The operators of the portals for interim managers have tried a lot in recent years. As one of the first movers I can have a good say. Such phases are important to identify change potentials. In the meantime, the warehouse of the portal providers has been divided. On the one hand there are those who offer their services for a fee - and on the other hand there are those who do not. Meanwhile I belong quite clearly to the providers, who promote the "Freemium"-approach. This ugly term describes an offer that is free, but contains valuable services.
Did XING and LinkedIn occupy the market long ago?
When we look at the business platforms XING and LinkedIn, the question arises why a platform for interim managers is needed at all. Both providers can do much more (and much even better) than any other portal on the market. The more than 10,000 profiles with the tag "Interim Manager", which we find on XING alone, are the proof. No recruiter needs more. With this potential, sufficient experience and time, every project could be filled with the right candidate. And I know quite a lot companies that are already following this path. With the XING Talent Manager or LinkedIn's recruiting solutions, it is comparatively easy to search and (pre-)select. I myself regularly experience that I am approached by (hitherto) unknown providers who have found my profile during a search. That works. So it's smart and economical for an interim manager to have a well-maintained profile on XING and LinkedIn.
Where there is a lot of light ...
But the strength of the big platforms is also their weakness. The search result is unspecific and too large for a customer to work with. Even more fine-grained searches often deliver more than 100 hits. That's too much - and it's also not recognizable whether the found interim managers are available at all. The important condition "availability" cannot be filtered and must therefore be checked in many individual e-mails or telephone calls. This is quite time-consuming, which is why companies are reluctant to take this route. In addition, we do not find any resilient evaluations of the candidates in the business networks apart from favor references. The recruiter cannot rely on this. The list of disadvantages could be continued - but my point has probably already become clear.
Alternative: Vertical Portals
Do companies then choose a vertical portal for their search query instead of the XING search? In my experience, they don't. Because calling the provider is a much quicker remedy. The agent not only carries out the search and preselection, but also checks availability and is often able to give an assessment of the references. As a result, the customer receives better results much faster. It is much easier and comfortable to work with 2-3 candidates who are presented on a shortlist.
And what about the costs? We've looked into this and received amazing answers from HR managers and buyers. They consider the costs of the providers as "not relevant". The reason we heard was that an interim solution always has a certain "state of emergency" character. In such a situation, quality, reliability and, last but not least, speed count. If everything fits, the client will (gladly) pay a fair price for it.
Should we not better stop using portals?
So why all the effort to run a portal like expertence (and constantly develop it further)? Yes, we live in a time when everyone is talking about the digitalization and automation of business processes. There is hardly a company that has not set up at least one working group to identify corresponding potentials. The trend is your friend. What is valid on the stock markets should also be valid in companies. The call of gold is too tempting and some believe that they have the next unicorn already in their stable.
However, this is only possible to a limited extent when searching for and selecting interim managers. We don't have to search long for the truth. We read more and more often in professional articles that AI reach their limits in recruiting. Big Data only works up to the point where personal impressions and experiences become more important than statistics. And where purely technical boundaries could be crossed, data protection puts a stop to our workflow. The bottom line is that there are more or less powerful databases whose content can be categorized and filtered. This is not disruptive and does not attract investors.
And that's why we're continuing ...
The potential lies above all in search and pre-selection. Certain parts of this process, especially in research, can easily be automated. At least we succeeded very well with expertence. With comparatively little manual effort, we always find the right candidates within 24 hours. While the traditional provider searches for potential candidates manually and has to check their availability, e.g. by telephone, we manage this via a digital process. The cost savings are considerable and can be passed on to the customer. This is neither rocket science nor the egg of Columbus - it is merely consistent and logical.
Recruiting is and remains People Business
Let's have a look at the full process: from the moment we have created the shortlist, the manual work starts for us as well - this is People Business. We conduct interviews in the traditional way - mostly in person, but at least on the phone. And when the candidate moves on to the next round, there is always an on-site interview at the client's premises. Neither the clients nor I want to miss this step. That is a must in my firm conviction.
The disruptive power is missing
All in all, I believe that the portals for interim managers will not develop into a real marketplace - even if other providers would like it that way. The providers are making a classic marketing mistake here. They develop a product of which they themselves are convinced - and then try to convince the customers of it. This is nonsense and in times of Amazon, Uber and Air B&B we should know better. Jeff Bezos has summed up the logic in a quote: "I allways start with the customers perspective - and then think backwards." This is the only way a product or service can develop the disruptive power that some people want.
We are therefore committed to making our databases as convenient as possible so that the maintenance of the manager profile can be carried out as easily and as quickly as possible. In addition, we are constantly expanding the functions for project providers and companies. Not so that they themselves have to search in our pool, but so that available interim managers are made aware of their project offers. We know this from Stepstone, Monster & Co. Automated notifications are used to communicate new projects in a targeted manner to the target group in question. This is an approach that has been tried and tested for many years, which simply does one thing - it works.
About the author:
Uwe Sunkel is founder and managing director of expertence. As Interim Manager, he has been looking after his clients for 15 years. In his role as an external project manager, he takes over the planning and control of (inter)national HR projects at the interfaces between Human Resources, IT and the specialist departments.


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