Some complex one-off projects can be handled more effectively by interim managers than incumbent staff. Jason Atkinson explains why
In the current economic climate, many businesses are restructuring or dealing with complex change management projects. Often, they lack the skills or resources in house to handle these projects, and one of the ways in which some companies are dealing with these challenges is to deploy interim managers. It is a misconception that interim managers are the preserve of large companies only – smaller companies sometimes use them on a part time basis.
What are interim managers?
Interim Managers are skilled individuals who can bring specific experience to an organisation for a set period of time. They often have a proven reputation for implementation and will be expected to deliver results from day one. They work on a daily rate so their costs can be carefully managed by companies hiring them and they come without the overheads associated with recruiting a permanent employee – there is no holiday pay, sick pay or pension.
Briefing and integration
But, there are several considerations that a company should make before hiring an interim. Firstly, it is important that they can provide a detailed brief of the job role with clear goals laid out, set deliverables, timescales and expectations, so the individual knows exactly what they have to deliver from day one. Often when interim assignments go wrong they can be traced back to the initial briefing stages.
Another consideration is how the interim manager will integrate into the organisation’s structure and work within teams and also how they will hand over their work once the assignment is completed. Interims are generally hired because they have knowledge and skills that are missing within an organisation, so businesses should set up processes to ensure some of this knowledge and skills can be transferred to internal staff before the interim manager leaves.
Interims aren’t shrinking violets either – often they are there to deliver major change processes, make tough decisions and bring to the table an objective perspective and solutions that might not be received well by everyone in an organisation.
Example 1: Charity finance
Where projects work well it is because businesses have a clear brief that addresses address specific challenges. For example in the charity sector, interim managers are being brought to help bid for government funds.
For many charities, tendering for funding is a completely new area, so they are using interims from commercial backgrounds to help them put together successful tender bids, negotiate contracts and grants and to implement financial strategies that will help their long term financial success. They are also using them to train internal staff and pass on their knowledge and skills so in the future charities can bid for contracts independently.
Tom Hamilton, is an experienced finance director whose experience has involved tender exercises for capital projects, professional appointments, PFI negotiations and planning applications to develop ground as well as cost cutting and business development models and appraisals. He is currently working for a charity.
Tom believes that interims are being used more for this kind of work because projects such as tendering for contracts or fund raising tend of be one-off in nature and interim managers who are experienced in this area can come in and get on with the work from day one – there is no learning curve. He also feels they are well behind the private sector in terms of efficiencies and deliveries and that interims can help voluntary organisations develop commercial skills.
Example 2: Change management
A consideration for organisations that need to deliver major change management programmes involving complex business or people issues is that they should be looking to work with an interim who has a proven track record in these areas. It helps if the individual knows how to work with an organisation going through sensitive and difficult times. Ian Gray is a highly experienced turnaround expert and has a track record including projects with Golden Wonder and Tottenham Hotspur, as well as public sector organisations. Ian believes that getting the buy-in from the people within the organisation on any change management project is essential. Ian recently worked on two major projects for Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust in Croydon, and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust where he was tasked with delivering major process improvements and eliminating millions of pounds of deficit.
In 2006, Ian began work at Mayday to undertake a project which eliminated a predicted £9m deficit through effective financial and commercial evaluation of the organisation in just four and a half months. To do this, he first conducted a complete financial and commercial evaluation and then worked closely with the senior managers and clinical and non clinical staff to make changes to improve working practices and save money whilst ensuring that patients received the best standard of care.
One of the main areas of inefficiency was in the operating theatres – something which Ian tackled first. There were 12 operating theatres in the trust, but only eight could be used at any one time because of the number of surgeons available and the need to clean theatres following operations. With the theatres were working at just 66% efficiency, Ian advised that four theatres should be closed and the remaining ones should be rotated to ensure they could be cleaned and fully staffed. This change was implemented and the efficiency level rocketed to 95%.
A key part of the success of the turnaround project was to ensure that all staff including managers, clinical staff and non clinical were involved in the decision making and ‘bought into’ the new processes. Ian ensured that mentoring was available to them to help them deal with the changes.
The right environment
Interims can offer businesses a flexible, experienced and immediate resource that can help them address their most complex challenges. But businesses need to ensure first that they set up the right environment and put processes in place that will ensure the project is successful and delivers lasting value.