When it comes to staffing your company's accounting function, making the choice between interim versus permanent staffing can significantly impact your business's efficiency and success. Let’s break down the advantages and disadvantages of each to help you make an informed decision.
Flexibility: Interim staffing allows you to scale your accounting team up or down based on project needs, such as financial audits, year-end or month-end close, special projects, or regulatory compliance requirements.
Expertise: Interim accounting professionals bring specialized skills in areas such as operational accounting, purchase accounting, SEC reporting, and technical accounting, often having experience across various industries and complex financial scenarios.
Speed: Interim staff can be onboarded quickly to address immediate needs, such as sudden vacancies, system implementations, or urgent financial restatements, without the lengthy hiring process associated with full-time employees.
Cost-Effective: Hiring on an interim basis can save costs related to benefits, retirement plans, and other long-term employee commitments, particularly for short-term or project-specific engagements.
Short-Term Engagement: Interim employees may only be with your company for a limited time, which can lead to a lack of continuity within the team.
Onboarding: Even though interim professionals are highly skilled, there is still a need for some level of onboarding to get them acquainted with your company’s financial systems, procedures, and culture.
Dependency: Relying too heavily on interim staff for critical functions, such as month-end closings or financial planning and analysis (FP&A), might create a dependency, potentially making it harder to build a stable, long-term team.
Stability: Permanent employees provide ongoing stability and consistency, which is crucial for long-term alignment with goals.
Cultural Fit: With the time to integrate fully, permanent staff can align more deeply with your company's financial strategies, values, and mission, fostering a cohesive team environment.
Development: Investing in permanent employees allows for long-term development and growth within the accounting department, fostering loyalty, and career progression.
Fixed Long-Term Costs: Permanent employees require a long-term financial commitment, including salaries, benefits, and possibly relocation expenses, which can be significant.
Slower Hiring Process: Finding the right permanent employee for key accounting positions can take more time and resources, which can delay critical projects needing immediate attention.
Adaptability: Permanent staff may not always have the same breadth of experience or specialized skills that interim professionals bring, potentially limiting innovation and adaptive problem-solving in areas such as technical accounting or merger integrations.
The decision between interim and permanent staffing solutions hinges on your company’s specific accounting needs, goals, and financial considerations. Interim staffing offers flexibility, speed, and specialized expertise - making it ideal for immediate, project-based needs or when you require specific skill sets. On the other hand, permanent staffing provides stability, cultural alignment, and long-term development, which is essential for sustained growth and strategic initiatives.
