm assuming that's the same or probably the same for the P&L as well. So GBP 5 million. That's the second one. And then the third one is on the GBP 77 million run rate on costs.
Do you think that there's room to lower this further in the second half? And what's your view on headcount in Q3 and Q4? I think you mentioned probably upsizing a little bit in the U.S. and the other outperforming regions. But yeah, if you can give us a sense of your plans for the headcount as well in the second half. Thank you.
Great. Right. Afonso, forgive me if I miss any of those. There's quite a bit in there, but I'll kick off with the Germany question and the autos, and it is an important part of our business, and we have a market-leading position in the autos in Germany. If I look overall, the auto business is about 10% of our Germany business, and it's specifically within our Temp business rather than our contracting business.
So it's about 10% overall of our net fees, and as I talked about in the last trading update, the market in there is clearly more challenging, and it's down about 40% year-on-year versus a broader business, which is clearly more resilient than that. What I would say is that I think we've seen a much more stable quarter. I think we were seeing more weakness in Q1, and I think we've seen a more stable quarter through Q2. I don't think it's going to return to growth anytime soon.
But what we have had is certainly some market share gains in that sector where a number of the large clients are coming to us and not the competitors. And I think we are taking share in that market, which is quite pleasing, and I think certainly supportive of the overall volumes we've seen in Temp through the quarter. The other thing I would highlight there is that even though we've had some challenge in that sector, we've managed the bench really, really well. Clearly, Temp and Contracting, we do have a theoretical bench risk because we employ the Temps rather than freelancers.
If you think back to the pandemic when the factories literally shut overnight, we clearly had an impact there. I think the team have done a really, really fantastic job of managing the bench incredibly well, so we haven't had any exposure at all. That's been a really, really disciplined and pleasing performance from the guys. Credit to them for doing that because it's not easy. Outlook for autos, I mean, look, there's probably someone with a greater mind than mine who's got a better view on where the auto sector is going to go globally over the next six or 12 months.
I guess we're managing the demand that we're seeing right now from our clients. As I said before, it feels more stable, but we're certainly not seeing any pickup there. I think we'll see how the world pans out over the next six to nine months with the world of tariffs or potential tariffs and demand from China and the U.S. and so on and so forth. There's a lot of factors there that will play into that equation. So I wouldn't like to make a call really on that in the second half.
Second question was around costs, and the GBP 25 million that we guided for H1 is on a pre-exceptional basis. At this stage, I mean, we're still closing the books, so it will take a little bit of time to do that. I do expect the exceptional P&L charge in the half to be somewhere around the GBP 9-10 million level. Clearly, the GBP 5 million we referred to on cash exceptional is the amount in the quarter. Clearly, that's the cash flow impact as opposed to the P&L impact of Exceptionals in the half. I expect the P&L charge to be in the GBP 9-10 million level. The third question was around cost run rate.
Clearly, I think we've done a good job through the half of lowering that pleasing progress that we've made in a number of areas in some of the efficiency programs in back office, across finance, across technology, some of the operational structures, some offices, and so on and so forth. I think we've made good progress there. Around GBP 77 million or so. Clearly, look, I always say circa on the periodic cost base because it's not an exact science in a business. Month- to- month, it does go up and down as you would expect.
But I have to look through the quarter and see where the underlying is. And GBP 77 million is kind of where we are now. Where do we go in the second half? I would expect it to come down a little bit. I don't think it will come down too much because I think, first of all, we've made some really good progress on programs through the quarter. And I'll talk more about those in the half-year results without going into too much detail now. As I said before, and as guided in the statement, I expect our consultant headcount to be pretty stable through the next quarter overall.
I think we'll see some businesses increasing their headcount where markets are more supportive, and we're confident. I think perhaps some other areas where we might pull back a little bit if we need to. I think overall, broadly stable through the second half or certainly the next quarter on headcount. And therefore, I don't expect to see a material change to the cost base. It may come down slightly from 77, but not materially, so.
Thank you very much.
Brilliant. Thanks.
Thank you. Now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Karl Green from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Yeah. Thanks. Thanks very much. Good morning, James. Just one remaining question for me. Just on the eight focus countries that you referenced, with saying five out of eight were in year-on-year growth Temp and Contracting in the quarter, can you just give an indication of the sort of the range of growth metrics that you're seeing across those five? And then the remaining three, how close are they to being in positive territory, please?
Sorry, Kean. The line just crackled a little bit there. Can you just repeat that?
Sorry. Beg your pardon. Yeah. So just in terms of the five out of eight countries which were growing year-on-year in T&C, what was the range of growth across those five countries? And then the three that weren't growing, just how close are they to positive territory, please?
Yeah. Of course. Yeah. No problem, Karl. Yeah. As I said before, pleased about making good progress there. And what have we seen? Actually, at the high end, Italy was up 40%, which is fantastic. Not huge for us Temp and Contracting. We do close to about GBP 1 million fees across the quarter in Italy. So that was our highest-performing business. But Poland's a big business for us. We do close to GBP 1 million fees a period in Poland, and that was up 23%. Spain, where we do about GBP 400K a period, was up 11%.
USA, as I said, that's our biggest focus country in terms Temp and Contracting, and that was up 7%, as I mentioned earlier on the call. Austria was up 5%. So those are all the countries in growth. France was down slightly, down 2%. We have a pretty Temp and Contracting business there. Switzerland, where we have a big business, was down 6%, and Japan was down 14%. I think we're seeing still sort of mixed. That's a relatively small business for us Temp and Contracting in Japan. You still tend to get more variation because of the size of business.
