By Katherine Anderson-Scott, Executive Director at Charisma Charity Recruitment, and lead for the arts, heritage and culture portfolio.

Funding volatility is suppressing headcount and destabilising roles

In good news, it looks like visitor numbers are finally stabilising post-pandemic and even growing as visitors crave experience and memory making. But after more than decade of ever reducing local authority budgets, museum and heritage services are left exposed. Some councils have withdrawn core funding altogether, grant givers, trusts and foundations are refocusing impact with the success ratios getting tougher, and fundraising is pressured by the cost-of-living crisis. These complex factors are forcing reduced hours, seasonal openings, and restructures. In 2024–25, more than 16 UK museums closed, many citing council cuts, rising operating costs or the loss of key public grants, an unmistakable signal of systemic strain for non‑profits carrying public heritage on discretionary budgets.

Workforce wellbeing and capacity are under pressure

The Museums Association’s 2025/26 members’ survey found that more than half of responding organisations were planning service reductions, with respondents reporting recruitment freezes, redundancies, burnout, and over‑reliance on volunteers. 

AI is here to stay but it isn’t all innovative

Immersive experiences, interactive displays and avatars, and digital play strategies bring excitement and innovation to hook a new generation of heritage explorers, but in recruitment, candidates face barriers to applying for roles, with high calibre candidates lost to AI algorisms. Frustrations mount from high calibre candidates who have been rejected from leadership roles within minutes of applying and outside of business hours. Candidates are already jaded by these robotic processes and consider their time wasted in committing to an application if it isn’t even going to be reviewed by a real-life decision maker.

The wider market isn’t helping…

The UK’s vacancy tide has ebbed from post‑pandemic highs, but the number of unemployed people per vacancy stood at 2.5 in Q3 2025, which is a competitive backdrop for heritage organisations trying to attract digital, project, and visitor‑economy skills without commercial‑sector pay levers. Transferable skill moves are becoming more prevalent, with finance, HR, governance, marketing and communications, and operations just some of specialisms being attracted to the corporate and commercial sectors and away from the not-for-profit sector.

What can you do about it?

Pay with purpose

• Where you can’t meet salary parity, or budgets can’t stretch, add softer benefits that relieve pressure.

Hire skills and for outcomes

• Ensure job descriptions specify demonstrable competencies and portfolios and state what counts as “equivalent experience.” Too many heritage roles default to generic degree types that deter capable career‑changers.
• Welcome adjacent‑sector talent (e.g. finance leaders from education, fundraisers from health). 
• Ensure salary transparency, flexible working options, and application routes that don’t penalise non‑linear careers.
• Build practical tasks into selection. Not everyone thrives in Q&A sessions, so try scenario-based questions.

Check before you advertise

• Sanity‑check the scope and demands of the role - make sure it is actually deliverable.
• Assess if your team has capacity to manage an influx of applications, with the associated communications and candidate journey required to best demonstrate your brand values. And remember the recruitment experience is often someone’s first tangible impression of your organisation, so it needs to represent what you stand for.

Speed and transparency win candidates

• Publish timelines, panel information and any assessment upfront. Try to keep a 2‑3-week window from close of adverts to offer and provide feedback within 5 working days. In a competitive market, the most organised process often beats a slightly higher salary.

Invest in volunteers like colleagues

• If your reliance on volunteers remains high, apply structured recruitment, training and recognition to reduce turnover and protect staff time, especially in front‑of‑house and learning and participation where paid capacity is lean.

Invest in retention from day one

• Plan onboarding, mentoring and first‑90‑day outcomes, small investments here reduce costly re‑recruitment later.

Write people into your case for support

• When seeking NLHF or foundation grants, cost the real price of delivery (e.g., safeguarding training, mental‑health support, travel time across dispersed sites) and commit to reporting on workforce outcomes. 

Final thought and how a specialist partner unlocks heritage hiring

This is a moment to double down on people as a core asset. If you’re planning to recruit your next role, do it once and do it right!

In a market where adverts alone no longer deliver quality, Charisma combines executive search with active candidate engagement utilising a national database of 9,000 mission‑aligned candidates and reaches passive candidates through targeted headhunting. In the last 12 months, over 65% of senior placements (Board level, CEO, senior leadership team) came via our Talent Team channels.

Charisma has a specialist heritage portfolio, including Arts Council NPOs and recipients of NHLF funding, with clients ranging from Imperial War Museums, British Motor Museum, Tank Museum, Salisbury Museum, Whitchurch Silk Mill, New Forest Heritage Trust, Hampshire Cultural Trust, Suffolk Preservation Society, and Society of Genealogists to name just a few. That experience matters when roles operate within listed assets, have collections of national significance or navigate complex funder and stakeholder environments.

Our heritage expertise means we screen and assess technical competence and values alignment, as well as delivering a structured campaign, candidate care that protects your brand, and 6‑month aftercare once your new role holder starts. Add in wrap around administrative support and inclusive processes that remove barriers, and you’ve got a recruitment partner built for navigating the heritage sector with credibility and integrity, and working within tight budgets, skills shortages and complex stakeholder environments.