EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP · INTERIM HR DIRECTOR
An Interim HR Director with the standing to execute the decision.
CE Interim appoints proven Interim HR Directors to lead restructuring, integration and workforce decisions where the negotiation is difficult, the timetable is legal rather than commercial, and internal leadership is too exposed to execute it.
Riservatezza garantita sin dal primo contatto. Un dirigente selezionato con cura e in linea con il mandato, pronto a entrare in servizio entro 72 ore dal completamento del brief relativo al mandato.
La linea gerarchica
BOARD · GROUP HR · MANAGING DIRECTOR
INTERIM HR DIRECTOR
ORGANISATION DESIGN · EMPLOYEE RELATIONS · COMPENSATION · TALENT
1,500+
Incarichi assegnati ogni anno nell'ambito dell'alleanza
90+
Partner operativi in tutto il mondo
30+
Paesi interessati
95%
Mandati transfrontalieri
72 ore
Dall'incarico all'inizio della missione
Definizione
What is an Interim HR Director?
An Interim HR Director is an experienced HR executive appointed for a defined period to lead the people side of a business decision that has already been taken: a restructuring, an integration, a closure, a downsizing or a leadership gap. The mandate covers organisation design, employee representation, compensation structures and the HR function itself.
CHRO is more common in group and United States contexts, HR Director across much of Europe. The titles often describe the same mandate, but not always: what determines equivalence is the scope of the role and the reporting line rather than the label.
The appointment is made because the decision is difficult, the timetable is set by law rather than by the business, and the person who has to execute it should not be the person who will still be sitting in the room a year later.
Condizioni di attivazione degli appuntamenti
When businesses appoint an Interim HR Director
01
A restructuring has been decided and nobody can execute it
The commercial decision is made. What remains is the negotiation, the documentation and the sequence, and the internal team is either stretched, inexperienced in collective procedures, or too close to the people affected.
02
An acquisition has left two workforces and one company
Two compensation structures, two cultures, duplicated roles, and a mid-management layer nobody has assessed. Integration has stalled at the point where the organisations should have become one.
03
Headcount has to come down and the alternatives have not been examined
Redundancy has been proposed as the only option, before short-time working, internal transfers, role sharing or cross-training
have been properly assessed. The cheapest decision and the fastest decision are not always the same one.
04
The works council or union relationship has broken down
Negotiation has stalled or never opened. Change that has been agreed commercially cannot be implemented because the employee representation route has not been managed.
05
A site is closing and the workforce has to be treated properly
End of production is decided. Severance, redeployment, notice periods and collective consultation all have to be handled lawfully and in the right sequence, while the plant keeps running.
06
The HR director has gone at the worst possible moment
Departure or extended absence during a restructuring, an integration or an audit cycle. The obligations continue regardless of who is in the seat.
07
The management layer beneath the board is unknown
Nobody can say with confidence who in mid-management is capable of more, who is holding the business back, and where the succession gaps sit. Decisions are being taken on impression
08
A new site is being staffed from nothing
Greenfield or brownfield, where the first wave of hiring establishes the culture, the pay structure and the employee-relations model that the site will inherit as it grows.
È questo il posto giusto?
Does the situation require an Interim HR Director?
The determining question is whether the people dimension is the execution risk, or whether it is a consequence of a business decision that someone else needs to own.
Appoint an Interim HR Director when:
- A restructuring, integration or closure has to be executed and the negotiation is the hard part.
- Employee representation has to be engaged formally and the relationship needs someone with standing.
- Compensation, organisation design and talent all have to move together under one mandate.
- The legal timetable is fixed and the business is behind it.
- The decision is politically exposed for the internal team.
Regola decisionale
When the business decision is settled and the execution risk sits in the people dimension, this is the appropriate appointment.
Quando un ruolo diverso è quello giusto
Where the business itself lacks a decision-maker, an Interim CEO is the appointment and HR follows from it.
Where liquidity is the constraint and the workforce decision is one part of a wider restructuring, an Interim Chief Restructuring Officer carries the mandate and works with HR rather than through it.
Where the requirement is genuinely recruitment, this is not the right service and CE Interim will say so.
CE Interim definisce innanzitutto il mandato e, in secondo luogo, formula raccomandazioni sul ruolo.
Confronto tra ruoli
Which role does the business need?
