Shawnee Love   •  
January 6, 2012

I am increasingly seeing employers relying on contractors to cover overflow and fill in gaps due to leaves, vacations and other temporary needs rather than hiring employees.  Great money saving idea or temporary stop gap, but as a long term solution it can reduce team synchronicity and slow down the team it was supposed to help.

The obvious solution is to make the temp feel part of the team; however, do you really want to invest in a temp or involve them in team building activities when there is a very low probability that they will be there down the road?

As with much in HR, the answer to that question depends a lot on the situation you are in, but here are things to consider when deciding the right approach for your business:

1. How long will the “temp” be there? If it is a day or two, it likely doesn’t matter much what you do, and in fact, I know organizations who use the opportunity to get all their grunt work done and leave the temp “in charge” while they take employees out for a well deserved team meal.  But if the person will be there 6-12+ months, and you don’t want to have someone unhappy and unmotivated, then it might be a good idea to include him or her in the teambuilding activities.
2. How important is team work? If the person will be there awhile and team work is important or everyone needs to be on the same page to have the best productivity, then training the temp and involving the temp in the meetings and discussions is really valuable and a small price to pay in the face of what you will gain when the sum of the parts (including the temp) is working at top potential.
3. How well do you communicate internally? If you are an organization that does a great job of communicating, you might be able to get away with less hand-holding or less effort at team-building and engagement.  If you aren’t the best at remembering to get your message out to your employees normally, then your temp will probably feel even more isolated and lost than your employees because no one remembers to tell a temp anything.

If you want to share how your company treats temps and interim workers, please comment.