• Demand for interim professionals in Germany continues to rise, with the highest demand in the areas of finance & accounting and IT
  
• Daily rates for interim managers, up on the previous year
• Soft skills are becoming increasingly important: about half of interim managers take on management positions

11/05/2023 – Management positions remain permanently unfilled, long-term absences in management hinder day-to-day business or the right skills for managing large internal projects are lacking - challenges that many companies are meeting today with the use of interim professionals. Thomas Krentscher, Manager for IT and Interim Management at the personnel consultancy Robert Walters, gives an overview of the current market situation and trends in interim management.

Need and demand for interim professionals in Germany

Interim managers are increasingly being used by companies to bridge bottlenecks in their business processes. According to Krentscher, organisational restructuring, performance improvements and crisis management often lead to an acute need for project leaders or managers. The increased demand for interim managers mainly concerns finance, project managers, and senior executives. In addition to the classic needs in finance and IT, the current global political situation and the associated supply chain difficulties have also increased demand for supply chain management needs.

Thomas Krentscher emphasises: ,We are currently seeing a high demand from international companies for interim professionals. This is the quickest way for companies to get hold of talent with often very niche-related skills who can also smoothly implement internationally proven business models. The increased demand for interim managers mainly concerns two specific areas: Professionals without management responsibility, the interim specialist, and professionals with management responsibility, the interim manager.’

Important skills of interim professionals in Germany

Soft skills are becoming increasingly important in interim projects, as about half of interim professionals hold management positions with their clients. In addition, sufficient flexibility is important, as interim professionals must adapt quickly to new environments and conditions. On the other hand, digitalisation and automation projects require very specific knowledge that interim professionals can bring to companies.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The topic of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with its many facets is still unknown territory for many companies. Therefore, they try to push forward corresponding projects by employing highly specialised interim managers in this field.

Duration of assignments and demographic data

The average duration of an interim professional's assignment is 6 to 12 months. Just under a quarter of interim professionals are female and almost half are in the 50-59 age group.

Daily rates of interim managers have increased compared to the previous year

We see that companies continue to use interim managers to bridge bottlenecks in their business processes. Especially in volatile markets, experts with a lot of experience and corresponding professional competences are needed – we assume that the demand for these profiles will continue to grow and with it the daily rates of interim professionals,’ says Thomas Krentscher.