Scorri la tabella lateralmente →
| Direttore delle risorse umane ad interim | Interim CEO | Responsabile ad interim della ristrutturazione | Permanent HR Director | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ambito di applicazione | Organisation, employee relations, compensation | L'intera faccenda | Liquidity and restructuring | La funzione, a lungo termine |
| Interfaccia principale | Works council, unions, group HR, management | Board, shareholders, lenders | Lenders and creditors | L'organizzazione |
| Executes | The people side of a decided change | The decision itself | The financial restructuring | Tutto, alla fine |
| Nominato quando | Execution risk is in the negotiation | The business lacks a leader | La questione è la sopravvivenza | C'è tempo |
| Independence | Deliberate, and the point of the appointment | Situational | Deliberate | Not the role’s purpose |
| È ora di iniziare | Entro 72 ore dalla ricezione della nota | Entro 72 ore dalla ricezione della nota | Entro 72 ore dalla ricezione della nota | Two to three months to appoint in CE Interim’s experience, plus notice |
Direttore delle risorse umane ad interim
Interim CEO
Responsabile ad interim della ristrutturazione
Permanent HR Director
Modalità di guasto
Perché questi appuntamenti falliscono
The internal HR director runs the redundancy programme.
They are competent, and they are also the person who negotiated with the same works council last year and will negotiate with it again next year. They know the people on the list personally and they will still be in the building afterwards. The programme can end up executed slowly, softly, or with a conflict that damages relationships the business needs to keep. An executive who leaves at the end of the mandate can conclude it without carrying that cost forward.
Redundancy is chosen before the alternatives are tested.
Short-time working, internal transfer between sites, role sharing and cross-training can cost less than severance and are easier to reverse when demand returns, though availability and cost depend on the jurisdiction and the situation. Businesses that skip the assessment can pay twice: once in severance, and again when demand returns and capability has to be rebuilt.
The negotiation is treated as a formality.
The commercial decision is taken and communicated before employee representation has been engaged. In several European jurisdictions that sequence is not merely bad practice, it delays or invalidates the process, and the recovery takes longer than doing it properly would have.
Ambito di competenza
What an Interim HR Director mandate should include
Una linea gerarchica ben definita, concordata prima dell’inizio.
Whether the executive reports to the Managing Director, to group HR, or to the board determines what can be committed in a negotiation. Employee representatives establish this quickly, and a mandate that has to refer upward mid-conversation loses standing.
Standing with employee representation.
Where works councils, unions or other employee-representation bodies are involved, the mandate defines how the Interim HR Director engages with them, what negotiating authority the executive holds and what consultation or notification requirements apply. Those arrangements vary by jurisdiction and are agreed before the process starts.
Negotiating authority with defined limits.
What can be offered, what requires approval, and where the line is. Set in writing, because the pressure to move it arrives during the negotiation rather than before it.
Authority over organisation design.
The ability to change structure, consolidate roles and assess the management layer, rather than to recommend those changes to someone who will decide later.
Compensation authority within agreed bands.
Where two structures have to be harmonised after an acquisition, or where severance frameworks have to be built, the executive needs to set terms rather than to model options.
Authority over the HR function.
The ability to reallocate responsibility within the team and to hold local HR to a group standard during the mandate.
Nota dell'autorità
Authority must be proportional to the decisions the mandate requires in its first thirty days. In a collective process the legal timetable does not pause while approval is sought.
Responsabilità legale, ambito di applicazione e copertura
Responsabilità legale.
Where a mandate requires it, the executive can be registered as a statutory representative of the local entity and take full legal responsibility for it. On an HR mandate this is scoped to the specific situation rather than assumed. Where registration is not required, the executive holds defined signature authority instead, agreed before the start rather than assumed.
L’ambito di applicazione viene concordato prima che il dirigente inizi a svolgere le proprie mansioni.
The client, CE Interim and the executive define duties, boundaries and signature limits in writing.
L'assicurazione viene stipulata per ogni mandato.
Executives carry their own professional liability and directors’ and officers’ cover. On some mandates the client provides or contributes to it. CE Interim and every member of the Valtus Alliance carries its own cover as well.
Arco di mandato
How an Interim HR Director mandate unfolds
A collective process runs to a legal timetable, not a calendar.
01
Before the process opens
Establish the ground
Understand the legal framework in this jurisdiction, the history with employee representation, and what has already been said internally. Assess the alternatives to the proposed decision. Build the documentation the process will require before it is needed rather than during it.
