**Nigel Kennedy, as featured in the MJ magazine. 10.09.09**
Usually, we have solved the same kind of problem in several other places so we come with a toolkit at the ready. We have no baggage, we don’t get drawn into wider employee issues so we can concentrate entirely on the issue at hand. Above all, failure is not an option. And that concentrates the mind wonderfully.
It can be strange living away from home-which often happens in interim work-but I am pretty typical in that I spend most evenings working far beyond the contracted hours for my client. Except Fridays! That’s when most of us make sure we leave in order to get home at a civilised time to reunite with our friends and families!
I get asked whether the regular staff ever resent us. Well, actually we are normally made very welcome by professional colleagues. After all, they know, like the cavalry, that we’ll bail them out of their problem and then move on. We are not trying to take their jobs. It is simply a matter of showing how the council’s service can be vastly improved. What we leave behind should be a sustainable method that professionals can maintain for the future.
And I wouldn’t want to go back to a permanent job in the same place all the time. Nor would any of my team. There are plenty of interim management organisations now (the good, the bad and the ugly) and some people sign up with several.
I am more fortunate in being with a company that is a bit different (Public Sector Consultants). This is because about half of us are actually employees of the company with all the panoply of pensions, paid holidays, car etc. (The other half prefer the freedom of being a sub-contractor).Either way this means the client gets the backing and experience of an established company that gives back a lot to local government.
It is a way of working that I really enjoy as it gives me fresh challenges all the time in a field I know and understand well. Plus, of course, I am working with like-minded colleagues who refuse to be beaten by any challenge.
Because we are a consultancy I can contact my colleagues via the website or by mobile if there are any technical problems or specialist advice we need. This is good for the client as it means they are buying an entire company‘s expertise-not just that of one consultant. All abide by belief in quality, value for money and professionalism.
It should not be forgotten either that an external adviser can be more direct and outspoken which isn’t always so easy for an employee in their own authority.
Like many people who choose to work in the public sector, I get a real buzz out of serving the public better through improving how things work. It doesn’t matter who employs the people carrying out the work-just as long as the end result is more efficient and effective for the public and it is all under the umbrella of the local democratic system.
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