Howan‘Interim’responseyieldslastingdividends
18 February 2010
Deirdre O’Shaughnessy explains how restructuring as a response to the downturn has exacerbated perennial issues of talent management in financial services.
A return to growth for the Irish economy will be a welcome reversal of recent events, but domestic and export-led financial services will take somewhat longer to recover and cost control will dominate daily operations and forward planning in the sector for a while yet. However, if recent crises have tested our financial services companies like nothing before, they have also induced a greater willingness among managements to push out the envelope in search of viable strategies to cope with recession and exploit the recovery when it comes.
An essential part of that process is having people of the required calibre in strategic positions but, as Deirdre O’Shaughnessy of InterIM Executives observes, many financial services operators now find themselves faced with a balancing act between the need to manage HR costs, yet at the same time maintaining a full complement of the executive skills necessary to compete effectively. “Talent deficits can arise at any time, even in recession, and a complicating factor is that the restructuring effected over the past year has exacerbated this”, she says.
Her own experience suggests that decision-makers are tackling this issue by looking beyond traditional hiring strategies, particularly when addressing shortages at mid-to senior management level (from Head of Function right up to CEO). Banks, fund managers, insurers and others that might previously have committed themselves to permanent recruitment (and the associated permanent overhead!) are now filling vital roles by placing high quality, experienced managers on a pro tem basis.
Hiring an interim manager is an efficient, cost-effective route to resolving talent shortages at higher executive and specialist skill levels. Engaging an interim manager provides fast access to managerial talent, but only for as long as needed: there are no long term commitments in terms of salary, bonuses, pensions, etc, and a suitable candidate can be identified and in situ in a fraction of the time a conventional recruitment process would take.
Interim managers span all of the main business disciplines, including finance, marketing, operations, human resources, sales, IT, etc. They are highly qualified, personally motivated people at the top of their profession, usually with more than 20 years experience. In fact, most are over-qualified for the tasks entrusted to them, and thus make a real, measurable, net contribution from the moment they commence an assignment. For this reason, interim management cannot be equated with ‘temping’. Their depth of talent and experience means they are much more than executive functionaries and their input at operational and strategic levels is significant.
According to O’Shaughnessy, this depth of experience is hugely beneficial to clients. Each manager brings a ‘fresh pair of eyes’ to their working environment, and shares the benefits of their previous experience among their erstwhile colleagues. When the assignment finishes and the interim manager moves on, more often than not they leave behind a working legacy – a managerial ‘footprint’ – that continues to benefit the client organisation.
Obviously, the travails of the financial services sector have impacted on employment levels and there are many people, even at senior levels, who are now available for gainful employment. For an employer affected by talent shortages, it might be tempting to dip into this pool of apparently available talent, but doing so entails all of the chores normally associated with conventional recruitment, i.e. trawling through CVs to assess candidates’ suitability, relevant experience, qualifications, and so on.
The benefit of interim management is that the service provider assesses each client organisation’s needs and objectives and provides a choice of appropriately qualified and experienced executives. The process is outsourced, with a minimal demand on the client’s time and – most importantly in the current climate – comes at an affordable, measurable, and predictable cost.
From FINANCE DUBLIN, February 2010.