Why accounting contractors are needed now more than ever

Your expertise Is needed, especially now!

Here at Cobalt, we have seen a dramatic increase in our contract and interim roles in Accountancy and Finance. The events of the past 18 months have meant lots of projects have been put on hold and resources have been significantly reduced within finance teams across real estate and construction.

Suddenly candidates that have the necessary expertise and are experienced in hitting the ground running are crucial for clients in their upcoming plans– especially as remote working has significantly increased and in-person training has been reduced. Now more than ever businesses need people and expertise they can rely on.

The interim market has dramatically changed over the past year and a half.

Not only from an IR35 perspective. Many hiring managers who typically consider having an interim on board as a last resort, saving it for those last-minute sick leaves, notice periods or a maternity cover, are seeing the importance and benefits of getting a professional interim to join their team.

In this candidate-driven market, there is a high demand for planned interim placements or interim to perm requirements, as a preferred solution to permanent hires. For example, if we compare our data of interim roles over the last 3 years – this has been our busiest quarter!

All new requirements are urgent.

Businesses have had time to ‘step back’ and many of the businesses we work closely with have taken this time, especially within the finance teams, to update those old clunky systems and go paperless – making everyone’s life easier! Professional interims are renowned for having to transition between systems every few months and are expected to get to grips with them within only a few days.

During this period of change, new hires are not only working remotely, but companies are expecting and looking for additions to the team who can come in and lead the new system changes that have happened. Interims are therefore the perfect answer to such a critical part of a business’s solution during these periods of transformation.

With this urgency from hiring managers to get an interim candidate into the team, we see a turnaround on these roles of as little as 24 hours. Interims are parachuted in to drive change and run projects – projects that potentially have been on hold for over a year. Managers do not have time to run these projects and go through a 3-month permanent recruitment process on top, followed by a few months training someone. As a professional interim your fresh pair of eyes and key core skills are exactly what is needed in this new market.

A post IR35 landscape and how we can help.

Since the implementation of IR35 in April 2021 we have been placing and advising professional interims continuously and due to the proven knowledge and training we have in place, we can assist you in the navigation of this new law.

We can help find the positives and solutions to what is perceived as a negative impact from the IR35 implementation as we can help you move away from focusing on what you cannot do and towards what you can do.

It is our job to advise and support both hiring managers and interim candidates on this and we have been successful in doing this throughout numerous interim placements since April 2021.

If you are a professional interim/hiring manager and you have any questions at all regarding these changes and how you can manage the next steps, please do drop me an email, I am more than happy to jump on a call with you and talk through the solution – IR35 isn’t as scary as it seems!

Similarly, if you are looking for a new interim role or need a professional interim to come and help your team, then please email me or check out my live roles.

Article written by Nicole Brookes-Higgins, Senior Consultant- Interim Finance & Accounting.