March 2026 brought together two areas that matter deeply to us at Citrus Connect: challenging established thinking around recruitment and ensuring our growth creates an impact beyond the business.
This month, our research into the UK’s overqualified workforce sparked conversations about how employers recognise talent and the value placed on academic qualifications. At the same time, we reached an important milestone in our partnership with the King’s Ransom Foundation, taking our total charitable donations beyond £20,000.
Both stories gained attention in the press, giving us an opportunity to contribute to wider conversations about the future of work and the role businesses can play in creating positive change.
The Overqualified Nation: Rethinking How We Value Talent
In March, we published The Overqualified Nation, our research exploring the growing disconnect between academic qualifications, employment and career opportunities across the UK.
The findings highlighted an important challenge. While younger generations are more highly educated than ever, many workers are employed in roles that don’t require or fully utilise their qualifications.
Among the findings highlighted in the press:
- The Credential Disappointment: More than half of UK adults aged 25–29 now hold a degree, compared with 28% two decades ago, according to GOV.UK. As the number of graduates has increased, having a degree alone has become less of a differentiator.
- The Stop-Gap Trap: While 87.6% of graduates are in employment, 32.1% are working in non-graduate roles, with median real-terms salaries at £26,500.
- The Northern Divide: Overqualification is particularly prevalent in the North East at 41.6% and Yorkshire & Humber at 38.8%.
As our founder, Leena Parmar, explained:
“The UK is now an overqualified nation… Many of these workers are held back not by a lack of talent, but by self-doubt, financial risk and limited access to structured career support.”
The findings challenge employers and recruiters to think more broadly about how they assess potential. Qualifications have their place, but problem-solving, adaptability, resilience and other transferable skills can tell us just as much about someone’s potential to succeed.
This thinking also sits behind our approach to recruitment and the Employeepreneur mindset, which focuses on identifying people who demonstrate ownership, accountability and an entrepreneurial approach to their work.
Our research was picked up across national and industry media, helping bring the conversation around qualifications, skills and career mobility to a wider audience:
- BOB FM – coverage of The Overqualified Nation
- SME Today – coverage of The Overqualified Nation
- Checkpoint Learning – coverage of The Overqualified Nation
What an Overqualified Workforce Means for Employers
For employers, an overqualified workforce presents an opportunity to reconsider what makes someone right for a role.
Hiring criteria that place too much emphasis on qualifications, previous job titles or conventional career paths can potentially overlook people with valuable transferable skills. Looking more closely at behaviours, capabilities and potential can help businesses access talent that might otherwise fall outside traditional recruitment criteria.
This is particularly relevant when building a sales team, where communication, resilience, commercial awareness and the ability to build relationships can be just as important as someone’s academic background.
For us, the findings reinforce something we see through our work with candidates and employers: the strongest person for a role isn’t always the person with the most conventional CV. Understanding the individual behind the application can provide a much clearer picture of what they could bring to a business.
Purpose Beyond Profit: £20,146 Raised for the King’s Ransom Foundation
While we were proud to see our research gaining attention, March also marked an important milestone in our long-standing partnership with the King’s Ransom Foundation (KRF).
Since the partnership began, Citrus Connect has donated more than £20,146, taking us another step towards our long-term goal of raising £100,000 for the charity.
KRF supports orphans, widows and vulnerable communities around the world, with 100% of donations going directly towards frontline aid. Our contributions help support orphanages, rescue and feeding programmes across India, Kenya, Belize, Nicaragua and the Congo.
Behind those figures are real people. Children like Luc in Goma, who lost both parents and arrived at a partner orphanage vulnerable and malnourished, can access regular meals, education and a safe place to grow.
As Andrew Williams, Financial Administrator at the King’s Ransom Foundation, shared:
“Citrus Connect’s partnership with King’s Ransom Foundation is a powerful example of what happens when business growth and lasting impact move together.”
For Citrus Connect, this partnership is part of our wider commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility. As the business grows, we want that growth to create an impact beyond our own commercial success.
Our £20,000 milestone was also recognised by the local press:
- Yorkshire Evening Post – Leeds-based recruiter donates over £20,000 to overseas orphanages
Looking Ahead
March was a reminder of what we want Citrus Connect’s growth to represent. Our research gives us an opportunity to challenge established thinking within recruitment, while our partnership with the King’s Ransom Foundation allows that growth to support communities far beyond our own.
As we move into Q2, we’ll continue sharing what we’re learning from the recruitment market, questioning practices that may be holding employers and candidates back and building on our commitment to making a positive impact.
And there’s plenty more to come. If you’d like to be part of what we’re building at Citrus Connect, get in touch with our team.
