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Companies will want to turn headcount on and off

Organisations will be scrutinising staffing levels as economic conditions worsen and one option will be to look at ways to switch headcounts "on and off", said Tarquin Bennett-Coles, director of RSA Interims.

Speaking at an RSA Interims networking event in November held at the prestigious RAC club, Pall Mall, he said when the going got tough companies were likely to explore more flexible staffing options.

According to RSA figures, the leading global provider of life sciences interim managers, pharma is still the largest user within the sector accounting for almost half of all RSA's interims on assignment. Biotech has been catching up and its share of a quarter of all RSA interim managers is predicted to rise further. The majority of RSA interims were working in clinical and regulatory (47%), sales and marketing (18%), quality and manufacturing (16%) and Medical (8%).

Speaker John Forsaith, who gave a client perspective of using interim managers, said: "The interim market is here to stay and is set to grow. It has a real contribution to make to business in the UK."

John, a consultant who has worked for several years with PowderMed, likened interims to master craftsmen, suggesting they shared many attributes, including:

immediate engagement with the task
good understanding on not just their patch but of the adjacent patches
able to foresee problems, not just solve them
challenging current thinking
high-quality outcomes
pushing boundaries
positive engagement with colleagues
successful termination.

Denise Anderson gave the 70-strong audience a glimpse of her experience both as a consultant and an interim. Her interim roles have included medical adviser, medical reviewer, head of clinical affairs and pharmacovigilance and head of medical affairs.

She summed up the positive aspects of being an interim as:

challenge to get up to speed asap - go in running
well respected
boosts confidence
great people to work for and with
contact with a variety of work colleagues
office environment
support from agency.

And her tips for success were:

learn to say no
don't try to fill the week
leave time for admin, training and networking etc
assume all roles will last for longer than expected
learn all names in office quickly
be selective - don't work for clients who don't pay
have different rates for different roles/clients
ensure contracts are in place
leave when cease to enjoy role
don't forget work-life balance.

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