How to successfully ride the wave of post-Covid demand for interims and contractors

In what some are now calling ‘The Interim Economy’, an evolution of the ‘Gig Economy’, the UK labour market has developed rapidly throughout 2020 and now leans strongly towards relying on interim and contract staff to fill short-term skills gaps, reduce annual costs in the face of an economic downturn and much more. This means that in the coming months, many employers will look to harness the flexible, cost-effective resource that interims and contractors offer in lieu of permanent staff. This will lead to a significant rise in interim opportunities. 

It may be difficult navigating the ‘new normal’. We have looked at the current state of the UK labour market and defined the three top ways to ride the new wave of interim demand and find the assignments that are going to progress your career. 

What does the current UK labour market look like? 

The ONS has estimated that there are roughly 637,000 vacancies currently, with finance and accounting, and construction markets leading the way and the hospitality and tourism sectors offering the fewest number of roles and opportunities. This is not surprising given the pandemic’s social impact as people were advised not to leave their homes.  

Three tips to choose the optimal interim assignments to progress your career: 

Define your long-term goals 

Defining your long-term goals will help ensure the best possible outcome to progress your interim career. Sometimes thinking about what we want can be difficult, but one simple way to do so is to look at your past experiences and outline what you enjoyed and why. Doing so will help you get a better understanding of what you enjoy and where you want to see yourself in the future. 

From there, it’s a good idea to examine what areas, skills or experience you may need to develop to gain the opportunities that will facilitate your long-term goals. Plotting the skills or experience required and engaging in further personal development will help you move into those areas that interest you most. 

Hone your portfolio and narrow your search 

Based on what you outlined and discovered in the previous step, you can now hone your online portfolio  or LinkedIn page, to showcase the most important experience and relevant skills and qualifications. This will capitalise on the network you currently have and make you more visible to the companies  with opportunities that most closely match your long-term goals. It will also increase the chances of your profile coming up in more relevant searches from Interim Service Providers (ISPs), consultants, executives and project owners.  

Once your portfolio matches and reflects your long-term career goals you can begin to narrow your own search - knowing that you’re also being searched by the right people! If you have previously decided on a particular industry, sector, market, or possibly type of interim project like a new system deployment, merger or acquisition etc., you can use keywords to search for relevant opportunities on your preferred search engine or LinkedIn.  

Get in touch with an ISP 

It is important to find the interim management consultants who operate in your specialised field and talk to them about your unique offering. According to the Institute of Interim Management, 72% of interim managers use an interim management provider or recruiter as a route to market at least some of the time. 37% of interims get more than half of their work via consultants and overall, 44% of all assignments are sourced via these sources. 

Oakwood Resources’ expertise in the interim management market can help you find the best assignments to fit your skillset and ensure success for both yourself, and your stakeholders.  

We work closely with interim managers, businesses and consultancy firms to support their growth goals, matching the best professionals to appropriate opportunities. If you wish to discuss interim management opportunities contact our specialist interim recruitment team who will be happy to talk with you. 

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