2026 Hiring Trends: What’s next for employers and candidates?

Nic Weatherhead is VP of People Operations and Talent Acquisition at The Stepstone Group, a leading global tech scale-up. In this role, she shapes Stepstone’s global talent acquisition strategy and leads the People Operations team, focused on delivering an exceptional employee experience across the company’s international footprint. Before joining Stepstone, Nic spent 18 years at Google as Director of People Operations, where she led transformative talent strategies across EMEA and APAC for major growth areas like AI, YouTube, Cloud and Search. Partnering closely with Google’s executive teams, Nic attracted top-tier talent, driving revenue growth and market expansion. Nic is also a Non-Executive Director (NED) at Dulwich College, where she chairs the Social Impact Committee. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Geography, is a certified Executive Coach, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (MCIPD). She was recently recognized as a T100 Global Talent Leader.  Originally from the UK and holding dual British-Polish nationality, Nic is a proud mother of two boys. Her commitment to helping people find meaningful roles aligns closely with Stepstone’s mission to empower job seekers through technology. 

Julius Probst is the European labour economist at Totaljobs. He did his M.Sc. in Economics with a specialisation in macroeconomics and his PhD in Economic History at Lund University in Sweden. During his PhD, he also worked as a researcher for the European Central Bank.