IT staffing or hiring?
A vacancy that stays open for five months is not free. It is the most expensive option on the table, and it rarely appears in the comparison people make.
Hire permanently for roles you will need for years and can keep interesting. Use secondment for a defined project, a peak, a role you have not been able to fill, or a specialism you need for six months rather than forever.
A seconded specialist costs more per hour than an employee but carries no recruitment cost, no notice period risk and no bench time. The comparison only works if you also price the months the vacancy stays open.
The thing to agree at the start is knowledge transfer. A secondment that ends with documentation and a trained colleague is an investment; one that ends with a leaving engineer is a dependency.
What an open vacancy actually costs
The comparison people make is salary versus hourly rate, and on that basis secondment always looks expensive. The comparison they should make includes the months before anyone starts.
A senior infrastructure engineer in the Netherlands takes on average four to six months to find, longer for security and cloud specialisms. During those months the work does not stop: it is absorbed by colleagues who then do their own work in the evening, or it does not happen at all and the backlog grows. Add recruitment fees, the interview time of three people, and the risk that the hire leaves within a year, and the honest cost of waiting is often higher than the rate difference.
When to hire permanently
- The work is permanent and predictable. If the role will still exist in three years, an employee is cheaper and better.
- The knowledge is company-specific. Someone who has to understand your processes, your history and your people is worth keeping.
- You can keep it interesting. The reason IT specialists leave is rarely money; it is doing the same maintenance forever.
- You can supervise it. A junior with nobody to learn from is an expensive way to fill a chair.
When secondment is the better answer
- A project with an end date. A migration, a rollout, a datacentre move. Hiring for it means a difficult conversation twelve months later.
- A peak you can see coming. A merger, a new site, a compliance deadline.
- A specialism you need briefly. Nobody needs a full-time firewall architect for a year, but plenty of organisations need one for two months.
- A vacancy that will not close. Bridging it beats waiting, and it buys time to hire properly rather than out of desperation.
- Cover for absence. Long-term illness or maternity leave in a one-deep team.
The numbers side by side
| Permanent employee | Seconded specialist | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost basis | Salary plus employer charges, roughly 1.3 times gross | Hourly rate, invoiced for hours worked |
| Time to start | Four to six months on average | Two to four weeks |
| Recruitment cost | Agency fee or internal time, often a month of salary or more | None |
| Risk if it does not work | Notice period and a repeat search | End of assignment, usually a month |
| Best for | Permanent, company-specific work | Projects, peaks, specialisms, bridging |
Keeping the knowledge when the contract ends
This is the objection we hear most, and it is a fair one. A specialist who leaves with everything in their head has cost you more than they delivered.
Three things prevent it, and all three have to be in the assignment from day one. Documentation as a deliverable rather than a favour. A named colleague of yours who works alongside them, not after them. And a handover session that is scheduled at the start, not arranged in the final week.
What to check about a staffing supplier
Ask who employs the specialist and under what terms. Ask whether the supplier is audited for its staffing administration. In the Netherlands that is Kiwa NEN 4400-1, which covers payroll and tax administration, and it protects you from chain liability if something is wrong further down the line.
We hold that certification alongside ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 14001. It is the least interesting thing about a specialist and the first thing a procurement department asks for.
How we place people is described under IT staffing.
Questions we get about this
What hiring managers ask before choosing a route.
Is a seconded IT specialist more expensive than an employee?
Per hour, yes. Over the length of a problem, often not. The rate difference has to be weighed against recruitment cost, the months a vacancy stays open, and the risk of a permanent hire not working out. For a defined project the seconded route is usually cheaper in total.
How quickly can someone start?
Typically two to four weeks, depending on the specialism and on notice periods. Common infrastructure and service desk profiles are faster than niche security or cloud architecture roles.
Can a seconded specialist become a permanent employee?
Yes, and it happens regularly. Working together for a few months is a far better selection procedure than two interviews. Terms for taking someone on are agreed in the contract at the start rather than negotiated afterwards.
What is NEN 4400-1 and why does it matter?
It is a Dutch standard for the payroll and tax administration of organisations that supply labour, audited by an external body such as Kiwa. It matters because it limits your chain liability if something is wrong in the administration of a supplier further down the line.
Where this lands in our work
Where the people land.
Want this looked at for your own sites?
Half an hour on a call is usually enough to tell you whether we are the right party for it, and we will say so if we are not.