If you’re looking to hire a contractor for your business this year, there are a number of factors you’ll want to consider.
While contractors can deliver a lot of great benefits to a business, it’s crucial you ensure you’re hiring the right one.
Here, you’ll discover some of the top factors to consider when thinking of hiring a contractor and when you might actually benefit from one.
What is a contractor?
A contractor is a person who provides professional services on a one-off or contract basis. They aren’t considered employees of a company, although they can provide long-term services.
The contracting sector has seen a significant boost over the past decade. It is thought that there are roughly 1.90 million contractors in the UK today.
Together, they were said to bring in approximately £109 billion into the economy in 2015 alone. The majority of companies use contractors to fill short-term skills gaps and the majority of contractors work within London and the South East.
What do you need to consider when hiring one?
There are a lot of factors you need to consider before hiring a contractor for your business. While they can prove extremely beneficial, if you hire the wrong one it could be disastrous for your business.
Just some of the factors you’ll need to consider therefore, include:
- Portfolios
- Reviews
- IR35
- Good people skills
It’s really important you look at their portfolio to see the kind of work they’ve carried out previously.
This will give you a good idea of the type of quality to expect. Look at the clients they’ve worked for too. Have they managed to work for leading companies, or have they mainly worked alongside smaller, start-up businesses?
Take a look at their reviews too. What have previous clients said about their experience working with the contractor? If the contractor doesn’t have any reviews yet this should be seen as a red flag.
Another thing you’ll want to consider is IR35. Changes implemented have meant that businesses can face high tax penalties if they don’t handle the tax of their contractors correctly.
So, it’s crucial you understand the IR35 private sector regulations before deciding whether a contractor is right for your business.
Finally, you’ll want to ensure they have good people skills. Even if they’ll only be working with you for a short time period, they are still going to need to work alongside your existing team. So, look for how friendly they are and how easy they’ll be to work with.
As you can see, there are a lot of things to consider before hiring a contractor. The above are just some of the most important factors to look into before deciding who you want to take on.
