I suspect that initially, employers may think twice about using interims if there is someone permanent on their team that could do what they do. However,in the main, interims are hired because specific skills are missing in an organisation, and they are there for a fixed term, to deliver against pre-defined deliverables.

If employers do suddenly release interims, as part of some knee-jerk reaction as we have seen some do, then I predict that these employers will realise the valuable work the interims were doing fairly quickly, and re-hire them further down the line. This was a pattern seen when the legislation was rolled out across the public sector.

There will always be winners and losers with any legislative change. The winners from an employer point of view will be those that don’t take a blanket ‘everyone’s in’ approach, and instead independently assess their interim workforce. Additionally, they will be able to pick up fantastic interim talent who find themselves available due to the ‘lazy’ blanket determinations. Companies should see this as an opportunity to take a systematic look at their interims book, and simply see who their best people are, so they can keep them. And yes, this will involve raising day rates to offset costs.

IR35 isn’t new, it’s been around since 2000. It’s only the responsibility for making the determination that’s changed. For employers, IR35 is just another tax businesses have to pay, because that’s what it is. When viewed like this, the decision about hiring an interim will revert back to what it’s always been about: the utilisation of a highly skilled, flexible workforce.