Interim, Temporary & Contract

For employers, it’s not just financial/payroll considerations that might drive a shift to more temporary, contract or interim work. Shorter term placements can be a vital way of quickly scaling requirements up and down, and clearing bottlenecks, as required. 

Short-term assignments can be vital when long-term planning is difficult or impossible, allowing firms to allocate the right resource exactly where needed at the right time. 

At Totum, we cover all kinds of shorter-term placements. There are no hard and fast rules in this area of recruitment: our goal is to understand and respond to our client’s specific requirements at that particular time in their business lifecycle. But withstanding the many grey areas, including overlaps between temporary, contract and interim, the following general considerations may be useful:

• Temporary recruitment: Temporary roles can cover any length of time from the odd day to several weeks or longer. They can be more junior roles – ranging from assistant to manager level, and paid on an hourly rate. But temporary can also cover ongoing or long-term temporary/contract solutions at all levels of seniority, due to uncertain or evolving needs in the business, or if the firm is unable to bring on additional headcount. Hiring on a temporary basis will provide more flexibility than a fixed-term contract (FTC) when the required timeframe is unknown. 
• Contract and interim recruitment: Contract and interim roles can cover placements that require particular skillsets/expertise or are at senior executive level. These roles are typically paid on a daily rate. Contract roles can also include FTCs, whereby the employee would be directly employed by the business and paid monthly, etc. This model is often used when firms require support for a specified fixed duration and headcount is not an issue.

Some candidates will already be set up as limited companies as they have undertaken short-term placements as a longer-term career choice. Others will not want to go down this route. But whatever their circumstances, Totum is set up to support all candidates into the right placements, enabling both firms and individuals to make the most of the opportunities in this space.

Whatever your firm needs, whether you have permanent, temporary or contract/interim requirements, Totum is ready and able to help. 

Click here to download the full PDF copy of our ‘Totum guide to recruiting short-term talent’.