What is Interim Talent and Fractional Hiring?

April 26, 2023

In today’s economy uncertainty seems to be the “new normal.” With the collapse of SVB and other investment and financial institutions teetering on the edge – early-stage and experienced Life Sciences companies need to remain agile while continuing to focus on growth and driving the organization forward. Typically, the key to achieving this type of growth is hiring and placing an experienced senior level executive to manage, own and execute the strategic direction. However, with investments tapering off and funding becoming less accessible – a popular type of leadership model has emerged which we call Interim Talent (Team Leadership) or Fractional (Project oriented) Hiring.

What Is Interim Talent or Fractional Hiring?

Interim Talent or Fractional Hiring is exactly what it sounds like. It’s hiring or onboarding a senior leader to work on a fractional or part-time basis. This model is applicable for more senior level roles (Senior Director level and above). Interim Talent is ideal for a company that needs to appoint an experienced and talented leader to lead the department or the team. Fractional Hiring, on the other hand, is the best solution for an organization looking for an experienced senior executive to lend a hand as a single contributor on a project basis. Instead of investing in a full-time senior executive hire, Interim and Fractional Hiring provides early-stage and experienced companies access to superior, highly experienced talent with current industry knowledge for a fraction of the cost. The timeline will usually vary depending upon the level of engagement, but Interim Talent and Fractional Hiring can last between two months and extend up to a year-long term. The reason why this model is increasing in popularity right now is that Interim Talent and Fractional Hiring converts the fixed cost of hiring a seasoned senior leader into a variable cost – which enables early-stage and experienced companies the flexibility to expand or contract with the changing needs of the business and industry.

3 Strategic Advantages of Fractional Hiring For Life Sciences Companies.

There are a number of strategic advantages for early-stage and experienced companies to leverage Interim Talent or Fractional Hiring over choosing to hire a senior leader on a permanent, full-time basis.

Speed To Hire – When it comes to traditional hiring for permanent, full-time senior leadership roles, this process will usually take upwards of three months working with internal HR or with a search firm or executive recruiter. In today’s economy, companies can’t afford to wait this long and need to find a highly experienced leader that can start and drive for impact immediately. At Ashton Tweed, we’ve been managing executive searches for nearly 20 years and have applied this consultative approach to all of our Interim Talent and Fractional Hiring engagements. We’ve developed relationships with and vetted over 70,000 candidates from our past search work and these are the leaders we draw from for Interim Talent and Fractional Hiring. All of these leaders are highly experienced and passionate about leading and transforming companies. With our deep relationships and a condensed search process, around 80% of Interim Leaders we place are presented and start within 15 business days.
Working With High Quality Talent – In order to bring the most value to your company when looking for Interim Talent or considering Fractional Hiring we exclusively search and look for highly engaged and transformational leaders. More often than not, these professionals will be sensibly overqualified for a role, but this is the one-time when the hiring of an overqualified executive benefits both the company and the candidate. For early-stage companies in particular, hiring and retaining an overqualified senior executive for a fraction of the cost is an obvious win. These types of leaders are highly experienced executives that bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table and prefer the flexibility and new challenges that Interim Talent and Fractional Hiring offers. A company is able to get precisely the skills needed and immediately sees results in a matter of weeks, while an Interim or Fractional professional is rewarded by imparting their knowledge across the organization but retaining their own freedom and flexibility.
Diversity Of Thought – With Interim and Fractional Hiring this type of model attracts incredibly well-rounded candidates and leaders who have worked across many different types of organizations within Life Sciences. The opportunity to experience and manage different business sizes, types, models and teams unlocks a completely new area of Diversity for most companies – which is Diversity of Thought. When we think of Diversity, usually our mind wanders towards the categories of gender, ethnicity, community and the like. However, Diversity Of Thought and Experience is another way Diversity helps an organization thrive. Interim and Fractional professionals are a completely untapped resource when it comes to Diversity, that will bring fresh solutions and perspectives to longstanding problems and challenges within the organization.