Understanding a Unique Breed of Worker: The Temp

A temporary workforce can offer talent managers strategic opportunities as a component of a well-balanced workforce portfolio. They can increase the efficiency and ROI of the hiring process; offer new, cheaper cost centers for workforce planning; and enhance a company’s ability to remain profitable through market cycles.

Maximizing the value of a temporary workforce requires identifying areas of alignment between temp workers’ needs and business goals. Temporary workers come to work with widely varied goals, expectations and needs. How effectively they perform depends on how well talent managers can match their aspirations with their roles in the company.

One Size Does Not Fit All

To maximize the strategic value of a temporary workforce, talent managers must evaluate temporary workers needs’ according to two things: scalability of commitment and diversity of desires.

Scalability of commitment. There is a surprisingly deep scalability of commitment across all segments of the temporary workforce. Temps of every type actively scale their engagement and commitment based on the “match” the job provides to their goals and needs. The same temp can perform with different effectiveness at different jobs. Further, temps have much more freedom to scale commitment than a regular worker because the stakes of any particular job are much lower for them.

Diversity of desires. Second, consider the diversity of desires within the temporary workforce. Temps come to their jobs with widely varied goals, needs and expectations. Their reasons for temping, pain points and engagement drivers are broadly diverse. What works for one temp may not work for another. But all temps universally expect companies to understand the role they play in the workforce and to match available jobs with their expectations.
These two trends combine to pose a major dilemma for organizations. If temps’ needs aren’t met, they will disengage from their assignments. But temp workers’ needs and expectations are diverse and varied, making generic solutions ineffective. So recognizing that not all temps are the same, the question becomes: how to match the right position to the right temp?

The first step for talent mangers in solving this dilemma is to understand their companies’ goals for temporary workers. Ask:

Why is the company using a temp rather than a permanent hire?

What is the main strategic benefit expected from deploying a temporary workforce in different parts of the organization?

Is the issue flexibility, to try before you buy, or to uncover new ways of getting work done?


Source: Talent Management

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