Boyden Interim Management Q1 Update 2012

Welcome to the Boyden Interim Management Q1 Update.

In this short bulletin, we bring you our view on the market and year ahead as well as news about our team, recent legislative changes and our Annual Survey.

The Market:

Despite the challenging and uncertain macro economic climate, we remain cautiously optimistic regarding demand for UK interim executives in 2012. As in 2011, we expect companies to continue to seek operational turnarounds and solutions without committing to long term employment. Over the last 12 months, we have witnessed continued strong demand for the most able interim managers, particularly at the higher end of the market where seniority and experience are critical in a change phase. This more senior end of the market remains our focus and core area of strength. These may be uncertain times but companies continue to hire senior interim managers for a variety of reasons, including: where there is insufficient in-house expertise, an unforeseen gap in senior management, difficulty recruiting from the permanent market or the need for a catalyst role to strengthen leadership capabilities and drive change.

In terms of financial performance, 2011 was another strong year for Boyden Interim Management, growing by 22.5% YOY. Similar strong growth was also seen on the Executive Search side of the business.

Survey:

We have recently launched this year’s Annual Interim Management Survey. Many thanks to all who have contributed to this. We have been undertaking our annual surveys for a decade now, gathering and analysing data on the preceding year’s key metrics, emerging trends and demand patterns across our industry. This survey considers the responses from hundreds of our interim managers and client companies, making it one of the largest and most definitive surveys in the UK. The results never fail to give a fascinating insight into our industry and will be published in early March.

Certainly, one key trend upon which we are all already agreed is that the client side interviewing and overall assessment process in the Interim market has changed dramatically, certainly in the last decade, and even in the last year. This was highlighted in a recent white paper by Andrew Watts, Associate Partner and an extract of which was published in the Grapevine magazine. The full paper can be found on our website, please click here to see full article. In this paper, Andrew comments on the changing nature of the Interim recruitment process and how this reflects the current market.

Our Team:

We are continuing to invest in strategic growth areas and have recently announced four new hires for the London office, including Chris Lain who joins Boyden Interim as a Research Consultant from Veredus.

We will be announcing further key hires to the Interim team shortly. Elsewhere in Boyden UK, we have recently announced the appointment of Neil McKay to the Search practice, who joins us from Korn/ Ferry Whitehead Mann.  Neil will play a key role in the further development of Boyden’s UK and European financial services practice.

Recent Legislation:

On the 1st October 2011, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) came into force. The purpose of these regulations is to provide temporary workers with equal treatment in terms of basic working and employment conditions as if they had been employed directly to do the same job. There has been some concern in the market as to how these regulations might affect the Interim Management industry – clients, providers and candidates alike. Having considered the available advice to date, our view is that Interim Managers who provide their services through their own limited companies are very unlikely to be covered by the scope of the regulations.

This statute would not seem to be intended to cover workers who are genuinely in business on their own account with a requisite level of autonomy. Although the regulations are not directly linked to tax status, the tests used to assess whether an individual is genuinely self-employed appear to be similar. In summary, our requirement remains that our Interim Managers operate through a limited company rather than any other mechanism. Further guidance on the AWR can be found on the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website
and also through the Interim Management Association. (please click here to see a copy)  

Boyden:

Our recent growth reinforces the fact that there is a compelling case in today’s market for organisations to recruit an Interim Manager – speed, efficiency, flexibility. With an average turnaround time of 5-10 working days from brief to placement, we are ideally positioned to deliver rapid, effective solutions. This is possible because we work with a select portfolio of Interim Managers, whom we believe to be the ‘cream of the crop’, carefully selected to match our clients' requirements. We also have unrivalled access to the very best global Interim Management talent, through our network of over 70 offices worldwide. In summary, Interim Management is the ultimate flexible resource tool, ideally suited to those businesses that want to rapidly adapt and change without long term commitment to cost.

If you wish to discuss a particular requirement or just find out more about the Interim market, please do not hesitate to contact the team on +44 (0)207 925 3411. We look forward to working together in 2012.

Please do visit our website www.boydeninterim.co.uk. The website is regularly updated with interesting articles and research, covering both UK and global perspectives.

Boyden Interim Limited
Ames House
7 Duke of York Street
London SW1Y 6LA
Switchboard: +44 (0) 207 925 3411

interim@boydeninterim.co.uk
Web: www.boydeninterim.co.uk