Who are the Interim Managers?

Servitalent was born almost 10 years ago providing Interim Management services, with one of its goals always being to position and promote this activity among companies in Spain, as it has been considered a strategic lever to provide suitable management expertise to the cyclical needs of companies. To achieve this, one of the tools used has been the Report on the State of Interim Management in Spain, which is also becoming a reference in the sector. The results obtained in this study will be included in the fourth edition of our Interim Management Hiring Guide 2023.

With this report and guide from Servitalent, our top priority is to continue promoting this activity, both in Spain and internationally, and supporting the development of the market, as well as providing figures of magnitude to help professionals who practice this activity and companies that want to consider using this service.

About the age, gender and education of interim managers.

One of the main problems in the Spanish job market is the employment of workers over 45 years old, as many professionals who lose their jobs after that age face difficulties in finding another job. In fact, the average time they spend unemployed until they find another job is increasing, and the longer they are unemployed, the more difficult it is for them to return to the workforce. At this point in their professional careers, they have accumulated significant experience that they can leverage and their professional goals increasingly involve leveraging that experience for the market. As a result, interim management is becoming an interesting professional alternative for both the supply side, these professionals, and the demand side, companies, as they increasingly face cyclical needs resulting from ever faster changes in the environment.

Taking into consideration the data from our study for the year 2022, the majority of interim managers are concentrated in the age range of 51 to 60 years old (58%), and if we include those in the age range of 46 to 50 years old, this extends to 75%. Notably, this year saw an increase in the percentage of interims in the age range of 56 to 60 years old, which rose from 20% in the 2022 guide to 29%. It's also worth noting that the percentage of interims in the age range of 61 to 65 years old increased from 9% last year to 14% this year. This indicates that the average age of interim managers is increasing for two reasons. First, it is increasingly seen as a professional alternative for executive profiles that are outside the traditional labor market due to ageism. Second, professionals who started in this activity in these years continue in it to continue their development and are not very willing to return to a structural position.

On the other hand, in terms of gender distribution, as in all the years we have conducted the study, it remains an activity with a majority of men (86%) compared to women (14%), with the rate of women increasing by one percentage point this year. We believe the trend is that it will continue to grow in this direction, as there are more and more women who have developed a managerial career and, at some point, decide to venture into this activity.

Lastly, the education of professionals engaged in this activity remains of a high standard, with university and postgraduate studies comprising 94% of the total. This indicates that not only experience is crucial, but also having a solid educational foundation that is up-to-date in order to undertake missions with the greatest guarantee of success in resolving needs and achieving objectives. This increases their value proposition in the market and allows them to even acquire new knowledge to face new missions with different scenarios.

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