Interim management has become more of a way of implementing a strategy than a stopgap solution, according to the chairman of the sector’s trade body.

Nick Robeson, chairman of the Interim Management Association (IMA), said that the way interims are used has changed, with more clients aware of their benefits.

Robeson was speaking as the IMA released its findings from its first annual Ipsos MORI survey into the interim market.

“I think what leapt off the page for me was that 70% of assignments were non-stopgap related opportunities,” Robeson told Recruiter. “Organisations can see the strategic benefits of using interims, rather than just acting as stopgaps.”

In the survey, change and transition management, along with programme and project management, polled 25% of the votes as the top reasons for using interims.

About £1bn a year is paid to interim managers, compared with £500m in 1996.

Robeson said: “Nowadays, with more lean management structures, organisations are recognising the immediate requirement of external capability to implement major, strategic programmes.”

But, whereas in the past firms would call in management consultants to advise existing staff, these firms were now recognising that interims might offer a better way of gaining this expertise.

HR was the most common job function performed by interims at 26%, followed by finance at 16%, with marketing and special projects each at 15%.

Crisis management, which has long been thought to be the preserve of interims, comes in at a relatively low 9%.

Nearly a third more assignments were in the private sector, with 62% against 38% from the public sector.