Contract Market – Technical or Personal Skills????
Oliver Welch – Contract Team Manager
Having recruited for so many years in the city I have witnessed and experienced various changes in the Contract Market. 13 years ago the need for contractors was nowhere near the demand of today and with that the reason for hiring them and the getting the right people.
Back in 98 I had to persuade Managers that contractors were a viable option to the business and bringing in specialist skills at what was deemed as a high cost was worthwhile based on the value they could add and the ability to turn on and off the resource as required. The preference however was always to try and hire a permanent employee and only bring on a contractor as a last resort. This market in the UK drew me to Europe at the time where there was far more of a need and willingness to hire contractors as part of the Workforce, this was particularly relevant across the Benelux region where Financial Markets were busy and there was a clear lack of high calibre professionals.
Looking at London now and what has happened over the past 4 years the need for contractors has sky rocketed with banks doubling and tripling the number of contractors onsite and taking advantage of the flexible workforce to reengineer systems and deal with the various changes in regulation that appear never ending. Banks have adopted a love for contractors as part of the workforce and the flexibility that comes with it and gone are the days where contractors are taken on for their raw technical skills alone.
It is common place for there to be 2nd and 3rd round interviews when hiring contractors which is traditionally what you would expect when hiring a permanent employee, and the need for the right personal skills and team fit is without doubt as important as the technical skills. More often than not I find hiring managers choosing a candidate with perhaps lesser technical skills than others, who have the right personal skills and team fit and the ability to add more value long term. The days of the 3 month contractor are gone and increasingly we see contractors seeing out a project for 12+ months and given more and more responsibility.
World Wide Welch