Generation Interim: Dare to be more independent

Demographic change is threatening the efficiency and prosperity of our society. We need a successor to the successful baby boomer model: this could be Generation Interim. In an interview with Charly Kahle, our CEO Tilo Ferrari explains his vision.

Skills shortage has long since affected executives and management

The baby boomer generation is retiring. At the same time, fewer young workers are joining them. The Federal Employment Agency predicts that there will be a shortage of up to seven million workers by 2035 if nothing changes. This will have a massive impact on the competitiveness and success of companies.

When we talk about a shortage of skilled workers, most people think of care, industrial production, trade or commerce. However, this is too short-sighted, as the following figures illustrate:

• The Federal Association of German Management Consultancies (BDU) is recording strong demand for managers and experts. According to the industry study "Personnel Consulting in Germany 2022", sales in this segment rose by more than 20 percent in 2021 - and the trend is stable despite all the current crises. According to the study, headhunters filled 16 percent more positions than in the previous year - with a turnover of 2.7 billion euros (up 17 percent).
• The German Interim Management Association (DDIM) assumes that the approximately 12,000 German interim managers will generate a turnover of 2.5 billion euros in 2022. This is a good 25 percent more than before the coronavirus pandemic (2019: EUR 2.05 billion)
  

Interview: How we are replacing the "war for talent" with intelligent flexibility.

Our CEO Tilo Ferrari has been active in interim management for many years. In an interview with Charly Kahle, he describes his vision of Generation Interim as an approach for flexible personnel solutions of the future.

Dear Tilo, as CEO of a successful interim management provider, it stands to reason that you consider flexible personnel solutions based on the interim management model to be particularly promising. Why do we now need an approach like Generation Interim? Is the term interim management no longer sufficient?

Tilo Ferrari: The term interim management is mainly used to describe the deployment of specialists and managers on temporary assignments, usually to implement sensitive projects for which no one from the workforce can or should be commissioned. With Generation Interim, I go one step further. I'm looking for ways to introduce people to the job market for whom the classic model of permanent employment no longer fits.

"The classic model of permanent employment is continuing to disintegrate"

What exactly do you mean by that?

TF: The classic model of permanent employment is continuing to disintegrate. The "employer for life" hardly exists anymore. This is not only due to the companies, but also to the employees. People of all ages are looking for alternatives that give them more freedom to achieve their personal and professional goals in life. I am firmly convinced that self-employment can offer more scope for an improved work-life balance - if we create the right framework conditions. Generation Interim stands for a further development of professional self-employment - away from pure service provision and towards a new form of flexible personnel solutions.

A working world full of happy self-employed people who solve all the problems of companies: Isn't that an unrealistic utopia? And how are these self-employed people supposed to solve the challenges associated with demographic change?

TF: When we talk about demographic change and a shortage of skilled workers today, the next step is the much-cited "war for talent". This is not just an ugly term, but an approach that we should rethink. We don't need a war, not even for talent. We need a change - towards flexible recruitment solutions, towards flexible workforce management. We need companies and work organizations that do not compete with each other for candidates, but use skills efficiently and flexibly.

Specialists should not be hoarded, but should be able to pass on their knowledge to many companies. This is one of the guiding principles of Generation Interim. The other: We should encourage self-employment and create models that allow more people to participate in the labor market as self-employed people according to their own ideas. I am thinking, for example, of young people, parents or people who still want to be integrated into the labor market at 60+. If we manage to integrate these groups into the labor market according to their ideas, we will have already gained a lot.

"Generation Interim also stands for a new mindset"

Business is competition. Why should companies be interested in sharing skills according to the Generation Interim model?"

TF: What we first need is an awareness that the labor market will change completely in the next ten to 20 years. Demographic change means that people will no longer apply to companies, but companies will apply to people. So the tide is turning 180 degrees. We can already see today that many skills are only available to a very limited extent. This will get worse, so we need to rethink: it's not a question of wanting to, but simply a necessity. We will have to share existing capacities more flexibly in order to maintain Germany's competitiveness as a business location.

We will certainly have to learn this first; in this respect, Generation Interim also stands for a new mindset. There is nothing wrong with specialists moving to another company after a project and solving the next problem there. It's a bit like car sharing: 90 percent of cars are empty in the parking lot. Theoretically, the demand for mobility could be met with ten percent of the vehicles - if the cars (skills) were always where they are needed (in the companies). Applied to the world of work, this means that Generation Interim is a model that can competently serve the needs of companies and markets with a significantly smaller headcount.

Companies therefore need to rethink. Doesn't that also apply to people and the state?

TF: The interim generation ranges from young professionals to pensioners. For many students, the model of the entrepreneur is more present today than ever before. Many educational institutions have adapted their curriculum and are training people who already see themselves as start-up entrepreneurs in the first phase of their careers. Numerous companies have also recognized this and are promoting the entrepreneur within the company with corresponding programmes.

The idea of Generation Interim also addresses many other groups of people. I am thinking, for example, of employees over 50 who can no longer or no longer want to end up in the traditional employment grid. Another group of people: people who no longer need to work for economic reasons, but would still like to contribute their skills. At Deutsche Interim AG, we are already working to inspire these groups to become self-employed and to support them on their path to self-employment. There is enormous potential in these groups. We all have a duty to leverage this potential - including the legislator.

Genration Interim: "Responding to demographic change with new ideas"

Why the legislator?

TF: In order to meet the challenges of the labor market, the existing regulation must be adapted. That is my firm conviction. I don't mean that the rights of employees should be curtailed. Nor is it a question of undermining the welfare state. I'm thinking, for example, of self-employment. Companies and the self-employed alike are reluctant to employ self-employed workers due to the inadequate regulatory framework. Legislators need to create clarity here with a simple system.

And what is your personal agenda when it comes to Generation Interim?

TF: As CEO of Deutsche Interim AG, I manage a company that offers flexible personnel solutions for a very large number of business problems. In this role in particular, I see the need to respond to demographic change with new ideas - hence Generation Interim. As an entrepreneur, I work in various associations and at numerous events to get more people interested in self-employment and more companies interested in flexible staffing solutions with self-employed professionals