The Benefits of Contract Marketing to Businesses and Employees

Recruitment Operations Manager, Rachel Wilson gives us an overview of her findings from the Marketing Contracting Research and how this recruitment solution can benefit both businesses and employees.

We recently released our exclusive white paper giving insight into the use of marketing contractors across the North West. We gathered responses from contractors across the region from a wide range of backgrounds and levels, and analysed the results. Of those we surveyed, over half were Digital Strategists, including Manager and Heads of Departments. I have had a look at how the use of contractors can be beneficial to the senior market (Director level) and the advantages to both employer and employee.

Travel for contractors
“44% of respondents stated that they would travel up to an hour for office-based contracts…22% said they’d travel up to 2 hours away and 5% said even further than that” – having contractors willing to travel a significant distance for work opens up a larger pool of candidates for an employer to choose from. This is particularly important when trying to find senior candidates with specialist skillsets who may be few and far between. Rather than having to choose from a select few senior candidates within the locality, the flexibility that comes with contracting allows people the time to travel to offices they may not usually commute to. And that’s just office-based roles, allowing contractors to work from home would widen the geographical pool even further; finding the correct skillset becomes more important that a candidate’s location.

Wider Skills and Knowledge Pool
Our research suggests that senior contractors are particularly experienced and that there is actually an “expectation that contractors are highly experienced, skilled and knowledgeable across a range and depth of areas”. By hiring a contractor, the employer gains someone who has a vast amount of experience, potentially in numerous different roles and sectors. They gain someone who can bring all their experience to the role and the company as a whole; someone who may have more experience, from a larger number of roles, than someone who had been working full-time. The majority of our respondents describe themselves as having multiple roles or specialisms, which, again, means their level of experience is heightened.

Flexible Resource
I think an important factor to note when discussing the senior market, whether contractors or full-time employees, relates to a person’s work-life balance. With the flexibility that comes with contracting it’s easy to see why a contractor would have an improved balance when comparing with a full-time employee. Potentially choosing the hours, even days, you work allows you to have that control over not working too much, or at least working when you can, something that may be difficult in a full-time senior position with structured hours and days. Our research suggested that 71% of respondents saw an improved work-life balance as a benefit to working as a contractor.

Affordability
Leading on from the level of experience contractors bring, we found that “Using contractors gives the luxury of affording director-level experience without having a full-time director-level salary”. It’s always important for a company to keep an eye on their finances, so finding a way of bringing in the experience they need, without the expected cost would almost certainly be beneficial. Spending less on this level of experience means that the money can be spent on growing the business rather than on employee overheads.

Higher Average Remuneration
Whether money is the most important factor when looking for a new role is very personal, however I think we can all agree it carries some level of importance with everyone. The average daily rate of marketing contractors has increased in the last 4 years; for director-level roles it has increased 42%. Our research found that “In 2016 100% of respondents said their average daily rate was up to £400, yet in 2019 this varies from up to £400 to £1,000”. Add this increase in salary to the flexibility often seen for contract roles, and it’s easy to see why there has been an increase in the number of contactors, especially at a senior level.

In all it can be see that for clients, using contractors can offer advantages of gaining skills from all parts of the country with contractors travelling and even working remotely. It also give the options of having specialised skills on tap and for a specific time but with a more affordable price tag in comparison to a permanent recruit.

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