-   We’ve seen a 10% increase in perm roles across digital and integrated agencies when comparing Jan – Sept for 2010 and 2011.

-   The biggest increase when comparing Jan – Sept for 2010 to Jan – Sept  2011 has been in freelance roles which has grown by 100%.  At the same time day rates for contracts have come down.  The rise in freelance requirements this year is certainly in part being driven by economic fears meaning companies don’t want to make a long term commitment to perm hires.

-   We’re meeting more people looking for new roles this year compared to last with a significant increase in people looking for freelance.  The increased numbers of freelancers is one reason why rates are coming down but the fact more people are looking for new roles suggests a little more confidence in the market.

-   We’ve noticed an increase in mid-weight roles (£30-£40K) but having come out of a recession where agencies didn’t invest in grassroots talent there simply aren’t enough people in the market for the volume of roles.  Great news however if you are in the early stages of your career as there is lots of choice!

-   Agencies are still not investing enough in grassroots talent favouring hiring experienced people that have lower needs for training and support, perhaps this is amplified by the state of the economy and companies not making as much investment into their people.  But when you combine this with the increased restrictions on immigration we’re facing a real lack of succession and new talent coming into the industry.

To finish on a slightly more positive note; both perm and freelance roles show no sign of slowing down when we compare Sept 2010 to 2011.  This is  encouraging against the backdrop of doom and gloom in the global economy – the stock markets may be falling off a cliff and cash may get a little tight when Greece default but the outlook for digital talent remains high!

With the usual lovely long hot English summer well and truly upon us we wanted to flag this up again as we are still seeing a fairly significant shortfall of talent in the market to cope with demand. Great for the talented freelancers who are commanding high day rates, and  justifiably so in most cases.

Where does this leave the rest of the market then? Are day rates just too high to sustain growth in the agencies? Is the digital market fast becoming the English Premiership, where the players get paid as much as possible and then jump ship to the highest bidder? What will happen if the EURO falters badly?

Time will tell. In the interim, we suggest that you try as hard as possible to get paid your worth. If you don’t think you are then check out our Salary benchmarking for 2011. Or drop us a line, email, twitter or pigeon and let’s discuss as we have opportunities in London, Amsterdam and Germany that could be exactly what you’re looking for.

This year we’ve expanded the number of roles covered. However if a particular job title isn’t listed, get in touch with us directly and we’ll do our best to rectify this for you.

If you would like a copy of our salary survey as a pdf please email us at hello@cogsagency.com

Looking at both the freelance and perm roles available combined means there are almost certainly not enough digital project managers working in the industry.

What does this mean?

• Companies hire freelance SPM’s to cover work and it affects their margins.
• Perm SPM’s who haven’t switched to freelance are working harder to cover more work and sometimes have to pick up on projects if freelancers haven’t delivered.
• Decent freelance SPM’s should have a steady supply of work!

Some thoughts and ideas to reverse the trend?

For agencies….
• Be more open minded about the talent pools from where you recruit and invest in heavily training. Why not re-train a developer in your agency that has the right mindset. Or better still hire a PM from a software background and develop their skills/knowledge.
• Start paying better salary’s for perm SPM’s and factor in career development plans to progress PM’s through your organisation. To put it into perspective an SPM on £50k could earn £65k as a freelancer (assuming they worked every day for 10 months of the year on £300 per day).
• The life of a PM is a tough one; protecting agency margins and keeping clients and other agency departments happy. Even the most diplomatic PM can get on the wrong side of people in other departments and sometimes the issues can be tracked back to badly run processes and heads of PM departments without the internal clout to address and resolve these. If you have high staff turn over in your PM department (and then struggle to recruit because of a shortage of talent) then maybe the solution might lie with the management structure of your organisation.

For freelancer SPM’s…
• Often when freelancing your skill base flat lines, as when interviewing for a role you are judged by what you have done previously and then offered a role to do the same (or less) for someone else.
• Sometimes the agency’s best work will go to their perm PM team and unless you are a specialist (e.g. a video and digital producer combined) this may effect the quality of projects you work on.
• Finding a company that will invest in your development and give you progression could be a good option. Though taking a pay cut to do more of the same might not be! However, it is worth remembering that taking a permanent role means you get paid holiday’s and benefits.

SPM’s working permanently…..
• You are in a good place to manage your career and look for progression and development opportunities.
• If you are considering switching to become a freelancer you should try to maximise your progression opportunities in your current company before making the move. Earning £800 more monthly might not satisfy you for long.

The future outlook….
The lack (could read absence) of agencies hiring of junior PM’s during the recession means this issue will become far worse in years to come. Also the fact that digital projects are becoming very specialised and agency models vary greatly the problem is going to get much worse before it gets any better.

Generally there are no formal digital PM standard courses, of course institutes such as Prince2 and PMI organise general PM training, why don’t the big players in digital get together to organise some industry standard training to develop the talent pool and make digital project management roles more accessible to people entering the market or growing their skills.

My final thought would be that the industry look into remunerating perm PMs’ differently, perhaps giving bonuses for the delivery of projects on time/budget that meet client (and agency) expectations. More people would consider perm vs freelance and agencies would be paying for results.

 -  You may need to set up as a Ltd company or work through a PAYE umbrella company such as www.marchmutual.com but there is a monthly charge for this, £50 – £75.  You pay slightly less tax if you set up as a Ltd company although you need to meet certain tax legislations to do this.  You can offset your day to day expenses against your income to save tax, but with both options you don’t get holiday or sick pay so if you don’t work you don’t get paid.

-  If you are on £50K and work for 6 months of the year at £300 per day you would gross £39000. (130 X £300 – there are 260 working days in the year).  So provided you find enough work for 9 months a year you’ll be better off.

 -  It can be a big move to go freelance and you’ll need to be happy being dropped into difficult situations and working with new people.

 -  The main problem with a freelance career is you put any chance of future prospects on hold as the companies you work for will be investing their time and resources into developing their perm staff.  So as a freelancer you’ll stay at roughly the same level.

In short it doesn’t suit everyone but could be a good way to pick the projects you work on + get a pay rise assuming if you think you can find enough work……..

When people get to a certain level, lets say £55k salarywise and hit their groove running great work, they seem to reach a career crossroads. Either switch to freelance with the prospect of earning up to 40% more and the luxury of flexible working. Or stay put and wait for a promotion.

I guess there isn’t an abundance of project director or head of production roles, so as a senior when you’ve reached the point where you looking for a new challenge (such as managing a team or a department) then you have a couple of choices. If you can’t find the opportunity either internally or elsewhere to step up another rung, then earning more money for the same role and being in a position where you can cherry pick the projects you work on can appear like the most attractive option.

It doesn’t make for total career Utopia though. Often as a freelancer you stop being in a position where a company will invest time and money developing your skills or improving your long term career prospects.

All of this doesn’t help those businesses that are looking for permanent , proven senior producers that can become integral to the culture of the agency and be trusted to run important, agency defining projects. Without the expense or transience of using a contractor.