This weeks Star is Malcolm Heaven. After starting as a permanent consultant in the banking sector, he now works through interim assignments to both public and private sector organisations, specialising in senior development, business change and strategy project management roles.

How is the interim market from your perspective?

In mid-late 2010 the interim market was very slow. There were various factors that meant that very little was actually happening in the market. Few organisations understood where they were going or what they were going to do.

Everyone was following the election and waiting to see what was going to happen. The public sector as a whole was putting off decisions and talking about different scenarios, rather than actually doing anything.

So far in 2011 much more activity has been apparent, especially at the moment. I think organisations are starting to realise that they have a little bit of money, often more than they originally thought, from last year’s budget and want to put it to use in case they lose the funds come April.

What effect has the CSR had on both your job security and future prospects?

I don’t think it has made a big difference to me. The public sector has so far had few incentives to save money. This may sound strange but it appears that many senior people are paid on the number of people reporting to them, thus it makes little sense for them to make large numbers redundant.

However, I believe that the public won’t settle for service reductions without seeing cuts in the public workforce.

The future prospects for interims seem pretty good. I don’t think public organisations have the skills in house to effectively make the necessary improvements in efficiency and thus cut costs on the scale required.

How do you see the interim market in the short and long term?

In the short term, I think there is going to be a crazy amount of activity with many interims applying for each role.

I have my personal doubts as to whether many commissioning managers actually know what needs to be done within their organisations. They often appear to see a symptom of a problem in the organisation, rather than the underlying problem, and then aim to fix just the symptom. This may be down to a lack of communication between managers and HR but can result, for example, in a general interim being placed, when it really required the role of a specialist or visa versa.

This problem will, hopefully, fade over time as improvements in commissioning and communication come into effect. This should result in job advertisements becoming more specific, which in turn will enable interims to be more selective and cut down on the number of people applying to each role.

Have you seen an increase in job opportunities from the private sector as public sector positions have declined?

I have not seen an increase in what we shall call the ‘pure’ private sector; except for the specialist IT areas. I believe that many in the private sector see the recovery as being too fragile for further investment. There is certainly a perception from the private sector that public sector workers lack a certain something. Some may feel that they do not work as hard where as others may think that because public sector workers stick to their specific role, they do not get the experience of working in many different areas.

However, those areas of the private sector that used to be publicly controlled (utilities etc) are in a different position and I do detect some employment growth here.

Have you been forced to reduce your rates since the general election?

I have always maintained that I am flexible when it comes to rates. If I have applied for a role that I want to do for any particular reason: such as location, or a role/ area of management where I have not had much experience, I would certainly consider reducing my rates. However there needs to be a good reason for me.

Having said that, a change in rates has not yet been forced upon me, however, if/when it is it will depend on the negotiation skills of myself and the commissioning manager and the strength of both our positions.

At the end of the day if commissioning managers want quality and experience, they will need to pay for it.