A New Year, a new decade and a time for change.

It’s time to reflect.  Not just on another year gone but on the next 10-year horizon.

Economic growth should be stimulated now the UK has left the EU and entered a transition period until the end of 2020.  This, in theory provides at least 11 months of stability and with the shackles off, businesses can now finally plan with some certainty after previous deadlines were not stuck to and the UK remained stuck in Brexit limbo.

Businesses have responded quickly to the UK’s new political landscape according to a recent survey by IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS).  It suggests for example, that the services sector stabilised in December and that order books had picked up, with optimism at its highest level for 15 months.  This concurs with other surveys purporting that Britain’s economy is on course for a strong 2020. The services sector is particularly important because it accounts for around 80 per cent of the British economy.  It also happens to account for a large proportion of our client base.

Organisations need talent to grow and push forward with resourcing plans.  We are entering a period of significant change and the interim world has to adapt.  With the ongoing Brexit twists and turns and the immediate changes to the reforms to IR35 due in April 2020 to the private sector, there are currently more questions than answers.  I believe IR35 does provide an opportunity to ensure that interim assignments are more clearly defined and scoped with pre-determined timescales and objectives.   It reminds me of the ‘true’ interim market when this was the expectation and the norm before the new breed of interim became a thing, creating a ‘grey’ interim world where  it became a convenient route to a permanent role and over use of the title culminating in the growth of the ‘interim’ interim.

Our role is to consult with businesses that all face similar challenges and all need certainty and clarity to move their own organisations forward.   After all, how can we expect businesses to plan if they don’t know what they’re planning for? Resourcing is part of this planning process and certainly makes up the bigger picture when implementing New Year and new decade strategies.  Without the people to execute the plan, nothing happens. Without the flexibility and deliverables an Interim resource provides, the business can’t change.  Without the option of bringing in someone to take advice from, how are you sure the right decision or direction is being taken?

Doing nothing is not a strategy.  Businesses will continue to resource experienced executives in times of change, transformation, restructuring, crisis etc. but the reforms to IR35 quite frankly contradict the modern world we now live in where the effects of technology are quite profound.  Many organisation are becoming more automated regardless of sector, AI is growing and digital transformation is firmly on the agenda.  Flexibility is key. The next 10 years will bring about profound change and resourcing flexible talent must form part of the strategy.

For further information on Macallam Interim Resourcing or for a confidential discussion please contact Steven Wynne, Managing Director on 01423 900804 or steven.wynne@macallaminterim.com  or visit www.macallaminterim.com

IR35 - What you need to know

What is IR35?

IR35 is a complicated set of tax laws that form part of the Finance Act and impacts contractors, freelancers and interims operating via their limited companies. The first piece of legislation came into force in April 2000 and is otherwise known as the Intermediaries Legislation.

IR35 is designed to reduce tax avoidance by contractors who HMRC believe to be “disguised employees”.  People who work in a similar way to full-time employees but bill for their services via their limited companies to make their business as tax efficient as possible but whose relationship with their client is such that had they been paid directly they would be employees of the client are considered to be ‘disguised employees’.

IR35 aims to address the group of contractors who;

(a) operate through an intermediary company, typically a personal service company (PSC) which is a limited company that they own, and

(b) would otherwise be classed as employees in the absence of the intermediary. For example, working permanently and full-time for a single client (that resembles an employer).

The majority of these transactional relationships are genuine, and there are plenty of sole trader limited companies operating in the UK. However, it’s not uncommon for some organisations to pay people in this way so that they can avoid paying employers’ National Insurance contributions or providing employment benefits.

When is this happening?

In April 2017 the Government introduced the "Off-Payroll Reforms", which is a separate piece of new tax legislation that applies to the public sector, but which is also referred to as "IR35". The Government is replacing the original IR35 legislation with the new Off-Payroll Tax, which was initially introduced into the public sector in April 2017, and will be extended to the private sector from April 2020.

What is the new Off-Payroll Tax?

The new Off-Payroll tax came into force by HMRC as it became apparent that the original rules were unenforceable. Whilst they both contain the common theme of "deemed employment", the newer rules introduce a different set of tax treatment, meaning that organisations  will now have to assess the contractor’s status, but, more importantly, pay employment taxes on top of the fees paid to the contractor.

Why did the government introduce IR35?

