The average pay of interim managers working in charities has fallen by 11 per cent over the last six months, according to the latest survey by Russam GMS.
Daily pay rates for interims in the sector fell from £521 last December to £460 in June.
This compares with pay increases of up to 20 per cent for interims in other sectors – HR specialists saw their average daily rate jump from £547 in December to £614 in June and the supply chain and utilities sectors recorded increases of around 20 per cent.
However, interims working in finance and IT also recorded falls, of 2 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively. And those in sales and marketing swallowed cuts of 14 per cent, from £608 to £502 per day.
Yet the drop in pay comes against a backdrop of more plentiful positions for interims in the charity market, according to Russam’s head of charities Ian Joseph (pictured).
“There’s been a real spike in demand,” he said. “The first five months of this year saw us convert as many assignments in the charity sector as in the whole of last year.”
He attributed this to more interims coming onto the market as a result of restructurings and redundancies and more charities seeing the interim option as value for money.
Joseph added there were more part-time roles available than full-time but there was a trend towards more full-time posts becoming available.
Overall market activity rises
Overall activity in the interims market was up by 11 per cent, indicating that the market is recovering from the recession.
However, the agency’s chair Charles Russam said the recovery is likely to be affected soon by public sector job cuts and their ripple effects through the rest of the economy.
“Many providers have already seen a marked reduction in opportunities coming out of central government and to a lesser extent healthcare but local government still seems to be holding up. In the private sector financial services are putting more work out to interims and the charity sector – now renamed civil society – is busy although funds are still tight.”
