Temp or permanent: how to actually decide
The question we get asked most by clients isn't "what does this role pay" — it's "should this be temp or permanent?" And the honest answer is that most businesses default to permanent out of habit, not because it's actually the right call for the situation in front of them.
Temporary is the right answer more often than people assume: covering a known absence (maternity, long-term sick, notice period), a genuine short-term spike in transaction volume (month end, year end, a one-off project), or when you're not yet sure the role itself needs to exist permanently. Bringing in a temporary Payroll Clerk or Purchase Ledger Clerk with same-day response buys you time to actually think, rather than rushing a permanent decision under pressure.
Permanent makes sense when the workload is genuinely ongoing and you already know the shape of the role — and, just as importantly, when the cost of a bad hire is high enough that it's worth investing more time in the process (structured interviews, references, sometimes a working interview) to get it right first time.
The middle option people forget: temp-to-perm. Start someone on a temporary basis, see them do the actual job on your systems with your team, and convert to permanent once you both know it's a genuine fit. It's the lowest-risk way to make a permanent decision, because you're deciding based on evidence rather than an interview performance.
Whichever route you take, a working interview de-risks it further — the candidate spends a real day on the job, and we cover the cost if you're anything less than 100% satisfied. It turns a decision you'd otherwise make on a CV and an hour of conversation into one you make on an actual day's work.
Not sure which of the three fits your situation? Tell us what's actually going on and we'll give you a straight answer — even if that answer is "you don't need to hire at all yet".