WORKSHIFTER - Dispatches from the New Executive Frontier

Corporations, like people, sometimes demonstrate extremely unhealthy behaviors.  Neal Bruce of First Advantage describes the way most companies manage their workforce talent as "the binge-purge syndrome".  In other words, when times are good, companies load up on people and fixed costs.  Then, when times get tough, they purge them at a tremendous cost to the organization in terms of both pure dollars paid in severance costs and in the morale of the people left behind and the people they put out of work.

A much healthier way for businesses to manage their talent resources is to maintain a healthy weight or a core group of people which is augmented with variable cost resources for the specific time period they are needed to do specific work.  In other words, tap into deep knowledge and expertise (with done it before resources), on a variable cost basis (no recruiting, benefits or severance costs) with goal oriented people who have no political agenda (giving companies the objective feedback they need to make great business decisions).

There is a real lesson to be learned here...as we begin to come out of this economic cycle, companies need to learn from their mistakes of the past.  This time around, there is no need to binge on fixed resources when there are a growing number of people who are choosing to work as independent consultants and freelancers.  If companies begin to embrace this new interim management model, they will be a lot healthier in the long run.