Contractor Excellence
Though core technical capability in a required field and organisation fit are the top reasons contractors are hired, the organisation seeking your services as a professional interim or specialist contractor are asking a whole range of other questions.
In addition to your skills and knowledge, the firm with the short term skill need wants to know how well you will fit and work with their existing team and can you hit the ground running. Your competencies also must include everything it takes to get invited back to previous clients.
In other articles, we talk about the need to be sure that contracting is the right move for you and all that entails. As a place to start when considering this move or as points of development, here are 8 competencies that are essential to your long-term success as a contractor.
Flexibility – The nature of contracting demands that when the heat is on you can give it everything, work long hours and be where you need to be. Locations may not always be ideal and sometimes work focus can change at short notice as a project may need. Contracting often provides good WFH opportunities too, we will work all this out for you where possible ahead of any new contract.
The ability to cope with insecurity and ambiguity– This is a key feature of whether you can cope as a contractor. Not knowing where you might be working, or if, in 6 to 9 months’ time. We will work to line up your next assignment but it is client need dependent.
Be an expert – Develop skills in a high demand area and keep on top of developments that allow you to keep those skills up to date. Many contractors try to cover A-Z and become experts in nothing, so there is little incentive for firms to hire that person or bring them back for future contracts. Build out your experience on the job, take on new areas in support of the client where possible.
Ready, steady, go– Great contractors are high energy, self-starters. Not only must they forage for work, but they must hit the ground running and be seen to overcome any obstacles that arise in a project with fresh or innovative ideas.
Adaptability – For most contractors, each new project brings new colleagues and working environments. The ability to fit in fast is essential. In support of this, you will be assigned a Contractor Support contact in our organisation who will be on call for your own needs.
Business administration – It is vital to stay on top of your own financial back-end processing. If you struggle with this at all, farm it out to an expert and make sure they stay on top of it for you. From invoicing to tax returns, errors or omissions are always very costly. Contracting through HRM fulfils this need for you, we simply require an approved timesheet and if needs introduce you to support for your end-of-year financial administration needs.
Collegiality – Despite contracting being a stand-alone position, the ability to develop relationships in a new organisation quickly is important. ‘Who’ is often as important as ‘how’ when it comes to getting things done that will enable you to achieve your own outcomes. Sometimes contractors can be seen as a threat to permanent employees, so disarming that quickly is important.
Reliability and authenticity– Higher standards of delivery are expected of contractors than permanent employees. Whether it's down to the premium paid or the sense of expertise being hired, firms have greater expectations of contractors, so reliability is a higher bag than you might think. Always do what you say you will do when you said you would do it. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But give a false expectation, advise late of a problem or miss a deadline no matter how unavoidable and your stock plummets. Manage deadlines and expectations very carefully, agree them in advance, raise an early warning flag if you are concerned but always with a proposed solution in hand. Your contract with HRM will demand all of this and total customer focus.
Contracting is not without its challenges but represents a great way to spend your career, with flexibility that permanent appointments rarely provide. If you would like to know more about this subject and current or future contracting opportunities, get in touch, we’d be delighted to talk.
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