IR35 legislation ensures that contractors pay the same tax and National Insurance contributions as an equivalent employee would. The new changes to be implemented in April 2020 for private sector contractors will transfer responsibility from contractors to large and medium companies to assess IR35.

Since 2000, contractors have been responsible for self-assessing their IR35 status and National Insurance Contributions. This arrangement has been ineffective and HMRC estimates that, under current rules, the cost of non-compliance in the private sector would escalate to £1.3bn by 2023/24.

Another problem that has contributed to the changes is the scenario where an employee ceases their employment with their employer on Friday only to return on Monday to do the same role in the same location.  The difference of course is that they return as a contractor or consultant trading through a personal services company and pay less tax. 

This can also save the engaging organisation a significant amount of cash, as they no longer have to pay employers’ NICs of 13.8% or the Apprenticeship Levy of 0.5%.  It also means they do not have to offer any employment rights or benefits.

Who will IR35 affect?

IR35 is not only determined by the contents of a written contract, but also looks at the actual working practices. When the working practices do not reflect the contractual terms, the working practices will take precedence over the terms of the contract. There are many aspects to consider when determining whether a contract is subject to IR35, but the two most important factors are;

Control (right of): what degree of control does the client have over what, how, when and where the worker completes the work.

Substitution: is personal service by the worker required, or can the worker send a substitute in their place?

If the client has no right of control over the manner in which you carry out your work and you have the right to either send a substitute worker in your place or sub-contract some of the work or engage other workers to assist you, then it is likely that your contract will fall outside of IR35.

Other factors are then taken into account to determine whether you are caught by IR35 include the contract type, provision of equipment etc. HMRC will apply an employment test to each case that is based on the actual working practices rather than the contract.

All of this evidence is taken into account, and if the balance of probabilities is that the worker is an employee then IR35 applies.

Where the client or end-user is a small business, the PSC will continue to be responsible for assessing if IR35 applies.  Small business, for the purposes of IR35 are;

·         Businesses with a £10m or less

·         Balance sheet of £5m or less

·         50 employees or less.    

If the client or end user is larger than this, they have to make the decision on IR35.  

Can IR35 be avoided?

IR35 can’t be circumvented by organisations, other than to make the choice to engage all contractors on fixed term contracts (FTC).  This would be an expensive, albeit less complicated way of dealing with IR35.  Larger organisations would then have to negotiate with all the contractors they are currently engaged with to take a significant cut in rates in order to cover the additional costs although could be a solution for smaller businesses that don’t use interims that often.

However, for organisations engaging self-employed contractors, IR35 will not apply. That does not prevent HMRC from launching an investigation at a later date.  For those who wish to engage interims outside IR35, and mitigating any IR35 risk they can use IR35 tests to determine if this is correct.

What are the main changes to IR35?

The new IR35 legislation to be introduced in April 2020 shifts responsibility for assessing IR35 obligations from the contractor or PSC to the end-user, which is the company that is the end client.

Where the client concludes that IR35 applies, the ‘fee payer’ (which may be the end-user themselves, a recruitment company, or other third party paying the intermediary) will be responsible for accounting for and paying the related tax and NIC to HMRC, including the additional cost of Employer’s NIC.

Under the proposed changes, the new rules aim to reduce the cost of non-compliance and make it easier for HMRC to monitor and enforce compliance in the future.

However, determining whether you are caught by IR35 is complex, and ideally you should seek expert IR35 advice.

Further Reading and IR35 Resources

HM Government Good Work Plan, December 2018 (Pdf)https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/766167/good-work-plan-command-paper.pdf

Guidance: Off-payroll working through an intermediary (gov.uk) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/understanding-off-payroll-working-ir35

Policy paper: Rules for off-payroll working from April 2020 (HMRC, 11th July 2019) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rules-for-off-payroll-working-from-april-2020

IR35: Working through an intermediary (gov.uk)  https://www.gov.uk/topic/business-tax/ir35

 

The argument in favour of mentoring

The concept of mentoring is well known in business – but what precisely is it?
Mentoring is often defined as a professional relationship in which an experienced person (the mentor) assists another (the mentoree) in developing specific skills and knowledge that will enhance the mentoree’s professional and personal growth.

