Tech firms are increasingly looking to interim roles instead of full-time positions.
That’s the view of Jack Donohue, CEO and founder of Manchester-based Fairmont Recruitment, who is speaking at tomorrow’s (May 24) popular Tech Barometer event.
He’ll be joined on the panel by veteran M&A advisor Charlotte Ashton and serial entrepreneur and founder of Vypr Ben Davies.
The popular quarterly event is organised by tech specialist Fairmont Recruitment and BusinessCloud and discusses the changing trends in tech, recruitment and investment.
Donohue said: “Companies are not afraid to hire permanent employees but with the industry not sure where it’s going to go, people are plugging their digital transformation projects into interim talent.
“They may see permanent employees as a cost that they don’t actually require for the next three, five and ten years.
“If they’ve got a digital transformation piece they might require some talent to do a specific part of that project, they’ll go out and get someone on an interim basis.
“Yes you pay a premium for that but it’s only for a short period of time.”
Donohue said he remained upbeat about the Manchester tech scene despite job losses announced in the industry.
FinTech OpenMoney is shedding around 50 jobs while nearly 100 jobs are thought to be at risk at Manchester digital transformation specialist ANS Group as the company undergoes a ‘restructure’.
Donohue said it was a mixed picture as Starling Bank recently signed a 10-year lease on 14,000 sq ft at the Landmark building in Manchester city centre and plans to create 1,000 new hires in ops, engineering, data science and cybersecurity.
“We all know about the over hiring that went on in Silicon Valley,” he said. “The likes of Meta, Twitter and Airbnb have let go of tens of thousands of people and this has trickled through a little bit into the Manchester industry. People are looking at their bottom line and seeing where they can save costs.”
BNY Mellon recently told staff they’re expected to be in the office at least three days a week and Donohue said the move towards returning to the office after Covid was gathering pace.
“I think organisations are definitely looking to have people in and around the offices more often than not,” he said. “It’s definitely coming away from the one and two days a week to more like two or three days.”
The Tech Barometer event takes place tomorrow (May 24) at Fairmont Recruitment’s offices in Mosley Street, Manchester, and will be hosted by Chris Maguire, executive editor of BusinessCloud.
It’s free to attend but spaces are strictly limited so register here.