When the market tightens, an interim talent solution to test the water can help to de-risk the whole process. “Try before you buy” if you like. Nobody wants to make a hiring blunder when finances are tight! Now, with the market recovering and normalising, what are the benefits of choosing an interim finance talent solution?
The reasons vary from covering staffing needs during busy periods such as year-end, specific projects, bringing in specific expertise to help facilitate improvements such as automation or AI, to cover maternity, or if you need someone to come in and chase up aged debt – after all, you don’t want a Finance Director spending all their time doing Credit Control! Hiring a temp can also help you while you are recruiting for a permanent person to cover whilst you make sure that you have the time to find the right person for the permanent post. (25% of temp jobs fall into this category).
When all’s said and done, interim recruitment is a temporary recruitment model which allows for skilled professionals to support and contribute to projects when required or filling a temporary skills gap while a permanent hire is made. Interim workers are by nature highly skilled and adept at quickly adapting to new environments, and this makes them incredibly valuable during times of change or transition.
Indeed, interim finance talent can be utilised in any area of the business that needs it – whether that’s as part of a project launch, or as interim management, or even to help steer an organisation strategically by leaning on their experience and knowledge in adapting to change.
As mentioned above, there are many benefits of choosing an interim finance talent solution, and we thought we’d have a look at them in more detail for you to take them into consideration:
- To alleviate stress for your teams.
During busy periods such as year-end, bringing in some interim finance talent to cover general staffing needs or offer specific expertise, will serve to not only improve productivity, but also improve morale and limit burnout for your teams. By bringing in an interim worker, you can alleviate pressure from your team, and reassure them that they have your full support.
- Add strength to the workforce.
Bringing in an in interim worker, especially when resources are short and staff are under pressure can make the difference between a project thriving or surviving. Hiring interim finance talent can help guide a project through to completion, by strengthening the workforce and lightening the load.
- Better utilisation of existing talent
While interim workers can be more expensive per hour than permanent members of staff, it is a price worth paying if it means your existing talent can focus whole-heartedly on what they have been employed to do. There is a cost versus value issue at play here, because paying more per hour for an interim finance talent solution to do a job, is worth it if it means your finance director, for example, is not being pulled in every direction trying to cover all bases. Instead, that director is able to keep their eyes in the right place and continue in their objectives at a strategic level.
- Holding the fort
Following on from the previous point – interim workers can be utilised to pick up the slack and ensure business continues as usual. When permanent staff are otherwise engaged – perhaps on projects, secondments, parental leave, and even holiday, having an extra pair of hands to help hold the fort is invaluable.
These examples show how useful it is to hire interim finance talent, but what are the downsides, if any?
- Permanent now offering flexibility too.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, a permanent job may well have been a put-off for certain workers, for example – for those with care-giving responsibilities, disabilities, neuro-divergence, or social anxiety – the idea of commuting to an office, working 9-5, and then commuting home again, was not attractive, and in many cases, not even possible. But now, permanent no longer means office-bound, and so those workers who were once happy to ‘temp’ are now increasingly looking to settle down by working for one employer on a permanent basis.
- High costs.
As mentioned above in the benefits, interim workers usually come with a much higher hourly rate compared to their permanent counterparts. This is the case even more since the pandemic, with the decrease in available interim workers driving competition in the market, and increasing salaries as a result. We cannot stress highly enough how important it is for you to weigh up the cost versus value to make sure that you are making the right decision for your business.
All these points considered, we think it pertinent to point out the benefit of working with a professional finance recruiter, such as Core3, to ensure you make the best decisions for your business, as well as attract interim candidates that really fit the bill.
We pride ourselves on having our finger on the pulse of the recruitment market, meaning we can manage candidate expectations, as well as ensure value for money for our clients. We believe in keeping things simple, as such we have a straight-forward recruitment process in place for candidates, as well as for our clients too.
In a climate of general staff shortages and talent shortfalls, we have committed to prioritise people, planet and progress above all else. This means that both candidates and clients do not simply transact with us, but rather, build relationships. Our conscious finance recruitment approach creates opportunities using our Core3 method which puts the right people in the right place at the right time.
Whether you have a project that needs completing, a staff member covering, or a team in need of an extra pair of hands, at Core3 we are perfectly positioned to help find the perfect interim finance talent to meet your needs. When you employ us to lighten the load, we give 3% of sales to people, planet and progress.
So, you can rest assured that not only is your business being taken care of, but also our community and planet too.
