Have you identified a recruitment need? Have you also managed to anchor the need in the management team? Well, then you are well on your way to continuing to develop the business and I also hope you turn to us, so that we get the opportunity to help you with your recruitment process.
But it is important to bear in mind that a recruitment process, from research to signing a new employee, unfortunately takes some time. First you have to find the right candidates who meet all qualifications, then you have to go through a series of interviews, to finally agree on a set up that works for both the candidate and the company, and finally take references and sign an employment contract.
This usually takes between up to two months from start-up to signing with a new employee. If you add that most people leave another job where they have notice period of two to three month, and we unfortunately talking about four to six months from the decision to recruit until a new candidate is in place. During this period, the need to recruit a new employee has usually only increased and in many cases it is an exponential increase. This also means that other parts of the organization have had to cover the need , with the result that many times either the organization or the customers have suffered.
That's why, we want to take the opportunity to go deeper into our interim hybrid solution, in this blog post and tell you more about why we cherish it so much.
We have tried to illustrate this using the graph below. Of course, recruiting may go faster than what we have stated above and some roles or candidates may be able to end their currrent assignments  faster than we have illustrated. But we have tried to look at the average on a Manager level or higher and only looked at the case when the need of a new position has arisen. That is, we have not looked at when someone goes on e.g. parental leave, become long-term sick leave or terminate their employment, which is the most common reason for choosing an interim consultant. 

As you probably recognize, the need to recruit is usually not an immediate necessity. Sometimes, tasks that were previously handled on the side, start taking up too much time and energy, alternatively, a cutting edge specialist or seniority needs to be added to the organization. Regardless, no business can grow faster than its supply of expertise, without at the same time sacrificing other parts of the organization or external customers, suppliers and partners. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions here and it is common to feel that the need is met when you have made the decision to recruit without being fully aware that it is usually just the opposite.
At Beyond Retail we are therefore convinced that by letting one of our consultants step in when we start a recruitment process, we can not only ensure that you can continue to develop your business but also that the gap does not adversely affect your organization or customers. In addition to this, you will also increase the quality of the recruitment and on-boarding of a new employee. As our interim consultant has an ongoing dialogue with the recruiter about the actual and detailed needs of the business and how these correspond to the requirements profile, a more fine-tuned calibration can be made.
When it comes to on-boarding, this is an area that is usually under-prioritized or almost completely forgotten. When a new employee is in place, it is common that organisations expect employees to take care of important urgent tasks and perform at a very high level. The problem is that it is extremely unusual for a newcomer to be able to contribute at that level from the first day without proper on-boarding. If this is a new role or an area that has not existed before, then of course the challenges are even greater.
We have tried to illustrate this in a graph below where we look not only at the immediate need but also at the value-creating net effect when a new employee is in place

The absolute greatest challenge for a new employee is to become a net contributor to value-adding activities for the organization as quickly as possible. A professional on-boarding and hand-off from one of our experienced consultants is a guarantee to minimize that time. According to a study conducted among senior managers and people in management groups in the US, it was estimated that it normally takes just over 6 months before a middle to senior manager is a net contributor in a new organization.
If we then summarize the effects of our interim hybrid arrangement, where we take in an interim consultant when we start recruitment until we have a hand-off, we can see that the organization is saving somewhere around four to eight months of unsatisfied needs gap.
By going in depth on this topic we hope you can see the benefits we are adding with this service. If  you are interested in discussing what an interim hybrid assignment might look like for you, please contact Laura Bornebusch laura@beyondretail.se / 070-234 72 60 or Ola Benemark ola@beyondretail.se / 070-393 32 27.