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- BRUCE TULGAN
With the economy in turmoil, now is a good time for business leaders to remember something they seemed to have forgotten in the last several years. The solution to the staffing crisis is not—nor was it ever—to be found in filling open positions on the organisation chart. Staffing needs are always in flux. The person you need today is probably not the person you will need tomorrow. That’s why successful companies in today’s economy will maintain very strong, but very lean core groups, while using more flexible staffing options to get most of the work done every day.
Many geographically diffuse organisations have, in recent years, created internal employee databases to enable managers in one location to utilise the company’s employees regardless of geography. But that’s not enough. To meet today’s varied and unpredictable staffing needs, managers need access to larger, more diversely skilled talent pools than any one company can possibly afford to keep on its payroll. The killer solution is a huge network of talent a proprietary talent database indexed by skill and performance ability and linked with up to date contact information— including a wide range of individuals and firms.
Consider temps, independent contractors, consultants, part-timers, flex-timers, some-timers, telecommuters, outside firms, former employees and job applicants who receive but don’t accept offers.
Your best former employees can quickly become back bones of your fluid staffing strategy. They already know how to do business in your organisation. You’ve already trained them. They already know you and many of your colleagues, and probably plenty of your vendors and customers.
Whose skill and performance abilities do you know better than the people who have already worked for you? When they come back, you’ll probably have to fill them in on some new developments, but they’ll get up to speed much more quickly than a brand new employee. Of course, in many organisations, this will require an overhaul of your approach to departing employees. No longer can you treat those who leave as disloyal job hoppers. They are your reserve army. Treat them with respect.
If you’re not great at it whatever it is stop doing it, or else outsource it to a vendor that is truly great. The financial reason is diversification of risk and cost. But there is a much more important reason: diversification of excellence. You can only be truly great at just so many things. So you must also become known for integrating the core competencies of other truly great vendors into your day to day work process and ultimately into your final products and services.
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The way out of excessively authoritarian structures begins with leadership. Take the focus off finger pointing and discover the dynamic relationships in your organisation. Permit widespread intelligence to emerge.
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Bruce Tulgan, author of Winning the Talent Wars (W.W. Norton, 2001) and founder of RainmakerThinking, Inc. (www.rainmakerthinking.com).
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