More than 1 in 3 people in Great Britain have worked as a temp freelancer or contractor at some point in their career according to latest research from REC.

Thirsty-six percent of people who currently have hiring responsibility at work have been an agency worker themselves. Our experience bears this out – a number of our current clients started life as one of our temporary team and have worked their way up to a management position and are now hiring from us!

Flexibility is the key reason people chose to temp, it particularly appeals to young people parents and people scaling back as they approach retirement. On any given day 1.1million people in the UK are working in temporary assignments, it is clearly a significant feature of the labour force.

A large number of temporary workers find permanent job opportunities – this is certainly the case with Hewett Recruitment where over 100 of their temporary team have been offered permanent jobs with local employers since the start of 2014.

The nature of work is changing – there has been a structured change in the labour market. Flexible work is here to stay. Project based employment will become more mainstream and effect a much larger proportion of the workforce including a higher and medium skilled workforce. Flexible working is central to understanding why people work as a temporary worker.

For young people or people returning after a long break, temping is a great way to gain experience, get an idea of what type of business they want to work for and demonstrate their skills to a potential new employer. People with specialist, in demand skills have the opportunity to work independently and choose very specific types of work, contracts and employers who suit them best.

Business can benefit from parachuting talent into their organisation for a limited period to address specific challenges. Skilled individuals may be too expensive for a growing business to employ full-time but may be affordable to solve a burning problem over a 3/6 month period.

Hewett Recruitment offer a free Talent Health-Check to local employers. For more information contact Louise Hewett. Email louise@hewett-recruitment.co.uk