Just when you thought it was business as usual...it’s not! The last few years have been transformative for large corporations and SMEs alike, and we’re noticing this manifesting in the way employers are building their teams. A fast-changing economy and shifting workforce expectations have prompted businesses to reimagine their workforces and embrace far more flexible and diverse hiring strategies. This comes with so many positives!
In the UK, the Chancellor’s recent Budget reveal further reinforced the need for employers to stay agile when filling gaps in their resource. Although the minimum wage increase (the largest ever!) is undoubtably a welcome progression, this has a substantial impact on employers which, combined with the rise in National Insurance costs, puts pressure on them to be economical and flexible when growing their teams – all without undermining the high calibre of talent businesses need to nurture to stay ahead.
The ripple effects of this can be seen in the the types of contracts being offered. In legal, more and more firms are advertising fixed-term and temporary positions, and seeking interim talent to complement their permanent staff. It’s been wonderful to see more opportunities opening up for more people.
Going into 2025, hiring managers must carefully balance cost-efficiency with talent acquisition. In a time of ongoing change and uncertainty there's never been a greater role for fixed-term and temporary positions in agile, productive and cost-efficient teams.
Tempted by temporary...? Read on!
As Head of Ryder Reid’s Document Review and Temporary Services division, I relish seeing our temporary candidates thrive and grow in a host of exciting roles, and I know deeply the value they add. Every day I witness the myriad ways they support businesses and empower their people. From increased productivity and lower employee burnout, to broadening the repertoire of skills and experience in a team, the benefits of short-term positions far transcend cost-efficiency – they can have a really positive human impact.
How temporary contracts can transform your teams
Seasonal support for busy periods
No two workdays ever look the same, and so it’s true that businesses don’t need the exact same output 365 days a year. In the age of agile working, managers are increasingly toggling their personnel to fit their workflow, scaling up or down to match seasonal trends. For example, the New Year is commonly a busy period for firms, when waves of new enquiries come through, and employers are responding to this by lining up extra resource before the year is out, to help manage their predicted January squeeze!
Although peak times vary from firm to firm, all organisations will hit times when there’s a companywide increase in workload which their teams don’t have the capacity or the specialist skills to support. Bringing people in on a temporary basis is an efficient but also wonderfully ethical way of managing this, as it enables businesses to keep up with increased demand whilst protecting their permanent team members from becoming overburdened.
As well as bolstering seasonal fluctuations, temporary contracts are ideal for fulfilling ad-hoc projects. In Document Review, we advise our clients to create short-term positions when they need to quickly bring in specific skills to deliver a task,without any worries about longer term commitment.
Need trusted resource, fast?
Temporary positions tend to have short application periods and quick start dates – meaning you can get quality talent in at speed. Plus, working with a recruitment partner for your temp roles gives you instant access to a ready-made network of high-calibre candidates, cutting out a lot of the time and admin involved in sourcing excellent applicants who you can trust to hit the ground running.
We’ve curated our rolodex of temporary candidates over decades of connecting with and nurturing the creme de le creme, including long-standing contacts (who we’ve supported to grow and develop throughout their careers) and new faces full of potential. Every single one has been thoroughly interviewed and screened to best match the opportunities most suited to their unique skills and background, so they’re all lined up and ready to go in and do a quality job for our clients.
Trusted talent
The long-standing relationships we have with all our candidates means we really know them as individuals. We understand their background, experience, skills, needs and potential, meaning we can quickly source the best candidates for the job each and every time.
Plus, our deep knowledge of the legal industry gives us a running jump when it comes to parachuting top-tier temp talent into teams! As well as considering our clients’ immediate goal with a short-term contract, we balance their whole recruitment strategy, their internal culture, and the overall legal market to ensure we’re linking them up with a candidate who will integrate beautifully and deliver the work with a flourish.
Maximum support, minimum admin
There can be a reluctance to create temporary roles because of the misconception that interim hires generate admin and incur costs for a short-lived role. In fact, the opposite is true! When working with a quality temporary recruitment consultancy, they will absorb the admin for you, handling everything from hiring and onboarding, to payroll and people management. At Ryder Reid, we even run our own in-house timesheets for our temps, relieving our clients of those tasks.
Usually, internal approval processes for short-term contracts are straight forward too – meaning your candidate can start quickly and make an impact quickly, without added pressures or extra workload for busy managers
Boosting company culture
Managers who predict the tight spots ahead of time and hire more hands to help during pressured periods ultimately protect their permanent staff from becoming overstretched. Implementing additional resource in a low-risk, economical way not only builds trust and helps foster a healthy, happy company culture, it shows great awareness of the importance of employee wellbeing – which we value hugely at Ryder Reid!
Welcoming short-term personnel into your team can really boost morale, too. For temps, being brought into a project specifically for their skills and experience is incredibly motivating, and they’ll often complete their contract feeing valued and rewarded – or even with a further offer! Meanwhile, permanent employees gain from fresh ideas, different perspectives and new faces. Temporary staff can truly leave a truly positive imprint on your firm well beyond their tenure.
The gift of flexibility
When new opportunities open in your organisation, it can feel daunting. How will the role integrate? What impact will it have on others in the team? Is this the right move for the business? In this instance, it can be a good idea to extend a short-term offer initially, to create a buffer of flexibility while embedding a new post into your organisation. Temporary contracts are a useful, low-risk way of establishing trust with new faces and ensuring the position adds value before committing to something longer term. It’s always a lovely bonus if both candidate and employer decide to extend the contract!
Prepare for the busy season!
From a recruiter perspective, we love to see hiring firms thinking so laterally when planning how to fill talent needs in their workforce. Especially because embracing a diverse range of positions across the organisation creates accessibility, boosting social mobility and opportunities for previously marginalised candidates. For example, working parents now have greater choice in fixed-term and temporary contracts, and we work with our clients to embrace this new flexibility.
As businesses around the world gear up for the holidays and roll out their new year strategies, temporary positions should be on the radar for 2025. Whether you have a last-minute Document Review project on your hands or are keen to prepare for a January deluge, temporary staff might be just what you need.
Authored by Gemma Coyston, Head of Document Review and Temporary Services at Ryder Reid. Gemma has more than 12 years’ of legal recruitment experience, placing Paralegal and Document Review candidates in firms across the UK, International and U.S.