In our latest episode of “Conversations with the Experts,” Dan Martin sits down with the always-interesting Patsy Doerr, a core team member at Eleven Canterbury with a wealth of experience as a senior HR executive. Patsy has made significant contributions to companies like Credit Suisse and Thompson Reuters, and now, she’s bringing her expertise to Eleven Canterbury!
Highlights from the Discussion:
- Interim vs. Fractional Executives: Understand the key differences—interim executives take on full-time roles for specific projects, while fractional executives work part-time on an ongoing basis.
- Why Choose This Approach? Discover the benefits for companies and individuals, from flexibility and diverse experiences to less long-term commitment and cost efficiency.
- Industry Insights: Patsy shares her observations on how various industries are embracing this trend post-COVID, driven by the need for flexibility and adaptability in an ever-changing geopolitical landscape.
👥 Why It Matters: For companies, hiring interim and fractional executives offers a strategic, flexible, and efficient solution to meet specific project needs without long-term commitments. For individuals, it’s an opportunity to gain diverse experiences, work with multiple clients, and enjoy greater work-life balance.
📈 Join the Conversation: Are you considering hiring interim or fractional executives? Let’s connect! Learn how Eleven Canterbury can help you find the right talent for your projects: Hire Interim Executives 🌟
Video Transcription
Conversations With the Experts: The Rise of Interim Executives
With Dan Martin and Patsy Doerr
Dan Martin: Welcome to another edition of Conversations with the Experts. It’s a pleasure to talk with Patsy Doerr today, who is part of the core team at Eleven Canterbury. Patsy has a wealth of experience in a variety of companies, including Credit Suisse and Thompson Reuters, typically in HR; she’s led Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and talent identification in those companies and is now helping us at Eleven Canterbury. We’re very happy to have her as part of the organization.
What we want to talk about today, Patsy is interim and fractional work. I’ll give you my take on what I think this is and then see if I’m right.
I think of an interim executive as someone working full time but on a project of limited duration or covering a specific time and time needs. For example, somebody might be on leave for three months as they resolve a medical situation, or you might have a new project and want someone like that.
Whereas fractional means working part-time but on an ongoing basis. So, instead of hiring a Chief Marketing Officer full-time, you hire someone who is doing the role of a CMO but one or two or three days a week. So that’s my high-level understanding of it. Am I right?
Patsy Doerr: First, thank you for having me again; I always enjoy these conversations with you about important topics. And I think this is a very timely, important topic. So yes, I would agree. A lot of people interchange interim and fractional, and actually, to your point, they are quite different as the interim is really sitting in the role for a period of time in a full-time capacity, but in a consulting capacity, whereas the fractional is more multifaceted and more part of the portfolio career that people are beginning to develop more of these days. So, it ends up that you might have a couple of different fractional roles going on, as you said. I think your definitions are pretty much spot-on.
Dan Martin: So why would people want to do this? I mean, both the company wanting to take this approach and the individual. I assume this is a bit different from consulting work, where I think there may be some overlap. The main thing is, why do people do it?
Patsy Doerr: So, from the perspective of the people doing it, and then I’m happy to share why I think the businesses are doing it. From the individual perspective, and I am doing similar work like that today, I find it fascinating and interesting because you have the opportunity to work with various clients, right? And a variety of different projects for a period of time. So, it gives you that variety of learning experiences and exposure that you wouldn’t necessarily have in a full-time role that you’re in for X number of years. So, there’s an opportunity to learn a lot more, to be exposed to more, to meet different people, and also not to necessarily be fully committed to one organization for the long term.
From the business and company perspectives, there are a variety of reasons as well. Number one, it’s less of a commitment, right? So, a company may not be sure that it wants to commit to a particular area of focus. Maybe it’s diversity and inclusion, maybe it’s ESG, or otherwise; whatever the topic may be, they may not be ready to commit fully from a budgetary perspective for the long term. It’s easier to get consulting dollars than FTE, full-time equivalent positions in an organization. I know that from experience. That’s another driving factor. I think market conditions also play a role. I’ve seen a lot of organizations bring in fractional or interim executives when they’re interested in doing a particular project that is time-bound, that has a start and a finish, will complete, and then they can move on to the next thing.
So, I see those as the primary driving factors, and I would add, finally, another one, particularly in the United States this year, although globally as well, the geopolitical environment drives a lot of that decision-making. I saw many organizations less interested in committing to long-term roles, not knowing exactly what the economy will look like, the political environment, et cetera. So those are some of the drivers from the company’s perspective.
Dan Martin: I like what you said about getting diverse experiences in various industries.
It’s interesting to me that sometimes, even the same words mean different things in different companies based on their culture. In one company I was working at, a tariff-based system meant that this was a fair way to allocate resources to the operating companies based on how much they used them. Whereas the same thing in another company meant this was a tax imposed from headquarters, and we all hated it. So, it meant something completely different.
Is there a particular industry that utilizes interim and fractional, or is it general across the board?
Patsy Doerr: From my experience and observation, it’s pretty much industry-agnostic. I see that a variety of industries are going down this pathway, much more than they used to. I think post-COVID, we have many more people who are interested in these types of opportunities as well. And given all the factors associated with going back to work or remote working, this also provides an easier, more fungible solution for both the individual and the company. And I’ve seen it across all industries.
Dan Martin: I do think COVID maybe changed things. And I think if you take a look at history, I would look at my dad, who was 48 years at Delta Airlines. I changed every five to six years. And now I look at my children who are doing what you’ve said, kind of a portfolio of activities. You can almost think of them as their own LLC, finding new positions that utilize what they’ve done in new ways. They don’t really want to do the same thing that they just did.
Patsy Doerr: I could see that and similar. My dad worked at Shell Oil for 35 or 40 years, and it’s very different now, right?
In my observation and wearing my HR hat and experience for a moment, I do think that people are not only looking for flexibility but also for optionality. So, it may not be that they necessarily want to work from home all the time, but they want to have the option to have that type of flexibility. It may look very different for each individual. I think that factor also plays an important role in the decision-making process for the individuals making these choices.
Dan Martin: Well, that’s really interesting. I think there’s much more we can discuss on this, but for now, thank you very much.
Patsy Doerr: You’re very welcome.
Schedule a consultation today to learn how working with an Eleven Canterbury interim executive will take your company to the next level: https://elevencanterbury.com/hire-interim-executives/
