His colleague, Jack Birch, Senior Manager – Interim Recruitment, shares his update on David’s insight and looks at:
- Why interims are still in high demand
- IR35 – the repeal of the repeal and its impact
- Where we are currently seeing demand for interim procurement and supply chain professionals
- Current interim procurement professional day rates
Why are interims still in demand
There are still a huge number of change projects going on.
These change projects are led by organisations reassessing economic conditions based on the markets and the impact of numerous political changes in a short period of time.
The continued tight market for permanent talent has meant companies are struggling to fill roles directly in the desired timeframe with their plan A approach.
Additionally, there have been continued geopolitical and supply chain issues, such as Brexit, Covid, the conflict in Ukraine and Chinese supply chain challenges, which have created an increased demand for interim specialists who can parachute in and deliver from day one.
IR35 – the repeal of the repeal and its impact
The ‘repeal of the repeal’ has frustrated a lot of people.
I’ve spoken with many interim practitioners who had started preparing for what they might need to be doing going into the next tax year in April and have had to draw a line through this planning.
Equally, even interims who hadn’t started to formally prepare for the repeal were feeling more upbeat about a return to slightly less restricted rules.
And, it isn’t just interim candidates who have been let down by the repeal of the repeal, I’ve spoken to many hiring organisations who believed the repeal would lead to more talent opportunities and the possibility of day rates might have decreased slightly with potentially a higher percentage of roles outside of IR35, where typically more interims would be likely to be more flexible on day rates than their inside IR35 rate.
Where we are currently seeing demand for interim procurement and supply chain professionals
At Procurement Heads, we are currently seeing a lot of demand for short-term interim recruitment, where the talent shortage on the permanent side has created a pent-up need for procurement and supply chain specialists
The flexibility an interim hire offers is enabling organisations time to reassess their plan A approach.
We have also seen a lot of new and smaller companies, with perhaps fledgling procurement functions, take on interims to help grow the function and help it to win wider buy-in from stakeholders across the business.
Current interim procurement professional day rates
There hasn’t been a noticeable change up or down, but the overall demand for Procurement Heads’ interim network has been high, largely due to the reasons outlined above.
I would say it is worth watching this space with the various moving elements and for any interim professionals looking for their next mandate, it is worth visiting our procurement jobs page to view our latest interim procurement jobs.
You can read David’s previous interim market update below.
Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen a massive spike in interim procurement job opportunities across our business.
The roles we are seeing span sectors, geography and categories and I’m seeing a real need for specialists in the transformation space as businesses look at changing their target operating model.
The spectrum on day rates for interim practitioners is anywhere from £350-600 inside IR35 and between £550-900 outside of IR35.
Why is there such a demand for interims?
The surge in interim roles we are seeing comes specifically at a point in time where I believe businesses are considering what they can get through by the way of their original plan for the rest of the 2021 calendar year.
They realise that the permanent processes are taking longer because of availability, candidates’ notice periods or offers being rejected – which, with a war on talent, is currently happening especially as the best candidates have two or three offers on the table at any one time.
So, therefore companies are having to rethink the impact a gap in their permanent workforce is having.
Where is the biggest need for interim professionals?
There is a definite need within defence.
The sector is seeing the knock-on effect of Boris Johnson announcing a significant investment into defence in the last six to nine months.
Also, across broader manufacturing and private sector environments, there’s a lot of target operating model change, and people are looking at supply chain resilience.
This is all creating need for short-term, experienced, high-impact support.
And that is where interims are at their best.
If you are an experienced interim professional looking for your next assignment or are looking at an interim to come in and provide immediate solutions for your business, get in contact with me at 01962 869838 or drop me an email.
About the authors
David has spent more than 15 years specialising solely in the appointment of Interim, Contract and Temporary candidates and a further five years appointing Retained or Exclusive Executive Searches internationally.
With a deep specialist network of Procurement/Supply Chain/Logistics and Distribution/Change and Transformation practitioners, David regularly partners with FTSE100, FTSE250, SME and PE/VC-backed businesses on an international basis.
Jack Birch joined Procurement Heads following five successful years working for a large FTSE-listed recruitment organisation.
He specialises in interim and contract roles within procurement and supply chain and is always keen to speak with contractors and businesses for whom interim resources can be of value.
