The interim management offer

Wayden interim management projects

Fast becoming a practice in its own right, interim management is seeing a strong increase in demand. Considered a real business by some, it’s in this field that Wayden has chosen to specialise – and we’re constantly on the lookout for the top talents to join our interim management teams.

Certain professionals are veritable interim management specialists, making it their sole career. Moving from one project to the next, they leverage each to continuously improve their skills level and training. These managers – not necessarily visible to all – gain a reputation amongst the interim management actors that they value the most, and choose their own projects, assignments and partners. But above all, they’re men and women who work independently, which is one of the ways they can add a lot of value in the field.

Skilled executives or managers between jobs who wonder whether a more short-term project wouldn’t suit them better, are also the type of candidate we look for. In addition to a successful and proven track record, it’s the soft skills that matter. These professionals have to meet our strict knowledge and – more especially – soft skills criteria, some of which are described below.

An interim management project requires a high level of involvement and is particularly demanding. This means always being extremely selective to guarantee consistent project quality, in line with the criteria we’ve established over the past ten years (now certified by Bureau Veritas).

 

Interim management offers and projects

We look to fill executive operational functions in companies with a turnover of more than €200 million. For example:

  • General management: President, CEO, general manager, site/ BU/ branch director, country manager, etc.
  • Transversal or support management: essentially, CFO, DHR or CIO.
  • Operations management: industrial management, performance and process management, supply chain, logistics, quality management, etc.

And more generally, all corporate functions with an operational – and especially managerial – dimension.

We search directly among our pool of interim managers, so you won’t find any interim management project offers on our website.

Selecting an interim manager

Wayden practices high-level interim management. To guarantee the quality of our assignments, we’ve set up a special HR selection process which nevertheless aims to give as many people as possible the chance to start with us. We meet year-round with over 1,000 experienced interim management candidates in our offices.

Our HR teams begin by searching and selecting profiles to meet on the basis of their CVs. We look for the following, in particular, in the future interim managers we’d like to interview:

  • The candidate has been a member of a company’s operational management committee.
  • The candidate has had at least one job in a large company (understanding of complex organisations).
  • The candidate has had experience in a wide range of organisations, contexts, business sectors and corporate cultures.
  • The candidate has already headed up major transformation projects.
  • The candidate has worked abroad at least once.

Selected candidates are invited for a first interview with one of our associate directors. At Wayden, associate directors are themselves former executives and company directors, thereby guaranteeing that the interview will be both fair and rewarding.

Working on an interim management project is above all a question of leadership and management. During the interview, it’s these qualities that we look for, with particular emphasis on the candidate’s:

  • Soft skills, i.e., the capacity to listen, care, empathise, and stay curious.
  • Aptitude for thinking critically and being creative to solve complex problems.
  • Capacity to give meaning to and bring together teams (leadership), while remaining in action and hands-on.
  • Talent for adapting as quickly as possible within a “make it easy to work with” logic (service spirit).
  • Self-confidence and optimism, and the ability to communicate both.

Experience shows that the best candidates for interim management are those individuals who have fundamentally moved from a rationale based on status to one based on how they can contribute. This is most often comes about through experience, but also through having had to solve various day-to-day problems.

After the initial interview, retained candidates are asked to join Wayden Sélection. However, candidates are only selected to work on a first project with us once they’ve gone through an exhaustive HR process involving a second interview with a different associate director and two or three professional reference checks.

We remain uncompromising when it comes to selecting the top talents for our projects. In line with Wayden criteria, we’ve been bringing together since 2008 the best available and experienced professionals to rapidly address our clients’ most pressing needs. We won’t backtrack on project positioning and quality, as these constitute the very hallmarks of Wayden.

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