Interim Management as part of an HR Strategy

By David Kitchen, Interim head of human resources and David Billingham, Former head of HR, Britannic Assurance plc

Why the use of interim executives is central to strategic resourcing: an interim’s perspective

"The right interim can make an immediate contribution to enhancing and improving shareholder value. in private equity-backed businesses this demands a range of qualities, including exceptional interpersonal skills. such an interim can normally only be found through the engagement of a specialist provider." Alan Cornish, non-executive chairman, Azzurri Communications. Member of the chairmen’s board, 3i

Most aspects of HR have a healthy, tactical base, in order to deal with rapid business change. None, however, has been so rooted in the immediate and the reactive as resourcing activity – the way we get our people. We often get no further than a head-count budget and a sum of money for temporary staff.

As time goes by, this rudimentary assessment flies in the face of what has happened in the world of work. So what has happened? The nineties were the aftermath of two decades of downsizing, reorganisation and acquisition. All of those phenomena existed before, but in the nineties they were put together in an orchestrated way and became part of business life.

The manpower plan for a company graduated from “permanents and temporaries” to a full-scale assessment of the work to be done and how it could be done cost-effectively. Contractors, consultants, project workers and interim managers joined the ranks of the full-timers and temps – and resourcing became centre-stage HR strategy. Compensation and training and, for that matter, employee relations, are basically to do with how you treat people once you have them. More important are the why and how in the manpower economics equation.

Presumably, the equation is about meeting a business requirement at optimal labour cost. It seems a long way from the old career model of employment, suited to dynastic, nil-change environments. It doesn’t seem all that close to the vestigial, permanent employment scene either – not with what is going on out there today. In the nineties, companies rented their assets; why not now rent their people?

Many organisations are doing so already, by subcontracting. They have confronted the fact that the business world has changed and that there are organisations around with more know-how in certain areas. Meanwhile, outsourcing is also growing in popularity and becoming more organised. The whole intermediary sector has become a defined, structured market, just as the temporary staff business did many years earlier.

Then there are activities that a company prefers to do itself. This rapidly diminishing list still has a question mark over it. Is it better to view this work as finite, serving to achieve a specific objective, manageable more as a project than a permanent activity? If it is better seen as a project, how will it be staffed and by whom? Insiders may not have the time or the expertise to handle it, and if they do, what else have they been doing to justify their place on the payroll?

Setting the stage for change

There are a range of possibilities for your business: outsource the payroll department; subcontract the treasury; go into partnership in a key division; achieve a contractor-to-permanent ratio of 1:2; change direction in operations across Europe; launch something new; get out of something old; kick-start an overhaul of central management; inject new strengths; change the business model; inject new culture. So what should you choose?

We usually go to management consultancies for the answer, assuming that we have not changed the chief executive, financial director or other key players. The consultants tell us what to do, and usually, the advice is relevant, timely and informed. However, it typically points to significant change. We also go to management consultancies when there isn’t a problem, largely to keep the place up to speed, and to infuse popular catch phrases into tired organisations. Both approaches are laudable, but they are bound to beg the question: how can you achieve what you would really love to do?

No professional is short of dreams. We know what needs to be done. There is an alliance and trust among people dedicated to the same aim or plan. Permanent staff members are the people who understand the background of the company and who express its aims and its culture. The shortcoming, often, is that we can’t detach from the domestic agenda and take a grip on the resourcing imperative.

This is particularly true of the core, or sacrosanct, areas of management such as finance and, indeed, HR. These are the parts of the organisation that demand cultural and specialised know-how. As a matter of fact, together with IT, they are the principal supply sources of interim management.

So where can interim management help? And what does it offer? Why is it central to strategic resourcing?

What's New?

Interim management as part of an HR strategy

Why the use of interim executives is central to strategic resourcing: an interim’s perspective

Setting the stage for change