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Interim manager: a new staffing tool for HRDs

As we know, for some years now, all decisions concerning human resources must be part of the company's global strategy. From the traditional role of guarantor of the legality of the employment relationship, the HRD has become over time a "business-partner " and then a true "business-maker".

If the long-term missions of the HRD (talent management and career management, development of the " employer brand "development, support for the digital transformation of the company) are well known and valued, we sometimes overlook the more down-to-earth expectations of operational staff with regard to the function: the ability to provide the right profiles at the right time, to allow a project to continue, to provide for an increase in orders, etc.

But staffing, or more precisely its optimization, is not an exact science. It is a delicate exercise that needs to be repeated regularly, in order to reconcile several criteria: satisfaction of internal teams, cost control and operational performance.

The global health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been raging for over a year with its share of site closures and recruitment freezes, represents new challenges for HRDs and their teams, putting them under more pressure than ever. 

HRDs face two major challenges in managing staffing

1. On the one hand, to find an efficient and fast alternative to the traditional method of recruiting executives, while limiting the risks

HR departments can no longer rely solely on the traditional process of recruiting executives on permanent contracts, a process that can be time-consuming, costly and sometimes even ineffective. The statistics are consistent: one in three permanent contracts does not last more than one year, and one in two does not last more than three years.

As everyone knows, recruitment is a delicate art, even for the most experienced HR managers. Every unsuitable choice can have regrettable consequences for the company. It is difficult for an employer to validate, over a short period (2 to 6 months), both the skills and the real personality of a candidate, just as it is difficult for an employee to evaluate the adequacy of the position with his or her aspirations or to get a clearer idea of the quality of the management and even the corporate culture.

Recruit faster and without risk

In their day-to-day staffing tasks, HR Departments are faced with the triple imperative of flexibility, agility and speed.

In many situations, the open-ended recruitment process cannot fully respond to these constraints.

So what better way to reconcile a company's occasional needs than with interim management, thanks to the availability on the relevant market of the profiles required at the right time? Through interim managers, HR departments find a new way of recruiting, with agility and speed, effective resources that are immediately available.

So, unlike traditional recruitment, there are no advertisements, no lengthy selection process culminating in several interviews at different levels of the company, the establishment of a "short list", the negotiation of an employment contract with one or even two prospective candidates, and so on. In this respect, human resources departments have realized that they have a new string to their bow. anew string to their bow when it comes to meeting their senior management needs, and not just for the short term, but also for the long term. Interim managers are reaping the rewards of their strengthsAnd if the interim manager (who is generally experienced and immediately operational) satisfies the company, the latter can always offer him or her a permanent contract at the end of the assignment.

2. On the other hand, to find a better value for money in the labour market

In the current economic context, optimizing recruitment costs is now an important issue for all HR departments.

Indeed, one of the missions of HRDs is to improve the recruitment of specialized skills while reducing the cost of labor. A cost which, as we all know, remains very high in France. In addition to the monthly salary, the company must pay social security contributions, payroll taxes, paid holidays, costs related to work stoppage, professional training costs and sometimes severance pay. In addition, there are integration costs and the risk of failure, which can also be significant for the company.

The subject of labour costs becomes essential when it comes to reinforcing teams from time to time, to "staff" them for a project while minimising the risks. This is when you have to know how to count, quickly and well.

Interim management is an alternative to recruitment, providing an immediate and effective solution at a known cost to the employer.

The costs to the company can be significantly reduced by using an interim manager. Firstly, the employer gains in recruitment time and efficiency by using an interim management firm, which has a wide range of talents with varied expertise and experience, generally available within a maximum of 15 days. Secondly, the company only pays for the days worked, thus avoiding the costs associated with work stoppages as required under a fixed-term contract, with no work in return.

As far as legal risks are concerned, here too, the potential costs are virtually nil, since there is a contract with the interim management firm that includes performance guarantees. In fact, when a company calls on the services of an interim management firm, it benefits from the firm's monitoring and steering of the assignment. The aim of this monitoring and steering is to optimize project management and minimize risks.

In addition, interim management offers the company a means of refocusing its permanent fixed costs on its core business, while at the same time providing a high level of responsiveness to meet occasional but equally key needs.

The solution of interim management allows to better manage and allocate resources for companies that need to urgently recruit an executive capable of taking charge of a team, a project... over a given period of time, a financial director or a HR director for example.

Interim management can also cover an even longer period. In this case, it is often aimed at experienced managers and executives, experts in their field, who are entrusted with a large-scale project: change management, organizational transformation, etc. This concerns all kinds of assignments, for which the use of an independent, professional external expert can speed up the process. This applies to all kinds of assignments, for which recourse to an independent, professional external expert will accelerate the process: audit phase, action plan and rapid start-up guaranteed!

Interim management assignments are changing

1. Priority to interim managers who impact the business

Whenever a company is faced with a crisis situation or an urgent need to improve performance in order to relaunch business, the alternative of calling on the services of an interim manager for a limited period should be seriously considered by HR departments and company management.

The health crisis linked to the Covid-19 pandemic has prompted companies to transform and rethink their recruitment processes to counter the economic and financial consequences. To meet urgent executive needs, companies can use interim management to find experts within a few hours who are fully operational and competent on current or planned projects. Backed by their past experience and expertise, interim managers are able to step in at a moment's notice, with minimal impact on the company.

In this context, the interim management solution, which offers assignments in project mode, is highly attractive to companies. The interim manager can quickly and effectively staff a team in positions of great responsibility.

2. Missions in project mode and less in crisis management

Over the years, we have seen that the recruitment of interim managers has changed both in terms of their targets and their objectives. For a long time, interim managers were only associated with crisis management and restructuring, but today they are entrusted with broader and more permanent missions that are not linked to the support of a company's transformation project. It is true that the company can thus benefit from flexible, agile and mobile executives.

Recognition of the qualities of interim managers

Interim management is a must-have solution that has proven its effectiveness and won over companies in both crisis and growth periods.

In most cases, companies that call on interim management services benefit from the services of a credible, well-respected interim manager, while at the same time minimizing their recruitment costs and, more generally, their labor costs.

By mastering the fundamentals of the business and putting them into action quickly, the interim manager is able to instill confidence in the company's internal teams, effectively rallying them around the objectives of the assignment.

This solution is a solid and efficient alternative to traditional recruitment, offering HRDs more security in responding to an immediate need for specialized skills, at a cost knownin advance.

Eating at IMfinity

The solution of interim management is a must which has proven its effectiveness
and seduced companies in times of crisis as well as in times of growth.

Written under the supervision of Francis Fernandez-Mouron.