2026 Salary Survey: temporary and interim market trends

Last but by no means least of the specialist areas covered in our 2026 Salary Survey is the temporary and interim market, where jobs that aren’t destined to last long-term are at least upfront about it.

Here’s what our specialists had to say about the current trends.



Temporary and interim recruitment market trends

One of the clearest trends of the past 2-3 years has been the growing proportion of charity roles that don’t fit the traditional template of a full-time permanent job.

At the time of writing (May 2026), 45% of our current vacancies are temporary, contract, part-time or a combination thereof, with sector job boards showing similar numbers: not yet a majority, but given the general direction of travel, you wouldn’t bet against that line being crossed within the next 12-18 months.

In fact, we wouldn’t bet against future generations perceiving permanent jobs in the way that we see jobs for life or final salary pensions: unimaginably generous deals enjoyed by our ancestors that would never be offered today.

Sadly, the high proportion doesn’t necessarily equate to a high number of temp opportunities over the last 12 months – overall recruitment levels have simply been too low – but recent weeks have seen a notable uptick in activity as the new financial year and new budgets have allowed held-back hiring plans to finally get off the blocks.

Salaries mirror those of the equivalent permanent roles so there have been incremental increases across the board, and it’s encouraging to see that when permanent staff get an annual increase, temp staff are increasingly getting them too, rather than remaining on their initial rate throughout.

However, mirroring a less welcome permanent trend, organisations are increasingly expanding temp roles and adding ever-more responsibilities while studiously pretending not to know their end of the bargain: a corresponding increase in pay. Maybe she goes to a different school or something.

New year, new rules

The new financial year also brought the first provisions of the new Employment Rights Act into effect, some of which – like enhanced day-one rights and the regulation of umbrella companies – have implications for temporary recruitment, but so far at least, charities appear to be taking these in their stride.

It’s too early to assess the impact, of course, but with rules that make hiring mistakes more difficult (and costly) to undo, one thing we might expect to see is a further increase in the use of temp-to-perm contracts, giving employers more flexibility and the ability to see how people actually perform in the role.

Plenty will jump at the chance, given the tough competition candidates currently face, with even formerly hard-to-fill senior posts attracting applications galore – although it wouldn’t be entirely unfair to characterise this as sometimes more of a win for quantity and variety than for quality.

Try before you buy

Adding to the competition still further are a steady influx of candidates reluctantly joining the fray, having exhausted their redundancy funds while searching in vain for another permanent role.

We’d advise them to think of temping not as a last resort but as a valuable chance to sample different organisations, and that there’s hope to be found in the growing frequency with which permanent offers are being made to temps, even in roles that weren’t initially expected to have permanent potential.



For more on the market, including this year's figures across each major department, see the full 2026 Salary Survey here, or for help with recruiting or your charity job search, just contact our specialists, call us on 020 7820 7300 or email info@harrishill.co.uk