Therefore – by default – a mentor is a more experienced individual willing to share knowledge with someone less experienced in a relationship of mutual trust. Or, perhaps, a mentor is a trusted advisor or guide or a person who has a sincere desire to enhance the success of others. So, it’s worth understanding a bit more about the benefits of mentoring……

Mentoring enables an individual at any level in an organisation to increase their network through the introduction to people and areas that they might not previously have had access to. Furthermore, mentoring can help individuals cope with periods of major transition and the mentor can help to navigate people through difficult challenges such as influencing key stakeholders, challenging existing mindsets – the status quo - and getting colleagues on board with change.

A mentor can also assist with identifying skills gaps which may be hampering career progression. At some stage in their career, most people will find themselves at a career crossroads which may manifest itself in them being overlooked for promotion or opportunities or unable to understand why the business saw the need to recruit externally. In these situations, mentoring can offer an open and independent perspective as well as objective feedback. Sometimes, we have to hear things we don’t like or want to hear…..

Managing people can often be an area where people can benefit from mentoring. Good people and inter personal skills are critical to career progression and a mentor can discuss management and leadership styles, ways to effectively engage with the team, improving cross functional working as well as looking at the people agenda through transition and change programmes.

It is important to state that too often people say that if you want to scale the corporate ladder, you need a mentor. Mentoring will not work where it is non-neogotiable – the person must genuinely want it and furthermore, if mentoring is only being undertaken for the purposes of paying lip service, it places an unfair and unrealistic dependency on the mentor.

Mentoring is highly dependent on the personal chemistry between the parties, who must both be committed to the process. A chemistry mismatch can occur for all sorts of reasons but, it must be a professional relationship and the process will lose sight of its goal if it becomes too comfortable where there is familiarity and a lack of challenge.

We all complain that time is our greatest challenge and too many people complain that there are insufficient hours in a day. Mentoring is an investment in time and blocking out time for sessions is essential – technology, particularly Skype, can assist where the parties are geographically miles apart, but nothing replaces real face to face engagement for a mentoring session.

We all like to focus on the positive and whilst mentoring is a process for moving forward, the process gives an opportunity to reflect on the past and sometimes, the mentor can share experiences from their career and the mistakes they may have made because the value in making a mistake is to understand what lessons can be learnt to prevent it recurring.

So in summary, whilst we understand the benefits of mentoring, what are the “absolutes?”

1. Don’t do it for the sake of it – be committed to the process
2. Invest time both in preparing for a session and follow up actions
3. Personal chemistry – it must be right
4. Be clear what the purpose is
5. Mutual respect

Article written by Adrian Berwick


Macallam offer a Personal Career Transition service which is a hybrid of coaching and mentoring and assists individuals with the challenges of transition in their professional life.
For more information please call 01423 900804

Cognitive Bias

One of the earlier interim industry benefits (>10 years ago, before the 2008 financial crisis), was an independent interim’s ability to challenge client ‘cognitive bias’, for example, by suggesting betters solutions to ‘the way things are done around here’.

The interim’s ability to tactfully challenge came from experience across many clients and, especially, many sectors.

Client Challenge Example

I recently challenged cognitive bias at a Contracting industry client. Long-standing family and industry mind-sets and practices were tested to create new solutions collaboratively.

Example solutions included technologically advanced (for a ‘basics’ industry), end-to-end digital transformation of core processes and clean data sources for better decision making, having endured paper-based processes and dirty data for many years.

Imagine, if you will, basically educated road workers using mobile devices to capture risk assessment evidence (photos), to track job workflows and to reschedule work priorities; quite a transformation!

The client also turned around from loss-making to profitable in nine months on the back of this, and other cognitive bias challenges.

Commodity Driven Candidate Selection

The Interim Service Provider (ISP) challenge to clients’ mind-sets via their selected candidates appears to have taken a back seat in recent years. It has been replaced by narrowly specified candidate sector experience and CV brokerage introduced from contractor/commodity recruitment practices.

Interims now tend to meet with clients via ISPs selected for client sector fit rather than the ability to champion change and transformation based on broad skillsets and agnostic sector experience.

I think this practice does not well serve UK Plc and the client-ISP-interim industry.

As one respected interim recruiter put it recently: “'More of the same' only results in 'more of the same'.”

IR35 Likely Effects

An evaluation of the proposed 2020 IR35 changes is a likely dramatic impact on the current interim and contractor industries.

There will be a confirmation of independent interims outside IR35; and contractors becoming ‘part and parcel’ of the client and inside IR35, effectively employees.

