Alistair Cook

By Alistair Cook, Director at Digby Morgan and responsible for the HR Interims division.

Alistair Cook
...
By Alistair Cook, Director at Digby Morgan and responsible for the HR Interims division.

By Alistair Cook, Director at Digby Morgan and responsible for the HR Interims division.

Contact: Alistair Cook, Chief Operating Officer, alistaircook@digby-morgan.com

Thames Valley: Atlantic House, Imperial Way, Reading, RG2 0TD Tel +44 (0)118 903 6021

Alistair Cook, Digby Morgan’s COO and responsible for running the interims division, said: “Whilst the press would suggest we are in more ‘uncertain’ times, the interim HR market has remained resilient at certain levels throughout the first quarter of 2008 and, as a result, we have seen an increase in revenue of more than 20% compared to the same period last year.

Alistair Cook - Chief Operating Officer Alistair is the Chief Operating Officer for Digby Morgan Group. Alistair trained as a chartered accountant before moving into executive recruitment with Hays and Robert Half, where he led the Thames Valley region. Alistair joined Digby Morgan in 1997 and has played a key management role in the expansion of the business over the ensuing period. He has focused his experience of working with clients in the technology sector and now has group responsibility for finance, technology and infrastructure. alistaircook@digby-morgan.com | +44 (0)20 7907 2832

Alistair Cook, a director of both HR Interims and Digby Morgan, notes that: “If we were to look at the ‘vanillaâ€-type roles, the middle-management generalists, there are very few of these about â€" if a client is looking for a business partner in the salary range of £60-80,000, there are very few people in that range at the moment.Theyâ€re almost like hens†teeth.â€

Cook ascribes the turnaround, in part, to the increased demand from the big consultancy/accountancy firms.He notes that the financial sector is beginning to recruit heavily on an interim basis and such is the demand that employers are even having to look further afield than within their sector.

“Previously, they always wanted to have someone with investment banking background or fixed-income experience.Now they have to be much more open-minded and maybe take on someone who is much more experienced from outside the sector.The company will then have to rely on the value of their extra functional experience to compensate for their lack of industry knowledge,†says Cook.
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“True interims†are few and far between, argues Alistair Cook, a director of HR Interims and Digby Morgan. “A lot of people do it for a period of time; they might have worked for an organisation for a long time and left it for whatever reason â€" but they donâ€t want to go straight to another permanent job.They want to have a look around,†he says.

Digby Morgan's Alistair Cook says that the number of senior assignments has decreased because it is a myth that it is easier to recruit in a downturn."You are still trying to attract only the top 10 to 15 per cent of the profession, but they stay put and bide their time in moving jobs.This is true of both the permanent and IM market," he says.

The IM age profile is dropping, including at senior levels, as people are achieving more earlier.

Alistair Cook, a director of both HR Interims and Digby Morgan, notes that: "If we were to look at the ‘vanilla'-type roles, the middle-management generalists, there are very few of these about - if a client is looking for a business partner in the salary range of £60-80,000, there are very few people in that range at the moment.They're almost like hens' teeth."

Cook ascribes the turnaround, in part, to the increased demand from the big consultancy/accountancy firms.He notes that the financial sector is beginning to recruit heavily on an interim basis and such is the demand that employers are even having to look further afield than within their sector.

"Previously, they always wanted to have someone with investment banking background or fixed-income experience.Now they have to be much more open-minded and maybe take on someone who is much more experienced from outside the sector.The company will then have to rely on the value of their extra functional experience to compensate for their lack of industry knowledge," says Cook.
...
"True interims" are few and far between, argues Alistair Cook, a director of HR Interims and Digby Morgan."A lot of people do it for a period of time; they might have worked for an organisation for a long time and left it for whatever reason - but they don't want to go straight to another permanent job.They want to have a look around," he says.

Contact: Alistair Cook, Chief Operating Officer, alistaircook@digby-morgan.com

Thames Valley: Atlantic House, Imperial Way, Reading, RG2 0TD Tel +44 (0)118 903 6829