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It is an interesting time for those of us in the interim market place. I hear some of the providers are doing very well in this climate and others who are struggling to pick up new assignments. Due to the efforts of the team at Interim Partners I am pleased to report that we are within the former group and not the latter.
My understanding is that the market for interim managers is not suffering to the same extent as the permanent recruitment market, however, there are certainly more interims in the market and considerably more candidates who are interested in a first move into interim management. We spotted an interesting stat with Google that supports this – the relative number of searches on Google in the UK for the terms such as “interim jobs” has increased from an index of 68 in May 08 to 100 in Jan 09 (an increase of 47%). Could this rise in interest be attributed to the economic downturn?
We focus on placing candidates who have proven track records as interim managers. Equally we are keen to support those that are entering the market through choice and have made a real commitment to develop a track record as an interim manager. Unfortunately there will always be candidates who position themselves as interim managers but really are just looking for work to provide continuity of income before the next permanent position comes up. There is nothing wrong with this in principle because everyone wants to work although the provider community has a responsibility to spot this so it doesn’t put too much downward pressure on rates for genuine interim managers.
Ultimately I hope that the increased flow of candidates into interim management will prove to be good news. We want to attract high quality candidates into it and hope that awareness and the market itself will grow as a consequence.
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March 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
It is true that there will be downward pressure on rates in a true free market and as an Austrian School thinker I have absolutely no objection to the free market balancing supply and demand through pricing. This is as it should be. More pertinent is that some of these providers are positioning themselves as genuine interims whilst looking for permanent work and that could leave a client and thus the market with a dented impression of interims if they experience taking someone on for a fixed term project only to find them leaving to persue their career aspirations before the assignment is complete. It is a difficult line to walk. Clearly clients looking to lower their risk should be looking for a proven track record but this will make it more difficult for a genuine convert to the interim mindset to make the first move.