Insights Covid

Why everyone should consider interim to close the Coronavirus job gap.

about 4 years ago by Laurence Kowalewski

While the restrictions for social distancing and working from home are changing the way things are usually done, and in some cases, pushing employers to reduce staff and budgets, interim jobs offer that glimmer of hope!

What is interim?

Interim covers the multiple desks at Aspire that deal with temporary workers who are working contracts on a short notice period.

These workers generally have a week or a days’ notice, meaning that they are available at short notice and can be let go at short notice.

Why is there a need for interim?

The key selling point of interim is flexibility. When a company has an increased workload, they can hire a temp worker to cover off a project or campaign or event then let them go after. This is particularly prevalent at Christmas time when hundreds of specific campaigns are run by advertising agencies just for the festive period. They hire a bunch of people to activate these campaigns then they are let go on their weeks’ (or less) notice.

We also have interim to bridge the gap between perm hires and also so that companies are not as exposed to risk, so they don’t have to shell out on a permanent employee, give them a notice period and give them benefits. This is particularly pertinent now; if a company was going to get someone on board, it’s now more likely that they can test the water with a one month contract.

How does interim work?

The basic premise is that Aspire has a contract with a candidate who works weekly and then hands in a time sheet. Their manager then approves this and Aspire pay the candidate on a weekly basis. Aspire also has a separate contract with the client who is invoiced on 14-day payment terms.

If the candidate doesn’t work, then the client doesn’t pay, thus exposing them to less risk.

Why would our clients hire interim?

The key benefit that freelancers offer are flexibility. We can have a temp on site in a day, they can do a job for a week, then can leave again. The business has benefited a solution has been found and we have made a bit of dollar too.

One other benefit of freelancers, currently, is that these guys are experts at working remotely. They can add their experience from working in many companies and really bring instant value.

Another really useful aspect of temp is to ‘try before they buy’. Hiring managers can assess the candidates' skill set, how they adapt to the role and their culture fit within the company before making a long term and expensive perm hire. If our client is not sure about any issue, they can extend the temp contract and reassess at a later date.

Let me know if you would like more info on any of these points, I know this is the briefest of overviews but please keep in mind could a temp solution be useful for both businesses and job seekers, and so I think we will all be able to get another arrow in our quivers in this challenging time.