The results, released today, reveal that within the UK growth was subdued but stable in the first half of the year.

But across the group NFI was up 12% on the previous year, from £465.5m to £525.8m, fuelled by “excellent” NFI growth in Germany, up 17% year-on-year. There was also 15% year-on-year NFI growth in the company’s rest-of-world business, including double-digit increases in the US, Canada, France and Japan, and 15% year-on-year NFI growth in Australia and New Zealand.

The group also revealed expansions of its international footprint over the period, with five office expansions and three new offices opened in Germany, plus two new offices in France and four office expansions in Australia

Commenting on the results, Hays chief executive Alistair Cox said: "We have delivered another strong first half with double-digit net fee and profit growth. Conditions were supportive in the vast majority of our markets, with 22 countries growing net fees by more than 10% and 20 countries delivering record performances. This is a sign of the strength of our diversified global portfolio.
 
"We continued to invest in our growth markets, increasing our international consultant headcount by 18% while improving efficiency and further increasing our sector-leading conversion rate," he said.
 
"Looking ahead, the scale, balance and diversity of our businesses, combined with our strong balance sheet and highly experienced management teams, stand us in good stead. The outlook in the vast majority of our markets remains positive, and we have made an encouraging start to our new five-year plan to broadly double our operating profits by 2022."