02
Through the negotiation
Hold the line and the relationship
Engage employee representation formally and early. Negotiate to the agreed limits. Keep management, group headquarters and the affected workforce informed on a single consistent account, because inconsistency between them is what turns a difficult process into a disputed one.
03
After the decision
Rebuild what remains
Implement the structure, support the people leaving, and stabilise the people staying. The organisation that continues is the one the business depends on, and it will have watched closely how the process was handled.
PROCESS MANDATE · 6 TO 12 MONTHS
Longer where an integration follows the restructuring. In CE Interim’s experience, three months is the minimum period in which meaningful change can usually be demonstrated, and a collective process cannot move faster than the applicable legal timetable allows.
VACANCY COVER · TO THE PERMANENT APPOINTMENT
Where the mandate bridges an empty seat during a process that cannot pause.
Parla con un partner riguardo al mandato prima che sia la situazione a definirlo per te.
Risultati e passaggio di consegne
What effective interim HR leadership should achieve
A lawful process
The sequence, the documentation and the consultation stand up to scrutiny afterwards.
A workable relationship
Employee representation has been dealt with straight, which matters because the business has to negotiate with them again.
The right structure.
The organisation that remains is designed for what the business now is, not trimmed from what it was.
Retention where it counts.
The people the business could not afford to lose are still there when the process ends.
One account.
Management, headquarters and the workforce heard the same thing, which is what prevents a difficult process becoming a disputed one.
Passaggio di consegne
The structure, the agreements and the employee relations position sit with named people inside the business. Continuity without dependency.
Chi inviamo
The Interim HR Directors we appoint
Has run collective procedures repeatedly, not once.
A record of reorganisations, transfers and carve-outs rather than a single programme. Prior experience changes how confidently the executive can manage the negotiation and its sequencing.
Knows the local framework, not the European principle.
Consultation periods, notice, severance formulas and documentation differ materially between jurisdictions. CE Interim therefore matches executives to the local framework as well as to the situation.
Has harmonised two compensation structures.
Post-acquisition, where two workforces doing similar work are paid on different terms and the correction has to be affordable, defensible and implemented without prolonging uncertainty.
Has assessed a management layer they inherited.
Not reviewed performance data, but formed a judgement about who in mid-management is capable of more and who is holding the business back, and acted on it.
Can hold the room when the news is bad.
Announcement meetings, works council sessions and individual conversations on the same day. The people who stay judge the business on how the process was conducted, and that is decided by whoever is standing at the front.
CE Interim works through more than 90 operating partners across the Valtus Alliance, in over 30 countries. That reach is what makes it possible to match jurisdiction, sector and the specific process within 72 hours.
Il modello di nomina
From confidential briefing to appointment
01
Resoconto della situazione
A Partner conversation under NDA. What has been decided, what has been communicated, where the legal timetable stands, and what authority can be delegated.
02
Mandate definition and challenge-specific assessment
CE Interim defines the situation, the scope, the reporting line and the negotiating limits, then interviews each executive for this jurisdiction and this process rather than against a generic HR profile.
03
Presentation, appointment and governance
You receive a small number of genuinely relevant executives, not a CV list. The appointment decision is yours, and a CE Interim Partner stays involved through delivery.
Tensione transfrontaliera
Why cross-border HR mandates are harder to govern
What headquarters needs
- A group standard applied without creating legal exposure
- To be told when its timetable is not legally available
- One consistent account of what is being done and why
What the local organisation needs
- Someone who knows what is actually enforceable here
- A counterparty employee representatives will negotiate with seriously
- Recognition that resistance is sometimes a legal fact, not an attitude
A group decision taken in one country has to be executed under the labour framework of another, by someone credible to both. The executive in this seat has to tell headquarters when its timetable is not available, and tell the local organisation when its resistance is not a reason to stop.
I settori in cui operiamo più spesso
Moduli di situazione
Typical Interim HR Director mandates
Crisi e ristrutturazione
Headcount has to reduce and the negotiation is the execution risk. The mandate covers alternatives assessment, collective consultation, severance design and the structure that remains.
Integrazione post-fusione e scorporo
Two workforces, two compensation structures and an unassessed management layer. The mandate is to make one organisation
without losing the people the business depends on.
Chiusura dell'attività e liquidazione controllata
A site is closing and the workforce has to be treated properly while production continues. The mandate covers the sequence, the consultation and the redeployment.
