Interim Management is an increasingly popular field. It’s grown by 93% since 2006, and the UK is at the forefront of this revolution in employment, with more highly agile experts in crisis situations available for businesses than anywhere else.
It can be difficult to convey what Interim Managers actually do: despite the massive growth, it’s still a new field and it’s not broadly understood. A better understanding of the skills and duties involved will help everyone. Businesses with a good understanding of what Interim Management actually is will recognize situations where they can help more quickly, and of course Interim Management as a field can only benefit from being more understood and accepted. Management Consultants were once misunderstood, even figures of fun, but with more understanding the business sector has come to recognize they serve a need and have no hesitation in calling a consultant in when they need it.
Who are Interim Managers?
Interim Managers are specialized individuals: highly mobile and adept at quick orientation, if you hire one, you can expect them to be available immediately and be up to speed with your business in the first day.
They exist to help your business through a period of change or, especially, face a crisis. They enter the field because they’ve gained experience of this kind of change management through other work, and are independent, fast learning executive level workers.
They have good communication skills, so when you work with one, you should always know what they’re doing, why and have a clear understanding of how that will help you.
What Do They Do?
As highly agile consultants, Interim Managers can do a great deal and tailor what they provide you to fit your situation.
At a simple level, they can simply assess your business and make recommendations for changes to steer you through a difficult time. If your revenue is down, they can help identify why and give you plans to raise it again.
More intense Interim projects might involve them spending time working with a specific team in your business to reform their processes and inject new knowledge they will continue to benefit from after the consultant has left.
In crisis situations they may take up day to work executive work in your company when a shortfall has been left by resignations or redundancies to ensure the business keeps operating until its been fully pivoted into its new form.