Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) - Interim Managing Director

The RTPI is a professional membership body which validates qualifications in the UK
and overseas, comments upon planning policy and practice at government and local
level and runs a significant continuing practice development and conference
programme worldwide.

Following a major organisational review, the Executive Board decided to make major
changes to the senior management structure. Reflecting a need to ease the span and
workload of the Secretary General, the first proposal adopted was to appoint a
Managing Director. As a consequence this would mean changes to the roles and
responsibilities of the four Directorates whose chief officers make up the management
team. Given the pressing nature of this change, the Board wished to appoint an
interim Managing Director during the period of recruitment and installation of the new
postholder.

The specification issued by RTPI was seeking one response to cover both the
provision of the interim manager and the recruitment to the permanent post. In
collaboration with a partner agency, Public Appointments, and its Chairman, John
Smith, with whom we have worked previously, we prepared and presented a joint
proposal and were selected. This made for an unusual assignment in that we were the
only agency commissioned and could therefore take a little more time in approaching
and securing candidates.

The brief linked with the permanent recruitment process and the interim manager
actively engaged in the specification and assessment of candidates. The interim role
required a senior manager to move the change programme and proposals forward,
testing both senior management capacity to deliver and the stability of the budget
allocation, whilst preparing the for the office and functions of the Managing Director
without finalising too many processes and role definitions.

We approached 9 candidates, all well known to us personally, with skills ranging from
senior management in local government through director level in central government
to commercial turnaround and new organisation creation. The client received four
CV's and interviewed three candidates, judging all suitable for appointment.

Our candidate successfully managed a complex change programme - some elements
of which were less well embedded than the brief had suggested - and dealt with some
residual issues both of staffing and budget in advance of the arrival of the permanent
postholder. A constructive handover was effected with discussion as to the interim
staying on a contract extension to conclude some of the specific projects in hand.

Eventually, it was concluded that this might confuse matters operationally and this
option was not progressed. John Smith commented positively on the constructive
liaison throughout with our interim manager and the highly positive contribution she
made to his successful recruitment to the permanent post.

Hampshire County Council - Interim Director of Corporate Services

Hampshire County Council failed to recruit to the post of Director of Corporate Services and the Chief Executive was reluctant to embark immediately on another recruitment process. He approached us to discuss the potential use of an interim manager and we discussed the brief and agreed to identify potential suitable candidates for him to consider before deciding how to proceed.

The requirement was to oversee the Corporate Services functions whilst completing a thorough review of them. The desired outcome was to achieve a business oriented approach for Corporate Services in the context of relationships with service functions ensuring a consistent grasp of the need for change and responsive service delivery across the whole team. This required different levels of investment and push to effect a change programme, recognising the opportunities to play to individual and unit strengths, the capacity to ensure a cohesive senior management team and the ability to deliver this within realistic timescales.

We identified four strong prospective candidates - 3 with a senior local authority background and one with a strong commercial and Health Service change management experience. After detailed discussions with them, we submitted the CV's with Candidate Profiles to the Chief Executive. He asked us to interview three in depth and prepare detailed briefings - an unusual approach but one we were content to follow, drawing upon the services of a former recruitment colleague who has current connections with the County Council. The three shortlisted candidates were then interviewed by the Chief Executive with a panel in support and a selection made.

Our candidate worked for just over six months for the County Council. Using our placement fee charge for this placement saved the Council in the region of £30,000 in agency fees based upon the standard margin generally applied to her day rate.

As part of our standard review, after the first month the Chief Executive wrote:-

"I just wanted to confirm Pat's contribution in the short time she has been with us has been very positive and has been hugely beneficial to me in progressing the Corporate Service Reviews."

We kept in regular contact with the interim manager and were able to offer periodic advice and support to the review and the work she was undertaking.

In his post assignment comments the Chief Executive wrote:

"Could I take this opportunity to thank you for putting forward Pat. She has proved to be an extremely capable interim manager who has brought a robust external challenge to a number of key areas for the Council including the completion of the Review of Corporate Services and more recently working with senior officer and members on the Efficiency and Change agendas. Pat has been of enormous help to me and I would have no hesitation in recommending her to other clients."