Are you looking for someone for a management position in you company? You can either hire a full-time manager or an interim manager. What are the pros and cons of an interim manager?

To find the right person for a particular position has been a tough job for HR stuff recently, as there are no suitable candidates for any position. It does not matter if you need to recruit a worker, an administrative assistant, or a manager. There is a lack of people. HR stuff and head-hunters deal with the difficulty day by day.

As far as top management positions are concerned, recruiting an interim manager is considered quite an effective solution. It is highly effective especially for small and middle enterprises.

Employing a full-time top manager

There are several parameters which define the process of recruiting the executive manager. One of them is to choose the best person out of the available candidates. The recruited manager is expected to bring a clear solution. All we need to do is to find the right person who will manage the company. However, it is not so easy.

When you cooperate with an HR organisation or head-hunters, you rely on the fact that there is a large number of interesting candidates to choose from.

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Hiring an interim manager

Hiring an interim manager differs slightly from employing a full-time manager. First, an interim manager is easily accessible. You get a dependable person with experience in short-term assignments, the length of which may vary between 6 months and 2 years, depending on the project. A highly skilled interim manager can form the company’s financial, personal, process and business aspects into the best possible shape.

The interim manager is a partner for the owner as well as for the overall development of the company. The manager brings along experience which they gained when running other companies. They also have new insights into the business.

The interim manager can increase the level of the client’s company. They do not only run the company, but they make it beneficial for all those who are involved – owners, clients, and employees. The interim manager brings an intergenerational overlap into the process of running the business. It may happen when creating advisory or administration board, when the son takes over the leading position from his father or when a new professional managing team is formed, which is expected to run the business on a long-term basis.

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Despite the short-term assignment, the interim manager helps the clients create stable and developing business. All activities are regularly checked, and priorities are set to make sure the company is moving forward. A good interim manager is familiar with the situation in investment circles and therefore can sell the client’s company or to find a suitable investor. Another important task is to find and train a relevant person for a managing position.

The fact that the interim manager cannot find solutions to all serious problems, which are the result of an improper management, may be seen as a disadvantage. And the choice of the available interim managers is also limited, so it is not easy to find the right one when it is urgent.

There is no better or worse solution – it always depends on the current issue

If you are trying to figure out what might be a better option for your business, either a full-time or an interim manager, consider it from the long-term perspective. However, the truth is that hiring an interim manager may be an acceptable solution for many businesses in the future.