The New (former) Interim Approach

The commodity-based marketing practices which entered the interim space ten plus years ago will be replaced, if not already, by consultative approaches to client solutions, above, say, £700 per day interim rates.

Multiple CVs emailed to clients will become passé, and ‘chats over coffee’ will make a comeback for both ISPs and interims to more fully explore solutions to critical client problems.

One recently visited IIM Platinum recruiter said he does not send CVs to clients, preferring to book coffee slots for clients to see three interims he knows can do the job.

I encourage clients and interims (when in an assignment, as clients) to take up this approach and ask ISPs to send interims they trust and know can do the job, rather than wade through copious CVs to select people, to then see as well.

Why should clients do all the work?

Perhaps this new approach could also serve clients in contractor selection?

Client Education

Key to a transition away from CV brokerage to chats over coffee with interims known to be able to do the job is client education.

Interims (per the IIM Surveys) find 60% of their assignments themselves, and ISPs the remaining 40%.

In my view, both interims and ISPs must educate clients in new ways of getting the best ideas, talents and capabilities for critical client change and transformation needs.

All three parties in the interim industry will win by preferring a consultative interim industry approach over client CV filtering.

ISPs will need to let go, though, of their fear of losing business by not sending many CVs to clients just in case they might send the right one.

ISP Branding

Another interim recruitment group I recently met has for quite some time separately branded their interim and contractor businesses not to confuse clients, and to focus consultants with the right skills on the right approach that fits the required client solution (interim or contractor).

Risks to Avoid

A risk I see (and two other ISPs recently visited), is the commoditised approach to interim engagement lacks sustainability.

Larger consulting houses (to whom commoditised CV brokering is anathema to their business models), will gain further market share in value-adding change and transformation work; and perhaps the interims too.

Another risk is interims forming interim practices with marketing capabilities to build on their 60% self-sourced engagements.

ISP Recommended Changes

A question for ISPs: how are you discerning, separately branding, marketing, and appropriately resourcing with skilled consultant’s client offerings?

For example:

• Do you make a distinction between interim and commodity approaches in your recruitment processes – are they clearly defined, or confused – to best serve the client base?
• Should your interim and contractor/commodity offerings have separate brands?
• Are your consultants then working with the right approaches and client connections?

Summary

It is difficult to challenge client cognitive bias (a major client benefit) in a CV. However, half-hour chats with clients about their challenges and discussing, among other things, ways other industries solve similar problems is where enhanced interim industry value-add will be gained.

All three parties (client-ISP-interim) will then be served better, and the reputation of the interim industry will grow in response because of the progression to a consultative approach.

Addendum

Of course, consultants do challenge cognitive bias. However, they lack the hands-on and in-depth leadership engagement that interims are renowned, to see what is happening deep inside clients’ businesses.

 

Article by Simon C Jones, Interim Finance Director/IIM Director

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Interim market, Brexit and beyond…

Time to reflect on 2018 and look forward to the year ahead. We are faced with an even more uncertain world with the continuing twists and turns on the political front, the now bumpy economic climate and the demise of a number of large businesses.   We are used to dealing with change and challenges; from economics to politics and clients to candidates but this is uncharted territory.

The fiasco that is Brexit with its various connotations of remainers / remoaners, hard exit / soft exit, good deal / bad deal, etc. has divided the country.  When you consider the complexities that include Trade, Customs Union, Legislation, Northern Ireland, Security, Education, Science, Energy, Farming, Environment, Healthcare, Transport and so on, it’s no surprise there are divided opinions.  With no one knowing how this will play out and what the ramifications are likely to be, it makes planning extremely difficult especially when the view of stakeholders is likely to be split.

In 2018 there have been casualties, not all Brexit related but a reflection of a tough climate.  The liquidation of construction giant Carillion early in 2018 with the accolade of becoming the UK's biggest corporate failure in a decade has put the construction sector under further strain.  Interserve is hanging on by its fingernails having once been a £3.3B revenue business now worth c£15m.  The high street is on its knees with a number of high profile collapses such as Maplin, Toys R Us, Poundworld and House of Fraser to name a few and many others struggling. Some of these businesses are being bought either wholly or in part from the Administrators which in turn is creating opportunities. Some businesses are embracing this through expansion of facilities and looking for bargain acquisitions.  Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct business is now a multi-billion £ business and I don’t think this has been achieved from being averse to risk.  It’s about seizing the moment but also ensuring that when these opportunities do come along you are in a position to act.  

