Many senior executives who want to improve their work-life balance and avoid company politics work as interim managers, writes AMANDA PHELAN

FOR HIRE: Hundreds of high-ranking corporate executives. While most are asking for pay ranging from €700 to €1,500 a day, some will work for free. But all have one demand. They don’t want a permanent position or job security.

A growing number of senior executives are signing up for short-term or part-time jobs, according to recruitment agencies for interim management.

“Many senior executives see interim management as a way of improving their work-life balance, as well as the flexibility to explore a greater range of work experience, especially in these challenging economic times,” says Dr Maeve Houlihan, of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, which has just released a study on this growing business trend, in collaboration with Watershed Interim Management.

However, some business experts are sceptical. They say the use of top-level interim staff was popular up to 2007, when the labour market was tight, but demand is now waning.

“Interims played a big part during the boom times when it was hard to fill senior positions or companies wanted to set up quickly,” said a spokesman for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. “But we’d be surprised if that role was expanding.”

However, recruitment firms with hundreds of senior executives on their books say interim management is an ideal solution for companies seeking high-level staff on flexible contracts.

Mostly aged between 45 and 55, these interim job candidates are usually keen to work full- or part-time on short-term projects. Often they spend the rest of their time with family or studying and pursuing sporting interests such as skiing, golf and sailing. No wonder it’s popular.

“I’m too young to play golf every day, but I don’t want to get into the politics of a permanent position,” says Philip Cottier from Waterford, who has taken advantage of interim management opportunities since selling his own advertising agency.

Cottier (50), who moved to the Republic from England two years ago, says he feels fulfilled by the challenge of working, but he doesn’t want a full-time position because he wants to spend time with his family and study for a masters degree.

It sounds like marriage without the commitment?

“Exactly. There’s a lot of freedom in being able to cherry-pick your projects,”says Cottier, who has even donated his time for free if he believes it’s for a worthwhile cause, such as a recent marketing campaign for an organic food supplier.

“Often when a business needs help they talk to accountants who might know about finance. But they need help in other areas, such as expanding their market,” says Cottier, who is on the books of the Executives Online agency.

This online recruitment firm says there is more demand for interim managers during the economic downturn, particularly when senior-level redundancies result in loss of corporate memory.

“We’re seeing many companies move to interim management solutions,” says Executives Online managing director Michael Dwyer.

“The company gets the benefit of instant experience and a capability that’s almost certainly one rank higher than the job required.”

Dwyer, who bought into the web-based employment franchise six months ago, has a 25-year background in recruitment and says interim management is now catching on here, although it has been popular in Britain, Scandinavia and the US since the 1980s.

He has 60,000 high-ranking professionals on his books from a range of countries.

The typical interim management candidate is male, professionally qualified, a senior executive with at least 16 to 20 years’ mainstream career experience and is usually in their late 40s or early 50s.

Interim managers come from a range of professional backgrounds – from finance and human resources through to operations, general management and change management. While most are male, some senior women are available, often as their children get older.

This is the new corporate culture, says Watershed Interim Management managing director Robert Wasson. “It’s continuing to rise as organisations find more flexible ways to get input from senior people, without necessarily having to increase their permanent headcount.”

Watershed has 1,300 people on its books between here and Britain.