It’s not only employees who have to consider if they want a contract or permanent IT job. When it comes to taking on more IT staff, employers have to decide whether they want to take on IT contractors or create and fill permanent roles instead.

When it comes down to choosing between contract and permanent IT staff, what should employers bear in mind? A number of possible factors to ponder over include the following:

Expertise: Generally, contractors are more experienced and skilled in their line of work compared to permanent staff. If an IT project requires someone who knows a programming language or a type of software inside-out then hiring an IT contractor might be the best way to go.

Intended duration: Obviously, as their names suggest, IT contracts usually run for a short period of time while permanent roles are, well, a bit more permanent. So the choice between them can come down to whether the employees’ skills are required for a quick, short-term project or for the long haul. Just beware not to fall into the trap of hiring a contractor but then needing their skills for longer than expected – with contractors generally on a higher cost, hiring someone in a permanent role may work out to be less costly for the company than hiring a contractor over a longer period of time.

A backlog of work: IT contractors can be handy to employ if a current team or department of permanent staff is overwhelmed with a backlog of work, or if a company anticipates a particularly busy period, e.g. the run-up to Christmas. A contract placement can come in to help ease the workload and help get things back on track.

Maternity cover: If a permanent member of the IT team has to take maternity cover for six months, it will probably makes more sense to hire an IT contractor to cover for them.

Probation: In an industry where, unfortunately, bloggers can thrive, such as search engine optimisation, hiring somebody in a contract role with a view to making them permanent can be a good way to test the waters with them. If it works out, keep them on, otherwise you can get rid of them easier than you might a permanent employee due to the potential HR issues involved.

Old technology: Permanent IT staff already employed at a company may be reluctant to work on a project that requires knowledge in old skills, such as old programming languages like Cobol, Pascal, Fortran and Ada. This is fair enough, as their skills could be better used elsewhere and they would benefit by being trained up in newer technologies. In these instances, it might be a wise move to employ an IT contractor who is heavily skilled in the old technology to come in and work on it.

New technology: On the contrary, your current, permanent IT staff may not be skilled enough to deal with a particular type of brand new technology, either. At present, an example of this may be software developers who are skilled in working on Smartphone applications for iPhones and other similar devices. An IT contractor may be required to fill the skill gap and work on the project, training the current permanent staff as they go.

ABOUT THE WRITER

Computer Recruiter are an IT recruitment agency in Cardiff, helping employers to find the right permanent and contract IT staff not only in the Welsh capital and the rest of South Wales, but throughout the UK as well.

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