TOP 10 CONTRACTOR BUSINESS TIPS FOR 2022
1. Sort IR35 status early and probe if it’s not right
Establish IR35 status for new contracts on a VERY EARLY DOORS basis.
So do this before any sort of rate negotiation takes place with the agent.
Once you’ve agreed the rate, it’s almost set in stone with the end-client. From here onwards, your power in the negotiation has dissolved.
Also question the IR35 status if it sounds too good to be true. For example, if you role will be sitting on a Helpdesk logging tickets on ServiceNow and the advert claims outside IR35, then that’s a red flag!
Next? Remember the rate needs to reflect the almost undeniable inside status of such gigs.
Natalie Bowers, founder of niche recruitment firm Bowers Partnership.
GROWTH IN DEMAND FOR IT CONTRACTORS REBOUNDED IN NOVEMBER
A last-gasp in hiring before 2021 ends boosted IT contractors in November, arresting a three-month decline in growth.
In fact, demand for freelance tech skills notched up to 79.0 last month, up from 77.9 in October, 77.5 in September, and 78.6 in August.
In the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s Report on Jobs, which features the index, KPMG’s Claire Warnes said hirers were, already, “looking to the New Year…to fill gaps”.
‘Temp rates are rising fast’
“This pace of activity continues to feed through to starting rates,” said REC chief executive Neil Carberry, in an online update referring to pay overall, not just in tech.
As even first-timer contractors tend to know (and first-timers can be more receptive than veterans actually in this regard), a little ‘constructive criticism’ of how they operate as a temporary job-seeker can go a long way to upping their game, writes Natalie Bowers, founder of niche contractor agency Bowers Partnership.
And given us agents are apparently rubbing contractors up the wrong way at the moment – and vice versa apparently, here’s my top five tips on what NOT to do as an IT contractor. Assuming, that is, your goal is getting hired and keeping your agent on-side Games, goals and keeping on-side. Anyone would think I’ve not recovered my national pride from a certain sporting contest!
Chop-chop
First, my personal bugbear. Contractors, if you’re gonna’ bow out of the process, can you just get on and bow out quickly?!
If you hadn’t noticed, there’s quite a lot of frustration in the agency contractor space at present, and unfortunately, whether you’re a contractor or an agent, the feeling seems increasingly mutual!
Let me break the mould by empathising with candidates and saying, from the point of view of a contractor, I can quite understand the frustration, writes Natalie Bowers, founder of niche contractor staffing firm Bowers Partnership.
What contractors have been contending with
Contractors have spent the last year or so dodging an invisible virus, wearing their spouse’s flowery face-covering because they forgot their own, avoiding human contact when the government says to avoid human contact, and adhering to ever-changing guidelines on the few covid-19 income support measures which do actually apply to them. Enough to boil anyone’s blood! And that’s before you even start to consider the impact of ghastly IR35 reform!
Six million jobs in the UK have been made “anywhere jobs” by covid-19 and home-working coming together, with no subsector more vulnerable to its roles going abroad than niche IT.
In fact, ‘Computer Programming, Consultancy & Related’ has the biggest industry share of such jobs — 561,400, all of which can now be done remotely, offshore, “potentially for cheaper.”
This definition of an Anywhere Job — as spelt out by the Tony Blair Institute which is behind these new figures and findings, also extends to the role being exportable to “equally skilled workers.”
‘Replacement by an offshore worker’
Examples of Anywhere Jobs (‘AJs’) named in the thinktank’s new report include Software Developer, IT Technician/Support, Programmer/Developer, Web Developer/Designer.
But writing exclusively today for ContractorUK, a former services management consultant who worked in IT for 45 years, says quality and low cost aren’t guaranteed with ‘AJs’.
The Bowers Partnership Limited