Contract or permanent: which one does the role actually need?

Employers often come to us with a permanent brief for a piece of work that ends. Just as often, they ask for a contractor to fill a seat that will still be there in three years. Getting this right before the search changes who applies, what it costs and whether the person stays.

Ask what the work looks like in eighteen months

If the work has a finish line (a migration, a launch, a system rebuild) it is a contract. If the finish line keeps moving because the work is really a function, it is a permanent role. Most cases are clear once the question is asked.

What contract buys you

Speed and specific experience. Our contracts desk can usually have someone starting inside two weeks, and contractors have often done exactly this piece of work before, somewhere else. You pay a day rate and a margin, and the compliance, timesheets and payroll sit with us.

What permanent buys you

Someone who builds the thing and then looks after it. The search takes longer, the fee is a percentage of salary, and the person expects to be around for the next project as well as this one.

The hybrid that usually works

Start on contract, with the option to convert. It gives both sides a working trial, and the conversion fee is agreed at the start so nobody argues about it later. Around a third of our contract placements convert inside the first year.