7 requirements you should ask as a consultant buyer

Seniority & focus. Filling complex roles for urgent needs requires the recruitment consultant to have relevant experience and skills, and the recruitment firm to be focused on Interim Management. Senior staff with extensive experience in the recruitment industry or a solid background in management team positions are a good starting point to help the client appoint the right interim manager. Ensure that your supplier has built its team around a range of skills, with a collective breadth that provides the right height to fill even the most difficult interim positions that may arise at managerial or specialist level.

Guarantees. An urgent need with specific requirements requires specialist help, and you should require your supplier to specialize in interim management. To be able to specialize in filling interim roles with short lead times, the supplier needs to have built the business around the client's specific needs. An established supplier can partly guarantee that the right person is in place with a short time frame, and will replace the consultant at no cost in case you wish to change.

Speed. Clients with interim needs are often pressed for time and need a stable resource in place immediately. As a client, you should ensure that the supplier you use can deliver available interim candidates in two to five working days. Regardless of the role and where in Sweden the need is.

The right selection. You may require your supplier to have ensured a wide choice of candidates, for example by working with both sub-consultants and consultants who are unwilling or unable to run their own business. The supplier should also have its own social media channels and have otherwise ensured a continuous flow of new candidates. To find the right consultant, the recruitment company should also work with active search. In the research work, it is an advantage if you have the opportunity to use internal as well as external search tools and are nationwide, perhaps even cross-country.

Safe insurance. If a interim consultant somehow did not perform their assignment as expected, it is important to be insured. Make sure that your provider is fully responsible for all aspects of the selection process and the assignment of your interim resource. The provider's insurance should include the following cover:

• Operational responsibilities
• Professional responsibility
• Temporarily borrowed or used property
• Property crime
• Legal protection

System support. Ensuring a quality process requires the right system tools. A supplier should use a system support that covers all aspects of an interim appointment - from candidate selection to contract writing. When using a recruitment agency for an interim role, it is particularly important that the provider has a proactive approach to managing interim consultants with varying availability dates. Why is this important? Because it forms the basis of finding an selection of available consultants. A supplier that does not have systems that allow to select from many available candidates can hardly say that they present the most suitable ones to you. You might as well find the candidates yourself on LinkedIn.

Safety. Bringing in an interim consultant for a key position should be a safe and controlled solution. Check with your supplier how they evaluate the final candidate before an appointment. One way to ensure that you have hired a safe consultant is through mandatory background checks that verify financial information, company involvement and legal matters. Make sure that your supplier uses similar tools to ensure that you get the right consultant.

Is your company in need of a interim consultant? Contact us at Interim Search for a confidential discussion. We can be reached around the clock on 08-556 460 00.