Green Shoots to Recovery

When is a green shoot a green shoot? When it has an interim assignment at the end of it?

Not a day goes by without someone telling me the economic recession is affecting their organisation in some way. However, perhaps more surprisingly I have had views expressed to me from opposite ends of the spectrum. There are those amongst the ‘life essentials’ sectors (e.g. food, utilities, public sectors) where demand is strong and those amongst the ‘lifestyle’ sectors (e.g. automotive, leisure) where business is relatively poor based on diminishing disposable incomes and the inability of potential clients to obtain credit finance.

However what is more interesting is that we are still seeing the same level of enquiries for interim managers as we saw this time last year. The only difference is that the types of assignments have changed. Gone are the extra ‘pair of hands’ type assignments typified many HR and IT projects and in their place have come assignments looking at business excellence and continuous improvement. Indeed many organisations would appear to be tightening their belts by using specialist interim managers to help them make business processes more efficient and transparent. We have had a number of enquiries for lean, six sigma and business process re-engineering specialist interim managers over the past few weeks from dramatically different organisations and sectors. I think it may even be boom time for those interim managers with these types of skill set.

In our experience the duration of some of these assignments is shorter than the average (typically 3-6 months) and day rates are under constant pressure but perhaps the interim sector may allow client organisations to improve efficiencies such that when the economic upturn finally arrives those green shoots can blossom into sustainable growth.

Do you need an Interim Manager or a Contractor

There are still a large number Human Resources Managers who believe they want an interim manager when what they really want is a temporary member of staff.

At Aster we get regular enquiries from organisations suggesting they need professional interim managers when what they really need is contract or temporary staff. I think this confusion is brought about partly by ignorance because Interim Management is still a relatively new concept to many HR executives despite its existence for more years than I care to remember and partly by the failure of interim management providers to adequately sell the concept. I have written about this issue before and I have not seen any improvements over the past few year.

So what are the differences between contract/temporary staff and interim managers. Typically they fall into a number of categories:-

1. Contractors tend to work through agencies or umbrella companies whereas Interim Managers often have their own limited companies.
2. Interim Managers are often senior executives who have had their own businesses or have operated at senior levels with organisations but are able to offer client transferable skills whereas contractors tend to specialise in one area of expertise.
3. To be truthful experience comes at a price so days rates for interim managers are often in excess of those charged by contractors or temporary staff. In addition career interim managers have to fund insurances, marketing and limited company costs.
4. In order to attempt to improve the awareness of the benefits of interim management Aster has decided to run a number of seminars to attract both potential users of interim managers as well as some new talent to the interim management pool. More on this in the next few weeks.