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The UK interim management industry has nearly tripled in size in the last seven years and is now worth over £1 billion per annum. All too often, though, situations where a senior interim could solve a sticky problem, quickly, drift on, mainly because of client misconceptions about recruiting interims. Allow us to illuminate…
MYTH ONE
“Interim is just about maternity cover, isn’t it? “
In the legal market we do see a lot of last-minute “distress purchases” – often involving maternity and gap filling for sudden departures at Director and just-below Director level , but the biggest drivers are more strategic:
• Specific change and business improvement projects, including merger integration or organisational restructuring.
• Specialist expertise. Interim procurement managers, for example, are delivering jaw-dropping savings in law firms, while risk specialists can be useful interims where there is not scope for a full-time role.
• Overlap: an interim can cover a role for a permanent yet-to-be recruited person while firms take their time in finding the ideal long-term employee.
MYTH TWO
“Interim managers are the ones who can’t get permanent jobs or who have been
‘let go’ ”
The vast majority of the interim managers are professional people who have actually chosen a career in interim management, having operated successfully at a senior level in permanent roles.
Here are just three interim managers we work with who are most definitely NOT people who can’t get permanent jobs:
• HR Director – ex accountancy ,property and law firms with specific change and Organisational Development skills
• Head of Business Development – CRM/key account management and classic BD from a Big 4 accountancy firm and a Top 10
international law firm
• Business Manager- Process Improvement and Training, Financial and Credit Management from a Big 4 accountancy firm and
Top 10 law firm
MYTH THREE
“The candidates always look far too senior for our roles!”
Most interim managers on assignment are substantially over-qualified for the role they are doing, this is standard practice. They may look too senior, but there’s a point.
• You get an interim manager who “hits the ground running” and starts adding value immediately. Most interims will submit an
action plan and key deliverables within the first few weeks.
• Where there has been a sudden departure and some drifting, the existing team needs to be stabilised and partners given fresh
confidence. An experienced interim candidate can do this easily.
• As it is their choice to be an interim, they are unlikely to seek to be made permanent and therefore pose no threat to the team
or anyone else internally.
• As the market fluctuates the interim managers themselves decide if it is a role they are interested in. In a buoyant market they
may choose to take on only projects of strategic or exceptional interest - in a tighter market they will be more pragmatic and
take on less challenging roles at a lower daily rate or responsibility level.
Highly qualified, experienced interim candidates provide you with an opportunity to benefit from their expertise while knowing how much it will cost you.
Which brings us on to…….
MYTH FOUR
“The daily rate is too complicated and seems like a lot of money.”
• Rates range from £500 per day to £1,600 plus per day. This covers everything from a mid-level manager to a senior director
working on a strategic business improvement or technical project.
• Within this rate, there will be a margin to the provider. The remaining figure, which goes to the interim manager, has to cover
their tax, NI ( neither of which you have to bother with), pension, healthcare, holiday and sick pay and any other “soft” benefits
you may offer on your payroll to permanent employees.
• While you are probably not too interested in exactly what the daily rate consists of, what it means for you is vastly reduced
administration, as well as a clearly anticipated cost - you only pay for the number of days the interim manager works every
month - with nothing else to set up.
In short, Interim Management is not a cheap option, but you do get what you pay for: fast, flexible and high value impact for the required period of time, no more, no less.
© First Counsel Consulting Limited.
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The UK interim management industry has nearly tripled in size in the last seven years and is now worth over £1 billion per annum. All too often, though, situations where a senior interim could solve a sticky problem, quickly, drift on, mainly because of client misconceptions about recruiting interims. Allow us to illuminate…
MYTH ONE
“Interim is just about maternity cover, isn’t it? “
In the legal market we do see a lot of last-minute “distress purchases” – often involving maternity and gap filling for sudden departures at Director and just-below Director level , but the biggest drivers are more strategic:
• Specific change and business improvement projects, including merger integration or organisational restructuring.
• Specialist expertise. Interim procurement managers, for example, are delivering jaw-dropping savings in law firms, while risk specialists can be useful interims where there is not scope for a full-time role.
• Overlap: an interim can cover a role for a permanent yet-to-be recruited person while firms take their time in finding the ideal long-term employee.
MYTH TWO
“Interim managers are the ones who can’t get permanent jobs or who have been
‘let go’ ”
The vast majority of the interim managers are professional people who have actually chosen a career in interim management, having operated successfully at a senior level in permanent roles.
Here are just three interim managers we work with who are most definitely NOT people who can’t get permanent jobs:
• HR Director – ex accountancy ,property and law firms with specific change and Organisational Development skills
• Head of Business Development – CRM/key account management and classic BD from a Big 4 accountancy firm and a Top 10
international law firm
• Business Manager- Process Improvement and Training, Financial and Credit Management from a Big 4 accountancy firm and
Top 10 law firm
MYTH THREE
“The candidates always look far too senior for our roles!”
Most interim managers on assignment are substantially over-qualified for the role they are doing, this is standard practice. They may look too senior, but there’s a point.
• You get an interim manager who “hits the ground running” and starts adding value immediately. Most interims will submit an
action plan and key deliverables within the first few weeks.
• Where there has been a sudden departure and some drifting, the existing team needs to be stabilised and partners given fresh
confidence. An experienced interim candidate can do this easily.
• As it is their choice to be an interim, they are unlikely to seek to be made permanent and therefore pose no threat to the team
or anyone else internally.
• As the market fluctuates the interim managers themselves decide if it is a role they are interested in. In a buoyant market they
may choose to take on only projects of strategic or exceptional interest - in a tighter market they will be more pragmatic and
take on less challenging roles at a lower daily rate or responsibility level.
Highly qualified, experienced interim candidates provide you with an opportunity to benefit from their expertise while knowing how much it will cost you.
Which brings us on to…….
MYTH FOUR
“The daily rate is too complicated and seems like a lot of money.”
• Rates range from £500 per day to £1,600 plus per day. This covers everything from a mid-level manager to a senior director
working on a strategic business improvement or technical project.
• Within this rate, there will be a margin to the provider. The remaining figure, which goes to the interim manager, has to cover
their tax, NI ( neither of which you have to bother with), pension, healthcare, holiday and sick pay and any other “soft” benefits
you may offer on your payroll to permanent employees.
• While you are probably not too interested in exactly what the daily rate consists of, what it means for you is vastly reduced
administration, as well as a clearly anticipated cost - you only pay for the number of days the interim manager works every
month - with nothing else to set up.
In short, Interim Management is not a cheap option, but you do get what you pay for: fast, flexible and high value impact for the required period of time, no more, no less.
© First Counsel Consulting Limited.