Posizione dirigenziale di fondamentale importanza da ricoprire
The HR seat is empty during a process that cannot pause. The mandate is to hold the obligations and the relationships through the gap.
Contesti settoriali
Where CE Interim appoints Interim HR Directors
Settori primari
Sono stati serviti anche
Contesti di proprietà
È importante conoscere bene il settore. Il criterio di selezione determinante è una responsabilità dirigenziale analoga in una situazione analoga, in un contesto proprietario analogo.
Prove del caso
Where this mandate applies
Global safety technology group · Nearly a century of history · More than 40,000 employees worldwide · Intervention in Poland
Post-acquisition HR migration at a Polish operation
Situazione
Following an acquisition in Poland, two workforces had to come onto one set of terms, structures and processes without disrupting what the business was delivering.
Mandato
Interim HR leadership to run the post-merger migration. Integration work of this kind can fail on the people dimension as readily as on the commercial one, which is why it is scoped as an executive mandate rather than a project.
Risultato
The post-acquisition people integration was brought under one operating cadence, aligning employment structures, HR processes and management responsibilities across the two workforces. The transition was executed without disrupting ongoing operations, giving the combined business a more consistent organisational platform after the acquisition.
International logistics group · More than 1,000 employees in Poland · Private equity owned · International management board
HR leadership through accelerated growth and transformation, Poland
Situazione
A business under private equity ownership was absorbing rapid recruitment, substantial investment and internal transformation at the same time.
Mandato
An Interim HR Director to lead the people side of that change, at a pace and scale the existing function had not been built for.
Risultato
The business gained senior HR leadership during a period when recruitment, investment and internal transformation were all accelerating at once. The mandate brought the people agenda under clearer executive ownership and created a more structured basis for scaling the organisation alongside operational growth.
Costo e durata
What an Interim HR Director mandate costs and how long it runs
Il costo degli incarichi è calcolato in base a una tariffa giornaliera che tiene conto dell’ambito di competenza, dei poteri e della durata. Non è prevista alcuna percentuale sullo stipendio, né commissioni di collocamento, né investimenti iniziali. Si pagano solo i giorni effettivamente lavorati nell’ambito dell’incarico concordato e la tariffa viene confermata prima che il dirigente inizi a lavorare.
Tariffa giornaliera indicativa
da 1.000 € a 3.000 €
In misura maggiore nei casi in cui l’incarico comporti una carica prevista dalla legge o presenti una complessità transfrontaliera.
Durata e tappe fondamentali
Process mandate
Da sei a dodici mesi
Sostituzione per assenza
To the permanent appointment
Process opens
Once the ground is prepared, not before
Dirigente in sede
Entro 72 ore dal completamento della memoria
Cosa fa variare il numero.
The jurisdiction and the complexity of its collective procedures. The number of entities, sites and representative bodies involved. Whether an integration follows the restructuring. The language the negotiation is conducted in. Every mandate is delivered on site.
A cosa dovrebbe essere confrontato.
Not the cost of the mandate, but the cost of the situation continuing without an accountable executive while decisions are deferred.
Quanto pagherai effettivamente.
Un partner ti fornirà una cifra già durante il primo colloquio riservato. Senza alcun costo né impegno.
Domande
Questions boards and group HR leaders ask
È la stessa cosa di un CHRO ad interim?
Spesso, ma non necessariamente. Il termine “CHRO” è più diffuso nei contesti aziendali e negli Stati Uniti, mentre “HR Director” è ampiamente utilizzato in Europa. A determinare l’equivalenza sono l’ambito di competenza, la linea gerarchica e il potere decisionale, piuttosto che il titolo in sé. CE Interim utilizza il termine “HR Director” perché è quello che cercano i committenti europei.
Perché non affidare la gestione della ristrutturazione al nostro direttore delle risorse umane?
Non perché non ne abbiano le capacità. Hanno negoziato con lo stesso comitato aziendale l’anno scorso e lo faranno anche l’anno prossimo, conoscono le persone coinvolte e rimangono in carica anche dopo. Un dirigente che lascia l’incarico alla fine del mandato può portare a termine il processo senza dover farsi carico di quel costo relazionale in futuro.
Direttore delle risorse umane ad interim o CRO ad interim?
Responsabile CRO in un contesto in cui la liquidità rappresenta il vincolo e la decisione relativa alla forza lavoro costituisce un elemento di una più ampia ristrutturazione finanziaria. Direttore delle risorse umane in un contesto in cui la decisione aziendale è già stata presa e il rischio di esecuzione risiede nella negoziazione.