You lose one or two accounts, and then suddenly your volumes drop and the business is down. I think the fundamentals are still pretty good. All of those eight countries for us could be really Temp and Contracting businesses. Sorry, some of them are pretty decent-sized businesses today. The States, for example, we have over GBP 2 million fees a period Temp and Contracting, and it is good to see that business back in growth. Switzerland is a similar-sized business.
That's slightly down, but still performing pretty resiliently. And then as I say, some of the smaller countries performing really strongly and getting some really good year-on-year growth. I feel that we're making really good progress there. So yeah, pleased with that.
That's fantastic. And just one follow-up, if I can, while I've got you. Just on the enterprise business, I think you've kind of alluded to this already. Just how competitive were the processes where you did pick up new clients, please?
It's always competitive, Karl. As you can imagine, it's no, but I think it's not just a price war out there. It's about having the reputation to be able to deliver on these accounts. And that's both fulfilling and delivering in the front office. It's having the right processes, the right back-office systems, and overall delivering for the customer. So no, it's not a price war out there. It's certainly having a reputation and a track record and the ability to not just apply in one country, but perhaps across region or sometimes even more on a global basis is important as well.
So having that infrastructure, having the right delivery models available because depending on what the client wants, you've got to be nimble and be able to adapt to that and have different types of models of delivery because they're looking for different things.
So I think you've got to give them options. It isn't a price war. Sometimes it's competitive, and you've got to price that. But then you've got to think creatively about how you deliver against that and make the economics work. So there's lots of variables in those contracts. They're not all the same. Clients are always looking for different types of solutions, and you've got to be adaptive and creative and respond to what the client wants. And that's really important. And being really client-focused is, I think, really helps us to win some business there.
Makes sense. Thanks, James.
Brilliant. Thanks, Karl.
Thank you. Dear participants, as a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star, one, one on your telephone keypad. And now we're going to take our next question. And the question comes from the line of Rory McKenzie from UBS. Your line is open. Please ask your question.
Good morning, all. Just two questions, please, on your kind of headcount plans. Within the regions, I don't want to get too excited, but North America and Mainland China have seen a couple of positive quarters now. So how are you reading those markets? And in general, are you preparing plans for headcount to start to diverge, I guess, more across countries and regions as we start to maybe have different recovery run speeds in different markets? And then secondly, you've talked about building a better, more profitable Hays. And you've taken headcount down again.
It's now down 15% year-over-year. But beyond that, can you give any stats on the repositioning of staff beyond just the aggregate reductions? How are you moving people around the business? And is there any update you can give on business areas or practice areas that you're still closing or looking to reduce further? Thank you.
Yeah. Thanks, Rory. I mean, I'll pick up the U.S. and China first, which is the first part of the question, and clearly, those businesses were growing in the quarter, which we're encouraged by. It's positive. I think both of those businesses seem quite healthy. Improved year-over-year productivity growth, which is good. I think both of those businesses this time last year were tougher, and we took the actions to refocus those businesses and took some of the right measures then.
And I think, first of all, we've seen the benefit of that focus at the top line, and I think we're seeing the benefit of that focus on the bottom line because we've got the cost base in better shape. I think how we approach reinvestment in both of those businesses is consistent with how we'll approach reinvestment across the entire business.
And it will be on a business line, my business line basis. It's not a one-size-fits-all. They need an extra 10% ahead to go on and crack on and just stick them in. That's not what we're interested in. We're interested in focusing on the right parts of the market, which we think are the right long-term structural growth markets, and also the right markets where we have got the right business model. And we can see the productivity is at the level that we want it to be at, and we've got the right sales channels and route to market that we're happy with as well. So it's a balance, Rory, of each one.
And we'll be relatively cautious in our reinvestment and make sure that we control that, and it goes into the right places to make sure that we get good levels of return on our investment and the productivity continues to move forward. I think that's really important for us. And I think that'll be the same wherever we look across the group.
And I think having that focus, having the right discipline to put the people into the right businesses that need the investment, and even maybe in a growing business, taking people away from an area which is not performing and has not got the level of performance that we want it to have. But we need to be surgical in each of those. And that leads on to your second question, which is kind of what we're doing today.
And a lot of our countries, while the headcounts are relatively flat in the quarter and relatively stable, if you look under the covers, there's quite a lot of moving around, as you would expect. And that can be an occasion we're moving consultants from one desk to another and where we feel appropriate. Sometimes it's actually scaling back a little bit in one area because the market's not there or we feel that performance isn't where we want it to be. And actually, we are investing at the moment in a number of places around the world.
It's just overall, you don't see it in the number because the headcount's fairly flat overall. And that will be our approach going forward. I think Dirk's really brought a level of focus and discipline into the business, and that's what we'll continue to do. The way we analyze our business is at a contract form on a specialism level. So we look at the productivity of our Temp contracting business differently than we look at the productivity of our tech Perm business and so on and so forth.
So each of those business lines, we really want to understand in detail where the performance is, and that will drive our investment decisions.
Interesting. Thank you very much.
Brilliant. Thanks, Rory.
Thank you. The speakers are running out for the questions for today. I would now like to hand the conference over to James Hilton for any closing remarks.
Thanks, Nadia. That's all for questions. I'd like to thank everyone on the call for joining us today. I look forward to speaking to you next at our H1 results, which is on the 20th of February, and if anyone's got any follow-up questions, Kean, Bob, and myself, we'll be available for the rest of the day to take any calls or questions that you have. Thank you again for joining. Bye-bye.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now all disconnect. Have a nice day.