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Interim Management is booming. A recent estimate put the number of Interim Managers in the UK at 15,000. This brings HR new challenges. With a little thought from the HR department however, the chances of success can be greatly enhanced on Interim appointments.
HR departments should ensure the interim is equipped to do the job. He or she should be well briefed with crystal clear objectives. Other staff need to have their expectations managed and the interim's departure should be just as well managed as their introduction. Using an interim should be seen as an opportunity to learn from an experienced manager.
Integral to the problem is that interim managers are expected to be able to get on with a job with a minimum of support. Interims are not bogged down with any politics. They are free to cut through the corporate bureaucracy. Unlike permanent recruitment, interim management is not a case of promotion to a greater challenge, but appointing someone who is stepping down in responsibility. Certainly a company paying an executive £500 a day would hope it wouldn't have to provide too much support.
But could HR do more to smooth the process to get more out of an interim? Interims are viewed with great suspicion by the people they work with. People think they are a consultant and they think that means imminent change. They get nervous and they isolate the Interim. It's not on purpose, it's subconscious. For the good of the people the interim works with, there needs to be an explanation of what the role is and what the outcomes will be. Ironically, in many cases, there is no threat to anyone. No one usually believes this!
Clearly its valuable to meet all the senior managers, explain the brief and hold weekly meetings with the client.
So even at the very top end of the UK interim market, where executives are often chosen specifically for a role by the interim equivalent of a head-hunter, the head-renter, using a well-established search, selection, briefing and ongoing communication process, the whole process does not necessarily run smoothly.
One interim was asked recently what it was like on his first day in his last interim assignment, 'Oh, the usual,' he said, 'no desk, no chair, no PC and no brief.' This might seem the perfect argument for why these things could and should be handled so much better. It can hardly make things run smoothly when the interim's first day in a job is the equivalent of being parachuted behind enemy lines without any weapons or even knowing who or where the enemy is.
But it's up to interim managers to handle whatever is thrown at them. Interim managers have to accept the fact that they're not going to have their hands held. But they have the personality and skills and experience to deal with that. And, more to the point, everyone expects interims to be like that. That's why they are overqualified for the roles. They have to be able to walk in on day one and assimilate.
At the other end of the scale, however, lie the majority of interim roles. These are often in less senior management. Often these positions are taken by people who are between permanent jobs. Sometimes a company wants to try someone out before making a permanent appointment. There's also a shadowy area where consultants take on a position and no one is sure whether to classify them as an interim.
Cranfield Business School criticises the lack of management of interims. 'Interims generally take the approach of taking no risks and managing expectations,' 'so you have to be very clear about objectives from the start. If you just ask them to run a department and not mess things up, that's all you'll get. And, for people who are overqualified, it's money for old rope.'
Cranfield BS highlights other areas, too. 'Interims get very little in the way of learning. They're not there long enough to form relationships with the top team and they tend to operate in a bubble. It's just eyes down and get on with it, and after three months they're looking for their next job. It's almost like doing a stretch in prison.'
Others note, from their own experience, that, It can be quite lonely. It's not secure employment and other employees can be resentful of the money you're earning, jealous of your glamorous role and the fact that you get to escape after six months. You're not stuck with the company like they are.
Employees at the client company can feel threatened by the presence of an interim. Employees don't always understand the nature of interim management. The briefs can end up being different to what is discussed. When you get into a company, part of the skills of a good interim is, within the first two weeks, to work out what the parameters of the task are. Then you quite often have to go back to the client and have discussions about key tasks, based on what you have found. The success of an interim in an organisation has much to do with the person who brings them in. They will have certain expectations initially but after two weeks the interim is in quite a good position to give them the benefits of some detailed research and develop the role on that basis.
The ability to remain fluid is essential both on the part of the interim and the person hiring them and a degree of independence is necessary for the interim manager to succeed. It doesn't suit everyone. You have got to have a particular personality. You have to be quite happy to come into a company for six months and disappear again. A lot of people have difficulty with that. Most however like the variety, working across different sectors and projects, getting to grips with different challenges, all very quickly, and having to hit the ground running and develop effective working relationships with immediate work colleagues.
The active management of interim roles is however something that can be neglected. Explain to people in a particular department who the interim manager is, why they are there, as it's vital to get that positioning. Can you imagine what would happen if someone just pitches up? The peer group feels threatened. You have to make it clear to people that the interim manager has the full support of the management and there is no question of anyone been taken for a ride.
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