Ten tips for getting the most from your interim manager

A change within your organisation can create the need for an outside expert. That might be the case if one of your managers leaves suddenly, or if a thorough reorganisation is called for. How do you make the best use of your interim?

1. Map out what you need
First establish whether you really need an interim manager, or whether the required skills and knowledge are already present in your organisation. Then set out precisely what you want to bring your interim in to do.

2. Draw up a profile
What is your interim manager going to do? What qualities and competencies does your ideal candidate have? Do you need someone who knows your sector inside out, or rather someone with a broad and fresh perspective?

3. Choose your agency with care
Engage an agency with a good reputation. Ask fellow business owners and check references online. Look too at whether the agency can offer enough candidates who meet your need.

4. Do not take too long over the selection process
The reason you need an interim is in all likelihood urgent, so do not deliberate endlessly. Listen to your instinct and get the interim working as soon as possible.

5. Do not be startled by their openness
Interims have no emotional attachment to your organisation, and will therefore say plainly and far sooner how things stand, which staff would be better off leaving and what changes are needed. Do not let that alarm you.

6. Work together
Set the objective and the timeframe of the assignment together. Meet regularly and adjust where necessary.

7. Focus on the first few days
An interim has five days to lay a solid foundation, to find out what your requirements are, what needs doing and what is possible. This opening period is crucial. Assignments that fail can almost always be traced back to a poor start.

8. Explain to your staff what the interim is there to do
Be clear about the interim’s role and the temporary nature of the position. Make sure your staff are behind the interim and see their presence as a positive. Your people can often learn useful things from an interim, and they go on benefiting from that long after the interim has gone (and so do you).

9. Do not compare the interim’s fee with your permanent staff’s salaries
The cost of an interim may look high, but remember that it is all-inclusive. You do not have to account for secondary employment benefits, pension contributions or holiday pay.