Jeremy Tipper, managing director of Capital Resource Consulting explains how to make the best of interim management.

Interims are valuable resources that can bring their wealth of experience to help you resolve business critical issues. However, often companies are disappointed by the performance of the Interim, complain that they ‘have not delivered’ and therefore have been an expensive mistake. Here, Jeremy Tipper, Managing Director of Capital Resource Consulting (recruitment best practice advisors), who has himself experience of being an Interim, provides some practical tips to maximise the value of your Interim …

Plan – Clearly defined objectives and deliverables

Ensure that you need the skills of an Interim to do the role in the first place. The most important aspect of this is pulling together a tight brief of what you expect the individual to come in and do for you. A woolly brief will create friction down the line as differing expectations of what the Interim is expected to do arise. Make sure you have clearly defined objectives and responsibilities that the Interim has to perform, and deliverables that can be measured so that you are able to assess performance. Ensure all internal stakeholders agree with the deliverables before you go to market to find the Interim, ensuring expectations are met.

Select – Hire the right Interim

By creating a tight set of deliverables, you are much more likely to be able to identify the skills required for the Interim’s assignment with your business to be successful. You pay a premium for the experience the Interim brings to the assignment – you are not buying potential. So ensure the Interim has ‘been there and done that’. Use a competency-based approach to your interviewing process, focussing questions on achievements and what you need doing in your business. Always take references from previous interim assignments directly with the employer. Don’t rely on recruitment consultants to do this.

Induct – Be Prepared for their arrival

You will no doubt be paying a significant daily rate to the Interim. Make sure they have the opportunity to be productive immediately they start the assignment. This may sound simple but it is amazing how often Interims can’t get their teeth into an assignment because they lack a security pass, network access, email address or a laptop. Make sure all the infrastructure is in place for their arrival.

Most Interims operate at a senior level within the business and it is important they have the opportunity to spend time with the senior stakeholders who have an interest in the project. No doubt they will all have manic diaries so pre-book time for the Interim to meet with each stakeholder in the first few days of their arrival. This will maximise the chances of the Interim being productive straight away.

Support – Help Avoid Roadblocks

Gain feedback from the Interim. Good Interims won’t need any handholding and will want to make a positive impact on your business quickly. One of the key benefits an Interim can bring is that they have no career or reputation to protect within your organisation and so are able (and should expressly asked to) ‘tell it how it is’. However, an Interim can’t be expected to grasp all of the mechanics, politics and culture of your business straight away and will benefit from being able to discuss the best way to tackle issues and hurdles that they come up against during the assignment.

There should always be a ‘corporate sponsor’ for the Interim’s project. The corporate sponsor should have the gravitas within the business to advise the Interim in such situations.

Review – keep the project on track and in budget

The Interim should agree a schedule and plan for the deliverables of the project with the corporate sponsor. Ensure the corporate sponsor and Interim have diarised to meet at the time of key milestones being delivered on the project.

Reward – link remuneration to performance and delivery

When you negotiate the contract with the Interim, it is advisable to link some of their daily rate to deliverables. For example, if the daily rate the Interim wants is £800 per day, offer £650 with a performance based bonus of up to a maximum of £150 that is withheld until the end of the contract. The deliverables should be agreed in the contract. Most good Interim recruitment consultants will provide you with a number of options as to how best to make this work practically.

Debrief – performance review and referencing

Provide the Interim (and the Interim’s recruitment consultant) with candid and constructive feedback on their performance. Just as you will have used references from previous assignments that the Interim has undertaken, you should provide the Interim with a reference which focuses on what the Interim has delivered and be prepared to accept calls from companies who want to use the Interim’s skills in the future.