Written by Matthew Gibbs, Senior Consultant - Interim Internal and Change Communications

We’ve been running our Inside Insight survey for the last six years and it’s been growing ever since we launched the first edition back in 2011. With over 550 internal communications (IC) professionals taking part, it’s now the largest and one of the most comprehensive on the market. Due to the growing demand and popularity for interim management within internal and change communications functions, we’re keen to share the top five take outs from our Inside Insight Internal Communications market report from a contracting perspective.

1. A larger proportion of the communications market is taken up by contractors - more than you may think

With teams becoming leaner and hiring managers choosing to recruit specialists on a contractual basis for change programmes, the demand for interim management has increased to 30% of the overall IC market. This has something to do with the added benefits of working on an interim basis. The financial reward, good work-life balance and ability to be seen as a trusted adviser whilst avoiding office politics has made contract work much more desirable for IC professionals.

2. There’s a new wave of contractors coming in to challenge the old guard

Over half of contractors have been contracting for three years or less. We’ve noticed that people are moving into contracting for various reasons; whether it’s a specific career choice, redundancy in a previous role, returning after maternity leave for more flexibility or to gain more skills and experience from different projects. With more experienced IC professionals moving into the contracting space, this has challenged the more experienced contractors in the market and has had a negative impact on the level of day rates they could once achieve.

3. Contracting isn’t as insecure as you may have first thought

The one reason that people may be sceptical about taking the plunge into contract work is the lack of job security. However, our survey showed that nearly 80% of contracts get extended past the originally agreed end date. We see that once a high level IC professional is brought into an organisation on a contractual basis, the