Most interim managers working in the public sector have dropped their daily rates - some by as much as 30+% - as a result of a tightening market for their services, according to a new survey by Gatenby Sanderson Interim Leadership.

The largest group of survey respondents who dropped their daily rates had reduced them by between 10% and 19%, with the smallest proportion cutting their fees by the largest percentage. However, a quarter of the 70 interims taking part had not cut their fees at all. Current daily rates average between £500 and £800, according to Gatenby Sanderson.

Interim managers who are registered with Gatenby Sanderson took part in the recent survey. The results were revealed last Thursday by managing partner Martin Tucker at the firm’s spring seminar in London. Discussion focused on the road ahead for public sector interims, where demand has plummeted in the last year.
“Volumes are down right across the public sector compared to a year ago,” Tucker told Recruiter.

However, seminar guest speaker Dean Shoesmith, joint head of HR for the London Boroughs of Sutton and Merton, predicted that the public sector demand will rise later in the year for interims to handle project management work. On the other hand interims will find less opportunity to cover specific jobs as local authorities undergo the transformation “from sloth to greyhound”, he said.

Shoesmith also forecasted a shift to more performance-based reward as the public sector’s emphasis changes from the “what” to the “how” of work.

“We are obsessed with what we do; what we aren’t very good at is how we do it,” he said.

The current interim tally at Shoesmith’s workplaces is three in Merton and one in Sutton. He told Recruiter that in his own operations, interims were most needed in change management/transformation work, including the transformation of social care.