The rhetoric is a similar scenario of the last recession with worries of another but somehow this feels different.  Brexit is fueling uncertainty and indecision.   How do you plan if you don’t know what you’re planning for?   Managing short-term requirements with longer term business objectives is proving very difficult as you can’t plan for the medium to long term with all these major changes afoot.

This is the very climate that fuels demand for Interim Executives.  Organisations that don’t want to commit long term with a permanent appointment find a short term solution is often the answer.   Many organisations need help with supplier management / rationalisation, customer service, cost control, planning, risk management and talent.

The interim market has additional complexities but paradoxically there are many opportunities.  Changes in IR35 legislation continues to ‘frustrate’ the market and having been already implemented to some degree in the public sector, I’m not so sure how things will transpire should the same happen in the private sector.  Public sector interims have been able to change tack and move to the private sector but if it hits the private sector, it leaves nowhere else to go. 

I believe many organisations are taking a holistic approach to talent acquisition. In the short term, they require immediately available Interims to deliver short term objectives whilst focusing on a longer-term approach by taking a deep dive into business imperatives to create a total strategic plan that has clearly defined goals, but one that can be amended as needs change.  Executing strategic objectives now requires an agile, responsive and flexible approach to meet the changing tide and businesses don’t necessarily have the internal capability or capacity to deliver hence the external help. 

Interim Executives provide a service to organisations in all stages of their development and plans.  It seems to me that now more than ever is the time for ensuring the mechanism remains in place for this to continue. This help is crucial to ensure survival and at other times growth.  It is usually driven by the need for change, transformation, restructuring, turnaround, projects etc. requiring a professional to implement and deliver.   

Organisations should continually be looking to improve and be more efficient.   Ways of growing either organically or through acquisition, improving efficiencies, improving customer services, acting on opportunities and kick-starting change projects could all be helped along through the utilisation of Interims. 

It’s interesting times and is making politics and business quite fascinating.  There’s a lesson here in resilience, persistence and integrity.   Businesses can learn from Theresa May’s approach which should be a lesson to us all regardless of your political affiliation.  Sometime you have to dig deep, be resilient and stick to what you believe. 

With an Interim population consisting of some very experienced, high calibre individuals, there is now more choice than ever with an increasingly diverse and committed professional possessing the tool kit to drive organisations forward.  Now is the very time we all need to dig deep, push the button and take steps forward or run the risk of standing still or even worse, going backwards.  

Steven Wynne

Managing Director

Macallam Interim

TEL: 01423 900804

E: Steven.wynne@macallaminterim.com

W: www.macallaminterim.com   

 

 

 

Is the Interim market really any different?

Is the Interim market really any different?

We live in a different world now.  The economy continues to have its ups and downs, terror threats are higher than ever, global warming is at hard at work and technological advances have changed the way we work.  Some things do remain the same though and that’s businesses with BAU challenges of sales and profitability targets, implementation of strategic plans, shareholder return,  employee engagement, culture and diversity all firmly on the agenda.  This provides enough of a challenge even without ‘special projects’ to achieve improvements and this transcends into ensuring the best talent is in place both on a permanent and interim basis to help lead the business to achieve those objectives.

Many people operating within the interim world have the view that the interim market is quite different now compared to when it was first established or of just a few years ago.  Threats to the market include increased competition for assignments,  pressure on rates, ‘interim to perm’ fueled by more people using the badge until a permanent job is sourced, a longer process with the involvement of more stakeholders, a drawn out decision making process, a new breed of niche or specialist interim and external threats that are beyond anyone's control.  These are all challenges facing us but is this any different today compared to say ten years ago?

One thing that does remain constant is change.  Whatever cycle a business is in; growth, downsizing, improving, transforming, restructuring or turnaround there is a continual requirement for good people that will deliver and make a difference to enable the organisation to move forward.  The interim market has seen some twists and turns but what hasn’t?  Opportunities are created when businesses face these challenges and that’s when we can help by providing good, experienced and appropriate Interims to deliver and make a difference.

Although there is still a lack of understanding about the interim proposition which is not helped by an increased pool of people that are just visiting, there is certainly an increased understanding of the value in engaging an interim by many organisations.  The evolving market has seen a shift in requirements for specific sector experience - rightly or wrongly this is perceived as being a less risky option and is of no surprise given a general shift in attitude to risk.  This is of course quite different to bringing in a generalist whose very USP was that they had multiple sectors under their belt and were likely to have worked in several area of a business.   My view is there is real advantage to ‘a fresh set of eyes’ but the consequence of this has meant that for some, securing an assignment is harder resulting in elongated void periods.

