Today, nearly every major corporation hires temporary workers as part of their staffing strategy. A strategy for businesses with seasonal operations that require a significant influx of professional labor, taking advantage of readily available leased workers. However, integrating these workers with permanent employees can present challenges, potentially leading to workplace biases and obstacles. In this blog, we present 5 strategies and 5 applicable tactics that can guide you toward successful integration.
Priority One: Develop a Cohesive Organizational Culture that Successfully Integrates Temporary Workers with the In-House Workforce
Company values are often reduced to formal, abstract statements in introductory materials—either unimplemented or implemented but unfamiliar for working staff. These values can be leveraged far more effectively.
Every individual joining the company comes with external thoughts, personal beliefs, and different upbringings, which can escalate minor differences into major conflicts. Some may assert their authority, while others focus solely on productivity, disregarding quality. Some prioritize quality over production hours and deadlines, some believe in teamwork, and others strive only for individual success.
This is where company values play a crucial role in instilling new beliefs within the team, improving the quality of their thinking, and fostering more harmonious collaboration, transcending individualistic values in the workplace.
Innovation and exceptional quality are not the top values to emphasize; they may help the company with external relations with investors and clients, yet the core values that should be instilled in team members must include:
- Promoting the Idea of Added Value: What do you add to the company and to your colleagues?
And the answer for this question should be: Every contribution, whether big or small, should be recognized. Added value can come in many forms.
One individual from the temporary workers may contribute with something as simple as keeping the office clean, yet the team cannot function without this role. Even a cleaner, whose job is to maintain a tidy and comfortable workspace, plays a pivotal role just by getting the job done in the best way it can be.
This does not mean undervaluing major contributions by managers and leaders, but only ensuring that every employee and worker receives the appreciation they deserve for their efforts, whether they’re contributors from the temporary workers or from the in-house employees.
- Acknowledging Diverse Forms of Excellence Among Temporary and Permanent Workers
Praising only a single type of excellence can create unnecessary conflicts. For example, commending a salesperson solely for closing many deals or an administrative employee only for meeting annual targets may provoke resentment from others.
Instead, recognize various forms of excellence, whether it’s efficiency in task completion, collaborative spirit, reliability, or fostering a positive and motivating workplace. And try to emphasize strength points that an employee can develop and build upon.
- Ensuring Clarity and Fair Advantages for all Team Members, Within the Temporary Workers and the In-House Workforce
A harmonious work environment requires company rules based on transparency and fairness, clear roles, defined authorities, transparent promotion paths, and equal access to common benefits for both permanent and temporary workers.
Research shows that role ambiguity and preferential treatment rank among the leading causes of workplace conflicts. This underscores the need for clear policies that define performance expectations and associated benefits.
- Investing in Continuous Professional Development for All Employees, Including Leased Workers
A culture of continuous learning is now essential for ambitious corporations. Offering equal training opportunities leads to higher retention rates for both temporary and permanent staff. But how can this be applicable with the short-term workers hiring solutions? Through job-specific training that enhances productivity, and it can be short practical sessions rather than lengthy academic programs.
- Balancing Work and Personal Life, Giving Attention to Your Workers Family Needs
Flexibility in work-life balance has become a fundamental requirement for the modern workforce, as noted by the Future of Work Institute. Life pressures inevitably affect employees’ productivity and workplace interactions. A stressed employee may cause unexpected losses or conflicts. The reason why implementing flexible policies can support personal well-being, prevent productivity drops, enhance efficiency, reduce turnover, and minimize team disputes.
Second, Here Are Five Applicable Tactics to Integrate Leased Workers with Permanent Employees
- Clear Role Definitions for Both Temporary Workers and Permanent Staff
Some organizations utilize task-specific contracts that clearly outline responsibilities for all workers, whether leased or permanent, including detailed collaboration protocols between the two groups.
- Equal Policies for Leased and Permanent Workers
There are always specific advantages your company can provide equally for both leased and permanent employees. They may include meals and parking spaces for all workers and can also include integrated training sessions for both groups to ensure consistent workplace benefits.
- Strengthening Leased Workers’ Sense of Belonging
Some companies invite seasonal workers for strategic planning meetings, acknowledge their contributions to the annual goals, and genuinely praise their performance. According to research, this can reduce turnover rates by up to 20%.
- Mentorship Programs
Assigning a permanent employee as a mentor to a leased worker during their first week helps them acclimate to the company, understand team roles, related departments, workflow, and spaces in the workplace essential for their operations and their breaks. This also can strengthen collaboration between the two groups.
- Creating Social Activities Gathers Both Groups
Organizing team-building activities outside work fosters human connections between temporary and permanent employees, enhancing professional cooperation, teamwork, and productivity while creating a more inclusive work environment.
Conclusion
Integrating the temporary workers with permanent ones is not a managerial luxury but a strategic necessity. It requires addressing challenges at their roots through a comprehensive approach. Most importantly, leased workers should not be seen as temporary numbers but as partners in success; some of them may contribute unprecedented achievements through their expertise or exceptional skills.
Ultimately, success is not measured solely by profits but by building a healthy and functional work environment where everyone feels like a valued team member that deserves appreciation and recognition.
Sources:
- Stanford University study: Recognition of temporary workers and institutional belonging.
- Harvard Business Review, 2022.
- International Labour Organization (ILO).
- Future of Work Institute, 2023.