Interim managers are being used more widely and are becoming more respected, new research claims.
According to the report, Coming of Age, by HR consultancy Chiumento, interim managers are being used in a more strategic way and to fulfil more senior management roles as organisations recognise their value.
The report claims that as the industry matures, it is attracting serious ‘career interims’ – experienced professionals in mid-career who want to put their skills to fresh challenges. This trend is resulting in increased competition for assignments and a pool of interims who are more clued-up about the realities of self-marketing.
The most popular way for organisations to use interims in 2003 was to manage short-term projects requiring specialist expertise, with 74 per cent being used this way, up from 59 per cent last year. Only 15 per cent were hired this year to step into a permanent role on a temporary basis, down from 26 per cent in 2002.
Graham Bird, head of interim management at Chiumento, said organisations are thinking more carefully about their needs and using interims in a more strategic way to plug skills gaps for specialist projects and to bring in fresh perspectives.
“The industry is responding with younger, more highly-skilled professionals who have made deliberate career choices to become interim managers,” he said.
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