Questions we answer Hiring and headcount

Should I hire part-time or full-time?

Size the role to the work, not the budget. Part-time suits work that batches; it breaks on work where somebody has to be reachable.

Start from this question

Free · a few minutes · starts from “I think we need another person”

The short answer

Size the role to the shape of the work. Part-time fits where the work batches — bookkeeping, payroll, campaign execution, reporting — and breaks where somebody has to be reachable daily or owns a queue that cannot sit for three days. If you are choosing part-time only because full-time feels unaffordable, that is an affordability question wearing a sizing question's clothes, and a contract or fixed-term arrangement usually answers it more honestly.

This question is usually asked with a budget already in mind, which is what makes it go wrong. The hours get chosen to fit the money, and then the role is designed around the hours, and a job that needed somebody present four days a week gets two.

The useful reframing is to describe the work first and count the hours afterwards. Some work genuinely batches and is perfectly happy at two or three days. Other work is defined by availability rather than volume, and halving the hours does not halve the job — it leaves the same job uncovered most of the week.

Is it really this?

Worth checking before you spend anything. These are the signals that tend to tell the two apart.

Signs it is

The work arrives in batches and has a natural rhythm — monthly, weekly, per campaign.
Nobody is waiting on the role's output between batches.
You could write the role as a set of outcomes rather than a set of hours.

Signs it's something else

Somebody has to answer things as they arrive, and the delay is the problem rather than the volume.
The role only supervises well on days you happen to be free.
You are sizing to a number you can afford rather than to work you can describe.

What's usually behind it

A real need with a budget that does not quite reach a full salary.
A role that has never been sized, where the hours are a guess dressed up as a decision.
A wish to try somebody out without committing, which is a different question with better answers.

What people usually get wrong

Two part-time people where the coordination between them costs more than the third day you saved.
Advertising part-time for a role that is really full-time, then being surprised when it does not get done.
Assuming part-time is proportionally cheaper. Recruiting, inducting and managing somebody is not halved by halving their hours.

The options, and when each one fits

In no particular order. Which of these fits depends on your situation, not on the question you typed.

Part-time employee
The work batches, nothing waits on it between batches, and you can state what done looks like.
Full-time employee
Somebody has to be available, or the role owns a queue that cannot go unattended.
Contract or fixed-term
The constraint is really money or uncertainty about whether the need lasts, rather than the shape of the week.

When doing nothing is the right call

If you cannot yet say whether the work batches, it is worth two or three weeks of writing down when things actually arrive and when anybody is waiting on them. That is a cheaper experiment than hiring the wrong shape and reshaping it afterwards.

What here comes from somewhere else

The reasoning above is ours and does not go out of date. These do: they are other people's facts, and they are linked rather than restated so you can see the current version rather than our copy of it. Last checked 16 September 2026.

Part-time workers' rights — GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)What part-time employment entails in the UK. Linked rather than summarised: entitlements and thresholds change, and this page does not give legal advice.

What the diagnostic asks

Whether the need is a defined piece of work or a continuous one.
How long it has been there, and whether it is growing.
Who owns the work today and whether anyone could take part of it.
Whether a permanent hire is fundable, a stretch, or not realistic.

“I don't know” is always an answer. Nothing is assumed on your behalf.

The routes it weighs

Every diagnostic weighs all ten routes. These are the ones that tend to matter for this question — a description of the rules, not a promise about your answer.

Recruit
Recruit a new person for a durable, sizeable need that is central to the team.
Outsource
Hand a defined, ongoing scope of work to an external provider.
Specialist support
Bring in a freelancer, consultant or specialist for a defined piece of work.
Redistribute
Move ownership of the work to where it fits, and make that explicit.
Do nothing yet
Record the issue, set a revisit date, and decide what would change your mind.

What changes the answer

Work that is genuinely batched — it can wait until Thursday without anything breaking — supports part-time.
Work attached to a queue, a phone or a customer expectation of same-day response usually does not.
An affordability constraint rather than a workload one points at contract or fixed-term instead of at fewer hours.

Get your own read

A handful of short questions, then the strongest route for your situation, what's also credible, what we still don't know and what would change our view. No account, no setup.