Fractional Executive: How to Transform Your Organization with Part-Time Leadership
A fractional executive is a seasoned professional who takes on an executive role at a company on a part-time basis. It’s a cost-effective leadership solution that is growing in demand because it helps organizations access highly skilled leaders to support them during strategic initiatives, leadership gaps, or times of change without conducting lengthy interviews or making a long-term commitment.?
Let’s take a closer look at this trend to understand why it’s on the rise and what kind of organizations can benefit from the support of a fractional executive.?
What is a Fractional Executive?
Fractional executives are often people who have held a full-time C-suite position at some point within their career, and are now looking for a different kind of challenge.?
Unlike business advisors, fractional executives embed themselves within an organization as if they were a full-time employee, digging into problems, identifying solutions, and implementing those solutions.?
Most often, fractional executives work remotely , allowing them to seamlessly support multiple business owners without dealing with multiple commutes. This means organizations looking for a fractional executive can access a national or even international talent pool , making it easier to find someone with the ideal combination of skill set and experience.?
Types of Fractional Executives?
Hiring a fractional executive is a staffing strategy that has exploded in popularity in the last few years. Back in 2016, when vChief was founded, the most common executive roles to fill with a fractional executive were Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, and Chief Operating Officer. vChief helped expand awareness of the Chief of Staff role within the business sector by offering fractional chiefs of staff. But ever since the pandemic, the number of skilled executives looking for more flexible work arrangements or looking for more variety and challenge in their life has skyrocketed, and the roles you can fill with a fractional executive are now almost endless. Some of the most popular types of fractional executives are:?
Benefits of Hiring a Fractional vs. Full-Time Executive
Hiring an executive on a fractional basis instead of full time offers many advantages.?
Cost Savings
The number one reason businesses choose a fractional executive is because the cost-benefit savings are huge. With the average annual salary of a full-time executive position, such as CFO or COO, hovering around $250,000, many smaller or startup businesses don’t have cash flow available to support that amount. By integrating a fractional executive, they have access to the top talent at a fraction of the cost because they spend less on payroll, plus retain savings on taxes, retirement benefits, and traditional hiring expenses. They can also ramp up over time as their needs grow.
领英推荐
Time to Hire
The typical executive search process can take three to six months, or more. It can then be an additional three to six months before the new executive is integrated into the organization and can begin making an impact. In contrast, fractional executives can start almost immediately —?within just a few weeks following an inquiry.?
Fractional leaders take charge of their own onboarding process and find ways to make an impact from day one. This makes them a great fit for providing interim support, covering executive absences , or assisting with major pivots .?
Flexible Support
Monthly fractional leadership contracts are usually very flexible, with the ability to scale up or down from month to month depending on the business’s needs. For organizations that need to maximize every dollar, this means they don’t pay for more support than they need.?
A smaller company or medium-sized business may also find they don’t need a dedicated, in-house CFO or CMO, as long as their fractional executive can create a plan and systems to get them on the ground running. Having a temporary person to fill in some gaps and create action plans may be just what your small business needs to reach the next level.
Less Risk
When you hire a fractional executive, you typically only commit to a few months of support at a time, and in some cases, you may be able to cancel an engagement with just 30 days’ notice. If your needs change unexpectedly and you no longer need the support of the fractional executive, you can end the engagement without losing all of the expenses of a traditional hiring process. Additionally, some fractional executives are open to considering a permanent role after a successful fractional engagement. Hiring a candidate who has already gotten to know your organization as a fractional executive comes with a much lower chance of early turnover due to a poor skills or culture fit.?
Fresh Perspective
There are many situations where organizations can greatly benefit from the viewpoint of a neutral outsider. For example, when a company is looking to expand into new geographical markets or product areas, a fractional executive with experience in those markets or products can offer invaluable insights. They can help navigate local regulations, cultural differences, and market-specific challenges, helping to maximize the profitability of the expansion.
How to Hire a Fractional Executive?
If you’re looking for an independent fractional executive, a first step can be to tap into your network and ask around on LinkedIn. Your contacts may know individuals with excellent leadership skills who are looking for fractional work. They may not market their services as “fractional executive services” per se; they may call themselves a consultant or a contract executive, but they may offer the same type of support.
While some executives seek out business partnerships on their own, more and more are choosing to work within organizations like ours, which specialize in hiring out fractional executives, letting us source prospective clients and handle the paperwork, accounting, and legal issues.?
At vChief, we specialize in filling a variety of fractional executive roles like chief of staff, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, and HRBP. Our talented team can help you determine what kind of fractional executive would be the best fit for your needs during our free consultation. We’ll take the time to get to know you as a leader, to understand where your zone of genius lies, and identify the type of support that would be the most impactful for you.?
We’ll match you with two to five candidates from our diverse talent pool of nearly 500 highly qualified executives within three days. You’ll have the opportunity to interview your top two or three candidates with no obligation to sign a contract. If you find a good match, your candidate can start in as little as two weeks.?
Get started with a free consultation today.?
Operations Leader @ TileDB | Driving Cross-Functional Change, Alignment & Results
5 个月Great advice!