Leveraging Interim Talent and a Blended Workforce

Brian Coffman, Vice President, Delivery

More extensive and widespread remote work is one of the pandemic’s important lasting legacies that has ultimately introduced and normalized a more flexible workplace. As a result, many leaders are reexamining how work gets done and by whom. In an effort to build a more resilient and adaptable organization, leaders are adjusting their perceptions towards traditional workforce staffing methods and are increasingly deciding to leverage flexible, contracted interim talent.

Many organizations are finding independent workers are necessary to build agility in the face of ambiguity and help full-time staff achieve outcomes faster with in-demand skills and assistance as needed. When your organization needs extra talent for project implementation and achieving your goals, interim staffing is the perfect way to get top quality talent in the door, fast.

A recent client said, “I had three rock solid candidates within days and was able to start my new contract employee just two weeks after reaching out to hrQ. I look forward to working with hrQ again!”

Forward-looking organizations will reexamine facets of their talent strategy like contingent work and their sourcing strategy for recruiting more available talent. Contingent labor not only allows for flexibility in sourcing and managing workforce size and cost, but it also enables organizations to focus on increased support and resources for their internal employee base. These strategies must be carefully crafted and grounded in principles that align with the goals and culture of the organization.

Blended workforces take time to integrate successfully. While the road to effectively transitioning interim talent into the organization can seem overwhelming, there are ways you can improve efficiency while bringing your blended workforce together and strengthening your organization’s culture.

Connecting with your traditional staff

When integrating interim talent into your traditional workforce it is important to connect with staff, implement their feedback, and promote a welcoming environment for interim talent to learn and grow. Organizations must be able to quickly identify changes in demand for skills. Listen to your employees and ask for feedback: you’ll be able to determine how to best integrate new talent and what skills full-time employees would like added to their team. It is also important to make management a part of the integration process to ensure leaders feel more comfortable with the adjustment.

Strengthening your blended workforce’s culture

Positive relationships and organizational culture are necessary to build connections between full-time and flexible staff. Invite interim talent into team meetings, give them a voice in the decision-making process and recognize their achievements. This will help flexible workers feel more included while allowing the full-time staff to get to know the new team members in a supportive setting.

As the composition of the workforce changes and internal demands increase, hrQ provides the quality talent you need to be agile. Our interim resources are available for on-site daily support, occasional project needs, or to be a virtual on-demand resource. Plus, interim resources stay on hrQ’s payroll, which means better expense management.

Read our blog “Six Business Cases for Interim Staffing” to discover more about how interim staffing can provide solutions to issues your organization may be challenged with.

Whether you need an HR Business Partner, Total Rewards Director or a fractional CHRO to fill a gap or add expertise you don’t have in-house, we work with top clients to quickly identify and place the best talent in your organization. Ready to augment your team using interim HR staffing? Let’s talk.

Sources

Beckett, Danny. (4 May 2021). ‘A Game Plan for Introducing Flexible Talent’, Entrepreneur, Available at: www.entrepreneur.com/article/370981 (Accessed: 11 May 2021).

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