New gun in town

Lots of people would like to be their own boss. Luckily for highly skilled or experienced social housing managers, there is a career path that allows them to work more independently – and doesn’t even involve the added stress of owning a business. Such people can become interim managers – troubleshooters who join an organisation for anything between three months and a year to fix specific problems or manage change.

Recruitment experts say demand for such individuals is rising fast. But, before you rush to hand your notice in, be warned: it can involve instability so it’s not for everyone.

So just what does it involve?

Rachel Osborne, managing consultant at Veredus Interim Management, says interims play a different role from housing or management consultants. “Unlike consultants, they take an active part in implementing strategies they introduce so they may stay with their client for six months or longer.” Pay rates for interim managers range from £400 to £600 a day at director level, to £1000 a day for a former chief executive with an exceptional track record.

And demand for them is growing.

Pam Smith, director of recruitment at Tribal Interim Resourcing, which finds interims primarily for the public sector, says that more than 40% of her company’s clients are registered social landlords.

“Interims aim to add value to their service from day one of their assignment...

They make more of an immediate impact.” They also appeal to social landlords because they tend to be cheaper than management consultants, Smith says. That’s because they actually solve problems rather than merely pointing them out.

Smith says people often think interims are all semi-retired housing professionals, but she is seeing more and more people in their 40s and 50s choose interim work as part of a more flexible “portfolio” career.

Others become interims as a stop-gap measure following redundancy and then decide the new lifestyle suits – as was the case with 40-something Tony Brown.

Brown has worked as an interim manager for five years and has spent the past 16 months helping Wolverhampton council set up its arm’s-length management organisation. He started interim management work after being made redundant from his job of seven years as director of housing at Waltham Forest council, following major structural change in the organisation.

He found there was strong demand for his experience in performance management but admits starting out was nerve-racking.

“It felt like jumping off a cliff,” he says.

“I didn’t know how much work I would get or how much I would get paid, and I went through feast and famine periods.

“But my experience at Waltham Forest, where I had managed projects such as the creation of a housing action trust, had set me in good stead and I gradually built up a profile in change management – especially in stock option appraisal.”

Brown says he has now been in constant work for the past three years. And he relishes the variety of his work – as well as the fact that he is able to avoid any meetings that don’t directly relate to the area he is working on. Clients also value the fresh perspective he can bring to solving problems, he says.

Sally Waltham is another good example of how working as an interim can be good for you. Currently working at Edinvara Housing Association, part of Places for People, she decided on interim management after being made redundant from a council where she worked as director of housing and planning. She has never looked back and has now been working as an interim for three years. “I thrive on the variety of my work and the new challenge each assignment brings,” she says.

Both Brown and Waltham say you need to be prepared to go where the work takes you. Brown got so sick of hotels that he now usually lives on site in a property belonging to the organisation. Waltham agrees, but chooses to rent a flat privately for each assignment. As she says: “Having your own space is vital and my current location on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile is a bonus.”