Contracting Is Now A Much Safer Profession

By Author: nitin chauhan
Total Articles: 16
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It used to be that contractors, whether limited company contractors, or working through Umbrella companies, could be out for months when a downturn in the economy hit and, if they had old skills, they might not be able to get back into it again, as companies give the go-ahead for new systems with new skills.



That’s one of the problems with contracting, i.e. that it is hard to pick up new skills, as contractors tend not to get put on training courses like permanent workers do and eventually the skills that they joined contracting with decline and are replaced with newer skills and a newer breed of contractor supplants the old.



However, that can take time and there are three new factors that make contracting a safer profession to be in.Firstly, there has been a sea change in attitudes to contractors.Whereas in the past they were looked upon as costs which could easily be got rid of in a downturn to enable a company to hold up its bottom line, nowadays they are seen as enablers of cost cutting in a downturn.



Secondly, companies who stopped projects, or ...
... didn’t start new ones, in a downturn to save costs, have found themselves a couple of years behind their competitors in the marketplace who continued their systems development in that period. Umbrella companies This is bad news for them when Time-to-Market takes over from Cost as the main business driver in an upturn and many companies have learned their lessons.



Indeed, one major bank said recently that if they had any money left after cost reductions they would spend it on IT.The third factor is the new rates flexibility there is in the marketplace. Many of the big banks have cut rates across-the-board by 10% and others have followed.



Contractors haven’t liked this but the banks have used this to make cost reductions whereas previously they would have got rid of some of their contractors – and it is more important for contractors to be working continuously rather than getting good rates but spending time on the bench between contracts in a downturn.Indeed, it could be argued that contractors are safer than permanent workers in a downturn as permanent workers don’t have that flexibility and companies have to make them redundant to cut any costs there.



This new level of safety has helped contractors to build their cash pile steadily over the years without having to stump up money whilst on the bench for their new lifestyle and their fancy houses bought with their specialist contractor mortgages.So, the contractors of today are in a much safer profession than those contractors of previous generations.



Gerry McLaughlin is the CEO of UK IT Contractor Umbrella company website www.ITContractor.com.