Clients confuse IT interims with IT contractors

Many people in the public and private sectors struggle to differentiate between professionals who work as IT interims and those who work as IT contractors, an online survey suggests.

Run for the five months to December 2014, the survey found that 83% of respondents believed most end-clients to not “fully understand” the difference between interims and contractors.

In fact, 825 people said outfits did not distinguish between the two, found the Interim Management Association, which ran the survey on its website. Only 177 people said clients did.

To help such clients, the IMA offered a working definition. Interims are “highly experienced” workers who “deliver a change initiative” at “senior management or board level,” it said.  

They also endeavour to “leave a legacy of benefit” with the organisation after their departure, while their arrival or appointment can be due to “executive absence or departure.”

To further help ensure its members won’t be mistaken for contractors (and vice versa), the IMA has begun a campaign to “promote the value of interim management” to UK firms.

The campaign should help tackle what the association’s chairman Simon Drake called a “grey area” – interim management, temping and professional contracting.

“But a number of factors do distinguish them,” he said. “An interim provides top-level management expertise, providing both advice and implementation.

“A contractor tends to provide a specialist skill at a lower level, and is focused on project delivery. They tend to report to a middle manager rather than…senior management.”

Contractors also tend to have more clearly defined requirements/specifications; and tend to get offered more money at contract renewal, rather than less (as is the case for interims).

The similarities potentially causing their identities to blur is that each operates outside the employment paradigm, and is procured away from the board to provide specialist expertise.