You know you need another pair of hands for your business, whether workloads have increased, someone has left unexpectedly, a team member is going on maternity leave, or your business is growing faster than your current team can comfortably manage.
The question is: do you need to recruit someone permanently, or would a temporary member of staff make more sense?
For businesses across Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, this isn’t always as straightforward as it sounds. A permanent employee can bring stability and become an important long-term part of your team, but temporary recruitment offers flexibility in many situations.
At Bucks & Berks Recruitment, we work with local employers to recruit both temporary and permanent staff across office support, finance, sales, marketing, HR, and customer service roles.
Often, the businesses we speak to know they need additional support but haven’t yet decided what that employment should look like. Understanding what you actually need from the role is an important first step towards making the right hire.
How does temporary recruitment work?
A permanent employee is recruited directly into your business on an ongoing employment contract. The intention is generally that they will remain with the organisation for the foreseeable future, subject to the usual terms of their employment.
Temporary recruitment can work in several ways. If you hire a temporary worker through a recruitment agency, they will typically work within your business for an agreed assignment while the agency or employment business manages their pay and employment arrangements.
Temporary assignments can last anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on what your business needs.
This makes temporary recruitment particularly useful when you know you need additional resources but don’t necessarily need, or aren’t yet ready to make, a permanent appointment.
When does hiring temporary staff make sense?
Temporary recruitment is sometimes viewed purely as a solution for emergency cover, but businesses use temporary staff for many different reasons.
One of the most common is covering an existing employee’s absence. Maternity or parental leave, long-term sickness, extended holidays or a gap between one employee leaving and their permanent replacement starting can all leave a business short-staffed.
Temporary recruitment can help maintain continuity without placing additional pressure on the rest of the team.
It can also be particularly useful during periods of increased demand. If your business experiences seasonal peaks, has won a major new client or has a significant project coming up, your existing team might need additional support for a defined period.
In these circumstances, increasing your permanent headcount may not make commercial sense if you don’t know whether the additional workload will continue.
Temporary employees can also help when a business is going through change. A restructure, office move, new system implementation or period of rapid growth can create additional administrative or operational work that may only be temporary.
There are also times when the need is simply urgent. Permanent recruitment shouldn’t be rushed just because a business is under pressure. Bringing in temporary support can give you some breathing space, allowing the business to continue operating effectively while you take the time to find the right permanent candidate.
When is a permanent hire the better option?
If the workload is consistent, the position has a clear long-term purpose, and you know the business will continue to need that person, permanent recruitment is usually the more appropriate route.
Permanent employees have the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of your organisation, customers, processes and culture over time. This can be especially important in positions involving client relationships, management responsibility, confidential information or significant ownership of an area of the business.
A permanent appointment can also make sense when you’re investing in the future structure of your team.
Perhaps your business has grown to the point where you need your first dedicated HR professional. Maybe your Office Manager is overstretched and needs an Administrator beneath them. Or perhaps sales growth means it’s time to bring in another permanent Sales Executive.
In these situations, you’re not simply trying to solve a temporary workload problem, but building capacity within the business for the longer term.
Before starting recruitment, think about whether the role exists because of a temporary situation or because the business has fundamentally reached the point where it needs another permanent employee.
Is temporary recruitment more expensive than permanent recruitment?
Cost is understandably one of the biggest considerations for employers deciding between temporary and permanent staff. However, don’t just compare the hourly rate for a temporary worker with the equivalent hourly salary of a permanent employee.
When employing someone permanently, the cost to the business extends beyond their basic salary. Depending on the position and your employment package, there may also be employer National Insurance contributions, pension contributions, holiday entitlement, benefits, recruitment costs and other associated employment expenses to consider.
With an agency temporary worker, the rate charged reflects more than the worker’s basic pay. The employment business handles elements including payroll and the relevant employment costs associated with supplying the worker.
The Government’s guidance on employing agency staff provides more information about how agency arrangements work and the responsibilities of employers using temporary agency workers.
This doesn’t mean one option is automatically cheaper than the other. Instead, consider what you’re paying for and, importantly, how long you actually need the person.