Il coinvolgimento di una figura esterna potrebbe compromettere il nostro rapporto con il comitato aziendale?
Se gestito correttamente, può sortire l’effetto opposto. È più facile negoziare con una controparte che ha l’autorità di prendere decisioni rispetto a una che deve sottoporre ogni questione ai propri superiori. Ciò che danneggia il rapporto è un processo gestito male, non il fatto che sia gestito da una figura esterna.
Il commissario ad interim può valutare delle alternative prima che decidiamo di procedere ai licenziamenti?
Sì. Valutare le alternative prima di procedere ai licenziamenti può costituire una parte importante del mandato. La riduzione dell’orario di lavoro, i trasferimenti interni tra sedi, la condivisione dei ruoli e la formazione incrociata possono rappresentare valide alternative al licenziamento, a seconda della giurisdizione e della situazione aziendale.
Quali poteri vengono conferiti al commissario ad interim?
Il mandato definisce i poteri negoziali del dirigente, i poteri in materia di assetto organizzativo, i limiti retributivi e le modalità di coinvolgimento delle rappresentanze dei dipendenti prima che il dirigente assuma l’incarico. L’esatto quadro di consultazione e rappresentanza dipende dalla giurisdizione di riferimento, e i termini previsti dalla legge non vengono sospesi durante la fase di richiesta di approvazione.
Devono conoscere la legislazione sul lavoro del nostro Paese?
Sì, proprio così. La consultazione collettiva, il preavviso, la liquidazione e la documentazione variano in modo sostanziale da un paese all’altro in Europa, e durante una trattativa emerge subito una visione generica a livello europeo. CE Interim abbina la giurisdizione alla situazione specifica.
Chi incarica il dirigente e quali sono le responsabilità del cliente?
CE gestisce incarichi di interim su base business-to-business e il dirigente ad interim non entra a far parte dell’azienda cliente come dipendente a tempo indeterminato. La parte contraente è un’entità locale o un hub regionale, a seconda del Paese di intervento, scelta tra le oltre trenta entità che compongono la Valtus Alliance. Lo status lavorativo, gli obblighi fiscali, previdenziali e quelli correlati dipendono dalla giurisdizione, dalla struttura contrattuale e dalle circostanze dell’incarico; pertanto, l’incarico viene strutturato in base al paese in cui viene svolto il lavoro.
Chi si assume il rischio nel caso in cui il dirigente ricopra una carica ufficiale?
Insurance is arranged per mandate. The executive carries their own directors’ and officers’ and professional liability cover, and on some mandates the client provides or contributes to it. CE Interim and every member of the Valtus Alliance carries its own
cover as well. The scope of responsibility, the boundaries and the signature limits are agreed in writing by the client, CE Interim and the executive before the executive starts.
In che modo viene garantita la riservatezza?
La riservatezza è garantita da un accordo di riservatezza (NDA) stipulato sia con il cliente che con il dirigente sin dal primo contatto. Le decisioni relative al personale sono delicate ben prima di essere rese pubbliche, e il processo è strutturato proprio per questo.
Quanto tempo richiede effettivamente un processo collettivo?
È il calendario normativo a stabilirlo, non l’azienda. I periodi di consultazione, gli obblighi di notifica e di documentazione variano da paese a paese, e un processo avviato prima che il terreno sia stato preparato richiede più tempo rispetto a uno avviato correttamente. Secondo l’esperienza di CE Interim, la durata dei mandati relativi a tali processi varia solitamente dai sei ai dodici mesi, e può protrarsi più a lungo qualora segua un’integrazione.
Can the interim also handle the individual exits at senior level?
Where the mandate and the local employment framework allow it, yes. Senior terminations conducted by someone who will remain in the business can create precedents and resentments that outlast the process, and an executive leaving at the end of the mandate can conclude them without that consequence.
Cosa succede alla fine?
A deliberate handover. The structure, the agreements and the employee relations position move to named people inside the business, briefed before the executive leaves.
A workforce decision handled badly is remembered by everyone who stays.
Parla direttamente con un partner ad interim di CE riguardo alla situazione dirigenziale, al mandato e alle competenze necessarie. La conversazione è riservata e non comporta alcun impegno da parte tua in merito a una nomina.
Risposta del partner entro 24 ore. Priorità alle situazioni urgenti relative alla leadership.
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