As England’s fourth largest city with a population over 500,000, Sheffield has a vibrant commercial sector and is an ideal location for strategic and operational business and financial service activities.
The city is home to some significant strategic functions of companies such as HSBC, Abbey, DLA Piper, Irwin Mitchell and Royal Mail.
There are numerous nationally recognised brand shared service centres, back office processing operations, outsourcers and contact centres. These include BT, Capita, EDS, Plusnet and Virgin Media, employing approximately 38,000 people.
For more information on these key business areas please view:
Key commercial benefits of operating in Sheffield
Attractive location for recruitment of employees:
- Labour market costs are very competitive against both national and regional levels with particular strengths in IT support staff, sales and customer services, and professional occupations.
- Employees have up to date and relevant work skills; training participation rates in the city stand notably above the national average,with 18.2% of service sector employees currently undertaking training.
- Demographically this is combined with an extremely large working age population that is growing above the national average annually. There is an important young, skilled pool of potential labour.
- For more information download the EW Sheffield 60min Location Report from the menu on the right.
Business orientated universities
- There are 54,000 students in the city at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University. 12,000 graduates enter the workforce each year.
- Particular strengths and above average student numbers are found in business studies, modern languages, and law.
- The University of Sheffield has a major law school, whilst Sheffield Hallam University has excellent IT and finance faculties.
High quality cost effective location
- There is a good supply of Grade A office accommodation within the city, with occupancy costs at 40% below London costs.
- Sheffield offers a high quality of life, making it an excellent place to live and work. For more lifestyle information see the Live section of the website.
Sheffield offers an exciting opportunity, but don’t just take our word for it:
- “Sheffield combines a cost effective location with high quality, making it one of the most interesting locations for shared service centre operations within the United Kingdom and Europe.” Rene Buck, Buck Consultants International, 2006. For more information see Buck's Report on Implementing a Shared Service Centre.
- OMIS/Adecco, Best Locations for Contact Centres 2004-2005, ranked Sheffield top of Britain’s principal cities for operator requirements.
World leading business investment professionals are on hand to support you:
- A dedicated JOBMatch HR business consultant; a unique, specialist and totally free service aimed at providing prospective inward investors with access to a trained and prepared workforce.
- A comprehensive service covering identification of property and planning assistance.
- Advice in identifying and securing financial support.
- A tailored relocation service via our partner Relocate 2 Sheffield, because we understand the significance of providing comprehensive domestic relocation support for those key individuals already with your business or for those you wish to recruit.
For further information on the business and financial service sector, including tailored support for your project please contact: