BSA 2024 Salary Guide MAIN v3 [PRINT] - Flipbook - Page 6
06
Contract recruitment trends
Last year, demand for interim staff lagged behind
permanent roles. We predicted the gap could close in
2023 if economic fears continued to mount, and while
this has turned out to be the case anecdotally, it has
not yet been borne out in the data .
In fact, only 51% of employers said they currently use
contract or temporary resource, which is a sizable
decline from the 64% who said the same last year.
Our consultants have nonetheless reported a rise in
demand for interim staff in 2023 across many of the
markets and disciplines that we recruit for.
One explanation is that organisations initially reduced
their contractor headcounts after adding signi昀椀cantly
to permanent staff numbers in 2022. But once the
economic climate deteriorated, employers became
more reluctant to hire permanent employees and their
appetite for interim staff is now returning.
Primary reasons for using interim, contract and co-source staff
Supporting BAU
workloads: 12%
Absence
cover: 13%
2023
Speci昀椀c
projects: 35%
Leverage subject
matter expertise: 28%
Leverage subject
matter expertise: 14%
Speci昀椀c
projects: 36%
2022
Absence
cover: 15%
Interestingly, some of the reasons for using contractors,
interim staff and co-source support have also shifted.
Speci昀椀c project work tends to be the primary driver
behind recruitment in this area, and this hasn't
changed. However, in 2022, we saw a substantial rise
in the number of organisations using interim staff
because they simply could not source permanent
employees – this was the second most-cited reason
last year (15% of respondents).
In 2023, an inability to 昀椀nd permanent candidates
didn't even break the top 昀椀ve. Instead, the main drivers
of demand outside of speci昀椀c projects were: a need
to leverage subject matter expertise (28%), absence
cover (13%), supporting BAU workloads (12%) and
keeping permanent headcounts low (6%).
Inability to source
perm staff: 15%
Inability to source
perm staff: 10%
Leverage subject
matter expertise: 14%
Absence
cover: 19%
2021
Speci昀椀c
projects: 36%