According to its latest hiring intentions data, almost two-thirds (60%) of F&A employers are worried about navigating the unstable economic cycles that the UK is currently experiencing. A further 62% raised concerns around the best approach to addressing skills shortages, with 80% of finance and accounting employers worried about their ability to find talent quickly when it’s needed. The data suggests that this has the potential to impact business-as-usual activity, with 59% of firms concerned about their ability to keep critical projects on track as a result.

Employers are seemingly turning to interim resources to tackle these challenges. The majority (80%) of F&A hiring managers will be making interim hires in 2025, while 86% of business leaders will be either expanding or maintaining their project-based finance and accounting headcount this year.

As Hannah Szymanski, Market Director Finance & Accountingat Robert Half explains, contingent resources should be tapped into to help resolve these issues:

“It’s clear from our data that finance and accounting employers are facing a wealth of challenges, which will also be exacerbated by the additional hiring costs associated with the increase in National Insurance Contributions (NICs). However, there is a potential solution – greater use of contingent workers.

“In such an uncertain economic climate, businesses will need to be able to scale resources up and down at pace, and contingent specialists should form a significant part of resourcing plans both now and in the future.

“And while these interim professionals won’t be able to single-handedly resolve skills shortages, they are a key part of the solution. Many contractors will have a wealth of knowledge and expertise that can be shared with the permanent workforce on a larger scale by their prior exposure to diverse projects while moving across brands. We also can’t ignore the fact that engaging contingent workers will help employers mitigate against some of the increased costs of permanent hiring driven by the NICs increase, providing an interim stop-gap until organisations are in a better position to increase headcount.

“The future of work is flexible, and if employers look at the majority of their current challenges, it’s clear that a focus on the contingent workforce could be the saving grace that many need.”