In Business Mayor | Interim management is a growing opportunity in the freelance revolution
Ferovalo was highlighted in an article about the freelance revolution in Business Mayor.
SHORTLY – Key points from the article:
Interim management is poised to continue its growth hike.
INIMA, the International Network of Interim Manager Associations, has published its new survey, reporting on experiences during 2021, and kindly invited Forbes and the team at Agile Talent Collaborative and #freelancerevolution to take a first look.
INIMA primarily focuses on European interim management. Europe is a principal market for interim, a consequence of Europe’s generally more restrictive employment laws. Unlike “at will” employment relationships typically found in the US and emerging economies, European rules make it more difficult to end an employment relationship without considerable financial penalties. Interim has flourished, in turn, as a tool of talent arbitrage, but often enables an organization to attract more experienced experts than permanent roles would allow.
Ferovalo Oy was also mentioned.
Interim managers tend to have deep experience as temporary leaders. Overall, the average interim experience was about eight years.
Most wanted areas of expertise among interim management talent haven’t changed – top five key functional areas for interim assignment are:
Operations
Finance
HR
IT
Sales
Durations are increasing. The 2021 survey found that durations on assignment averaged just over 11 months, and the 2022 survey results found that across markets, assignments similarly lasted just less than a year.
Fractional interims are a relatively new category. Historically, interims work full-time on assignments until the assignment ends. But fractionalization – an increasing factor in talent staffing and management – is creating new opportunities in the interim field.
More commercial, less public sector.
The commercial organizations hiring interims are divided between startups and larger corporates.
Three key business challenges dominate interim assignments; change management, project execution and process transformation. New business development was also frequently mentioned.
Interim pay is attractive.
In an earlier review of interim management, four themes were evident: increased interest on both the buy and sell side, the rise of interim as a distinct career gateway, the growing range of industries and professions inside of interim – like HR – and the variety of supply points for engaging interim talent. While personal relationships continue to dominate, we see more and more participation by adjacent industries like executive recruiting and consulting.
One new and important trend is worth noting. A far greater supply of retired executives, part of the talent tsunami, are interested in joining the interim ranks. This bodes well for the future of interim management.