Hiring permanently for a short-term business requirement could prove considerably more expensive than bringing in temporary support for the period in which it’s genuinely needed.
Equally, continually using temporary support for a role that has clearly become an established, ongoing part of your business may be a sign that it’s time to recruit permanently.
What are your responsibilities when hiring temporary agency workers?
Using temporary workers through an agency can reduce some of the administrative burden involved in bringing additional people into your business, but employers still have responsibilities towards agency workers.
Under the Agency Workers Regulations, agency workers have certain rights from their first day of an assignment. Once an agency worker has completed a 12-week qualifying period in the same role with the same hirer, they are also entitled to equal treatment in areas including pay and certain basic working conditions.
You can read the Government’s full Agency Workers Regulations guidance for further information.
A good recruitment agency should help you understand the practical requirements involved when taking on temporary staff and make the process as straightforward as possible.
Could temp-to-perm recruitment be another option?
Sometimes the answer doesn’t have to be temporary or permanent. A temp-to-perm arrangement can be useful where there’s an immediate requirement for additional support and the potential for the position to become permanent later.
For example, perhaps your business is growing, but you’re not yet sure whether a new role will be required permanently. Alternatively, you may need somebody to start quickly while considering how the team should be structured longer term.
Bringing somebody in temporarily gives both the employer and candidate an opportunity to understand the role and working environment before deciding whether a permanent position is the right next step.
However, temp-to-perm shouldn’t just be viewed as a way of ‘trying out’ candidates before committing to employing them. The arrangement needs to work for both sides. Candidates will have their own career plans, expectations and need for certainty, so it’s important to be transparent from the outset about whether permanent employment is genuinely on the table.
How quickly do you need somebody to start?
If someone has unexpectedly left and your remaining employees are already struggling with the additional workload, waiting for a permanent recruitment process to run its course might not be practical.
A temporary worker may be able to provide support while you recruit, which can be particularly valuable for smaller businesses where the absence of one person can have a disproportionate impact on everyone else. It gives you time to define the position properly, establish the right salary and responsibilities, and find someone who’s genuinely suited to the long-term role.
Think about what your business will need in six months’ time
If the current increase in workload continues, will you still need this person in six or twelve months? Are you expecting further growth? Is the position likely to develop? Or is there a specific event, project or absence creating the additional work?
If you’re confident the requirement will continue, a permanent employee may be the better investment; however, if there are still significant unknowns, temporary recruitment can provide greater flexibility while the situation becomes clearer.
This can be particularly important for SMEs, where workload changes can have a much bigger impact on headcount decisions than they might in a larger organisation.
Don’t forget about the candidate
Temporary work suits many candidates extremely well. Some enjoy the flexibility, want to gain experience across different businesses or are deliberately looking for work that fits around other commitments.
Others are specifically seeking the security and progression opportunities associated with a permanent role.
Being clear about what you’re offering, why the position exists and how long you expect it to last helps your recruitment agency identify candidates whose circumstances and expectations genuinely match yours.
Temporary or permanent: questions to ask before you recruit
Before deciding which route to take, think carefully about why you’re recruiting in the first place.
Is the additional workload likely to continue? Do you need somebody for a specific project or period of absence? How quickly do you need them to start? Will the role require somebody to build knowledge and relationships over time?
You should also consider what would happen if you didn’t recruit immediately. For example, if delaying recruitment for several weeks would put existing employees under great pressure or affect customer service, temporary support could provide a useful short-term solution even if your eventual intention is to make a permanent hire.
Temporary and permanent recruitment in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire
You don’t need to have every detail decided before speaking to a recruitment agency; in fact, some of the most useful conversations we have with employers begin with: “We know we need somebody, but we’re not quite sure what we need.”
At Bucks & Berks Recruitment, we’ve been helping businesses across Berkshire and Buckinghamshire recruit staff for over 90 years. We understand the local employment market, the roles businesses are recruiting for, and the candidates currently looking for temporary and permanent opportunities.
Whether you need an experienced temp to provide immediate cover, are building your team with a new permanent appointment or simply aren’t sure which approach makes the most sense, we can talk through your requirements and help you decide on the best way forward.
Speak to our recruitment team about temporary and permanent recruitment across Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.
