How Do I Hire a Fractional Executive and Other Fractional Talent?

If this sounds similar to making a full-time hire, you’d be right! This article will focus on the key differences and nuances of fractional hiring compared to typical full-time hiring. You’ll walk away with a good baseline for exactly how to hire a fractional executive.

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Define Your Fractional Need

There are four variables to consider when defining your need:

• Function area - Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Data, etc. The list goes on!
• Seniority - you can hire someone much more senior than you’d otherwise be able to afford. The sky’s the limit.
• Background/skillset - what type of expert do you need? No matter how niche, there’s probably someone out there for you.
• Rough Time Commitment - typically 2 - 20 hours per week. And, it can change anytime.

For a more thorough analysis of each of these variables, check out our in-depth Playbook on “How to Hire a Fractional Leader”.

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Building Your Fractional Top-of-Funnel

You might have that perfect candidate in your mind, but your ability to hire them is only as good as your top-of-funnel.

The trick to finding the right candidates is to go to where the fractionals already are.

Fractionals are not browsing LinkedIn Jobs, or Wellfound, or Indeed, nor are they working with recruiting agencies. This is where people go for full-time jobs, but fractional leaders are not looking for full-time jobs.

You might think that freelance marketplaces like Upwork or Toptal are good bets. But fractionals adopted the word “fractional” to differentiate it from freelance work. Freelance marketplaces are the last place you’d find a fractional leader.

To build your top of funnel, go to where the fractionals are. Fractional Jobs is the largest network of fractional execs and other fractional talent. We work with companies to help them hire fractional talent across 10+ function areas. We target the exact right candidates for you, and then connect you with the best options. If you like any, you can hire them directly (not through us).

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The Fractional Interview Process

If you have some candidates in the pipeline, how do you vet them? It’s a well-known fact that all interview processes are imperfect, and the best way to know if a candidate is a good fit for your company is if they simply start working for you.

Good news - in the fractional world, you can kick off a work relationship super quickly, and therefore find out quickly if there’s a long-term fit to be had.

Why can you start so quickly? Two reasons. 1) The risks of making a bad hire are much lower, because it’s a 1099 contract, you can generally part ways quickly and easily. 2) You don’t need to recruit the fractional hire away from another full-time job.

Check out our detailed rundown of How to Interview Fractional Talent here.

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Signing a Contract

You’ll be signing a 1099 Independent Contractor agreement with your fractional hire. This is a standard document, but there are a couple of aspects that you’ll want to make sure are appropriately ironed out in the contract.

We cover the basics of [what should go into a fractional contract here.]

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And for a more thorough walkthrough of exactly how to hire fractional leaders, including the different types of fractional engagements, more interviewing best practices, compensation expectations, and other FAQs, see our Playbook “How to Hire a Fractional Leader”.

If you’re a company that thinks fractional hiring might be right for your business, see how Fractional Jobs can help.

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