Interim management fills a vital role keeping organisations going, when employees either take a planned career break, resign, or go sick indefinately. It normally takes at least 2-3 months to recruit and employee a permanent member of staff, and there is a hidden cost of acclimatising them to the environment.

It is much easier to find an experienced interim manager who will take less time to adapt to the organisation, won't expect to be retained if the original employee returns to work, and does not expect to inherit a permanent position in the organisation if the employee does not return.

A similar situation arises when a need arises for skills not presently within the organisation which are only required temporarily, or are needed very quickly. In either case, there is usually a requirement to transfer skills and knowledge at the end of the assignment to a permanent employee.

What are the characteristics of a good interim manager? Employers will be looking for

experience of working in a similar type and size of business

appropriate and proven technical skills for the role which has to be filled

case studies of either leading or working on similar types of projects

usually, experience of team management, staff recruitment, mentoring and transition

The following are examples of successful interim management roles I have taken:

Each made a major contribution to maintaining the customer’s business after loss of employees, or recognition that extra skills and knowledge were needed temporarily:

Staff Benefit Communications service – Chief Technical Officer role within startup software company, replacing key technical staff, growing the operational team, stabilising the product and managing the product release programme

Group Risk insurance system – Systems Manager role within specialist life and disability insurance company, recovering from flawed package implementation and supporting key organisational and regulatory changes

Insurance software component development – Consultancy role within small software house, using evolutionary methods and making business and process model improvements to address the real business requirements

Credit insurance system – Project Manager role within well known London Market software house, working for global insurance provider, recovering the project and managing evolutionary improvements to extend coverage to overseas marketplaces

The list above shows only the interim roles I have completed, I have also considerable experience from earlier IT programme management and project rescue assignments, please view all my case studies