I am constantly asked how the market is.   A difficult question when there are so many varying factors that affect the answer.   There will always be threats but the equilibrium comes from an increase in opportunities.  Economic factors will always affect confidence but this threat is now more widespread than ever with global economic recovery looking shaky at best. Slowdowns from Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will produce ripple effects and closer to home the cost impact on the living wage on the services sector, government spending cuts, likely increase in interest rates and the global economic uncertainty are all knocking confidence.  As long as there are no radical legislative issues affecting how interims conduct their business, we can deal with the former.

I don’t believe the interim market is that different.  Businesses have the vision to drive change in many shapes and forms with an increased appetite for acquisitions, business growth (UK and International), restructuring, programme / project management, special ‘one off’ projects  and turnarounds that require external help.  As such these situations lend themselves to the engagement of an interim executive to supplement lack of internal capacity and / or capability.

We provide high impact interim executives and look forward to exciting new projects to help more clients move forward.  I expect 2016 to be a busy year building on the upturn of the last couple of years and despite this reflective update the market remains good albeit with a slightly different theme materialising.

For a confidential discussion please contact Steven Wynne on 01423 704153 or e-mail steven.wynne@macallaminterim.com

Pains and Productivity of Virtual Teams

I recently spent 6 months managing a virtual team with people all over the globe.  Quickly getting into the very bad habit of sitting in an office, talking into a telephone, for 12 hours a day. It changed the way I work, and it reminded me of some of the coaching I used to give to junior managers about how to run meetings.  So I have some observations that I thought I’d share.

With the exception of the British, people in most European countries have a reasonable work-life balance.  They get the work done, but on their terms.  In contrast, I found that some Americans would accept meeting invitations at all times of the day or night.  Once or twice, as a favour to me, I know that people will attend meetings while on vacation, or on their way to the baby crèche.  However, I became careful with my timing as I didn’t want to push my luck. 

To cover mistakes or gaps in meetings we often use humour.   So, for example, I tend to crack a joke during meetings or share some banter when waiting for people to join.  These attempts at humour were not received well by some people from the Far East.  It’s not that they are sour, just that they didn’t appreciate throw-away comments.  I became very serious-sounding – for most of the time.

Relationships within the client are already well established; often going back years.  As interims we start an assignment as guests at the table.  So some behaviours can seem quite a surprise to the newcomer.  Aggression was an example of this.  On a number of occasions I was taken aback by very sharp exchanges of views on the line.  Aggression is hard to handle, because the team cannot pick-up on non-verbal cues while on the phone to anticipate or de-fuse it.  On the positive side, aggression often got disputes resolved quickly without dancing around handbags.  So although this was my virtual team, to some people it was family – and that is how they behaved.

My big fear was that key participants would find my meetings tedious or non-productive, and would start skipping calls.  This would be terminal.  Anyone dialing-in during their early morning or late evening wants a slick, well-prepared meeting with defined objectives.  We all know how to do this.  I found that I was going into my meetings having pre-cooked much of my content.  Even to the extent that I would rehearse the start of some sentences; so I would never say:  “No, but ..”  instead I used “Yes, and …”.  We all know how to do these things, but meeting with people who we can’t see needs a focus on process and content. 

There are some major benefits to running meetings on-line.  These come from the technology.  For example: many of the calls were with people from outside our immediate team.  So before these calls we always opened an on-line text messaging session, but limited to the core team.  Incredibly useful – like passing notes at the back of a classroom.

Now that I’ve had an assignment which was almost entirely virtual, I do have one major worry about on-line meetings.  My concern is that they are less than useless for problem solving. 

Yes, there is technology out there which is meant to enable problem solving by virtual on-line teams.  So I’ve shared virtual whiteboards, and I once worked with a Fintech entrepreneur who insisted on us doing mind-maps together on-line  (it didn’t work).  My view is that nothing beats a meeting room with a white board for resolving a knotty problem, or when designing a solution.  There’s just something about being there. 

With thanks to Alan Greenwood for another interesting insight into Interim

To discuss how we can help with any recruitment requirements, please call 01423 704153 or email steven.wynne@macallaminterim.com