Interim Recruitment and Executive Search Specialist

VMAGROUP has recruited interim, contract and temporaryary communications and marketing professionals for over 40 years. We provide high calibre candidates from our extensive network, working across all sectors and at all levels. In recent years, the volume and scale of change within organisations has caused a considerable increase in the need for interim managers.

Key benefits of hiring an interim manager

• An independent communications or marketing professional with a proven track record, often across multiple sectors
• Extra support for an under-resourced team 
• Over-qualified for the role
• Strategic and tactical delivery focused
• Contracts are flexible, with shorter notice periods and easy to extend or terminate
• Part of the team, but no impact on ‘perm’ headcount numbers
• Able to provide an independent view, away from any internal politics 

Our interim practice at VMAGROUP spans internal and change communications, B2B and B2C communications, marketing, public affairs and investor relations. We have a diverse portfolio of high-quality interim managers available when you need extra support. 

Contracts can be as little as one month in duration but are often three to six months initially. We have a large team of specialist interim recruiters and consultants who work in a fast-paced environment.   

When to use interim managers?

Hiring an interim manager offers your business the opportunity to benefit from highly qualified communications and marketing professionals on a flexible basis. Whether your needs are long-term, short-term, part-time or full-time, our shortlist of candidates are either immediately available or on very short notice periods.  

We know your business may need an interim manager for many reasons. It could be due to difficulty recruiting for a permanent business critical role which requires cover in the short-term. However, one of the main reasons is business-wide change programmes such as a restructure, merger and acquisition, office relocation, organisational change or IT transformation. The majority of our interim managers work on a project basis with a defined beginning and end so they’re able to focus on one project while the central communications or marketing team can concentrate on your business as usual activity.

These are typical interim assignments we support:

• Mergers and acquisitions
• Crisis management
• Marketing for a product launch
• Marketing campaign
• Change and transformation projects
• Improving digital communications or digital marketing offering

You may also need an interim manager for:

• Heavy workload when unable to increase headcount
• Maternity or paternity cover
• Long-term sick leave
• Sudden departure in the team
• Support while recruiting for a permanent candidate

Hiring interim managers in the UK

In the UK, we have been supporting organisations with their interim needs for many years and have developed a successful approach to meeting your hiring requirements.   

Once you’ve shared your brief, we commit to giving you a candidate shortlist within 48 hours. All the profiles will be people we have met, interviewed and often placed in previous interim assignments. The recruitment process is a lot quicker than for permanent roles and is generally one, or at the most, two stages.

When you select the best interim manager for your requirement, we initiate our compliance process. We have compliance managers who work closely with the candidate to make sure their documents are all in order before they start. We then set them up on our timesheet system and you simply approve their weekly timesheets. 

How interim managers in the UK are paid

Interim managers that we work with are paid at a daily rate for their expertise. For the duration of the contract, we pay them directly and you receive a monthly or weekly invoice which includes their day rate and our fee. We have a large network of candidates between £150 and £1,500 a day.

In the UK, you don’t pay any company benefits to the interim manager. The day rate and the VMAGROUP fee are the only outgoings.

Read about some of our recent UK interim communications assignments which highlight the way we have been able to support our clients with their specific interim hiring needs: 

Internal and change communications:

• Brexit change 
• Business restructuring change
• Cultural and behavioural change
• HR change 
• IT change
• M&A change​

Corporate communications:

• Agency pitch transition
• Communications function restructure
• Crisis communications and reputation management
• Developing digital communications functions
• Events management

Did you know that UK day rate contracts can actually be cheaper than FTCs?

Our interim contracts cost breakdown illustrates how cost effective a professional interim on a day rate basis can be.