Marketing Director
There are a number of reasons interim recruitment might be interesting or useful for you as an employer. As specialist fixed term contract recruiters across product management, marketing and eCommerce, we can help you to understand when the right time is to employ interim support, and what other considerations you should think about before starting this journey.
Why do I need an interim contractor?
The main reasons that employers move towards hiring interim contractors are:
Speed
You’ve got a crisis situation. You may have a vacancy where a key member of staff has moved on and you’ve since struggled to recruit for the permanent position.
In this case, you can usually engage an interim who is able to start immediately or within a week or two, provided they are not already signed up to another engagement.
Skills
It may be that you want to upskill a team. You’ve got a skills gap and you need to get someone in straight away that has the right domain experience that your team requires.
In this case, interim recruitment often helps to serve two purposes: 1) they bring their expertise to work on delivering a specific project quickly and 2) at the same time they help to upskill the wider permanent workforce by training and simple cross pollination.
Project work
It could be that you’ve got a finite project. Your business needs to deliver a project that you don’t currently have capacity for internally. But you may not have the budget for a permanent hire or you may only forecast needing these skills for a short period of time.
In this case, the interim support can come in, work on something specific and then leave when the project is delivered. Interim recruitment is specifically helpful when you are a business that is testing something, building something new, or investigating new markets or product lines.
Risk
It could be that the business is not ready to fully commit to a project by building a team or investing in permanent hiring. So investing in interim recruitment and interim support is less risky.
With fixed term contractors, you only have to pay the contractor for the days they have worked. Despite these day rates being higher than the equivalent day rates for your permanent staff members, employers do not have the pay any associated employment costs for interims: holiday pay, sick pay, equity, bonuses, national insurance etc. So interim recruitment is less expensive than you think with overall risk minimised with a short contract duration.
For more detail on why you should consider interim recruitment, listen to our co-founder, Chris Mason.
The pros and cons of interim management
The pros of interim support
- Access to expertise. Interims are often very experienced, having built up domain experience in previous permanent roles
- Speed of hiring. Often interims are available straight away after interview, or with a minimal notice period
- Skills shortage. There are often skills and talent in the contractor market that you cannot find in the permanent market
- Flexibility. You have the flexibility to change your approach to interim support if the needs of the business changes – far more flexibility compared to permanent recruitment
The cons of interim support
- Risk. The flexibility that the employer has around an interim contract is also replicated for the contractor. The contractor can decide to move on easily if they are not enjoying the role or the business culture, as long as their short notice period is covered
- Cost. Interim recruitment is often deemed to be more expensive than for permanent staff, although when worked out in detail, this isn’t always the case – especially when considering additional employee costs such as holiday pay, sick pay, office costs etc. Read this to discover more about competitive day rates for product and marketing interim roles.
- IR35. Whilst the IR35 government legislation has intent to reverse in April 2023, the rules and liability for employers will still exist until then. Read our guides for more information about IR35 and how the IR35 rules affect employers. More detail is required from the government on how both contractors and employers will effectively make the transition, and what is required for those contracts that span across the legislation change date.
Listen to our video from our Director, Chris, around the pros and cons of engaging an interim for your business.
As experts in interim recruitment across product management, marketing and eCommerce, we’re here to help employers to successfully hire interim support for their businesses. Discover more about our services and contact us today for recruitment support.
