Interim managers willing to take pay cut to work at SMEs

Directors and senior managers are willing to take a pay cut of up to 50% to work at a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), according to a survey of interim managers by Interim Partners.

The research found interim managers are willing to take a cut from the £757 per day they average at FTSE 350 companies, to £350 per day to work at an SME.

The research also found 90% of interims would willingly accept part of their payment based on performance.

Of those, 82% would be prepared to have over 10% of their fee performance-based, while 39% of whom were willing to have more than 20% of their fee based on performance.

Doug Baird, managing director at Interim Partners, said: “Interims are confident they deliver value to the businesses they work for so they are often happy to take some performance-related pay.”

“In the case of a small business, using performance-related pay could be a great way to get the high-quality management expertise of an interim on board without frontloading the business with staffing costs it cannot afford.

“Paying someone out of increased profits has an obvious attraction.”

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