Temporary teams: The workforce management model for future success

Standing in line at Whole Foods, I watched the woman ahead of me pay her bill with her palm—a quick biometric scan and voila, off she went, groceries in hand. The next person achieved similar results with the tap of a smartphone.

Amazing how things have changed. Not all that long ago, we paid our grocery tabs by cash or check. If the latter, we had to provide a valid ID (some people had their driver’s license number printed on their checks to save time—imagine doing that today!). Then stores began taking credit and debit cards, a big saver of time. Now we have many ways to achieve the same result, including biometrics and the “contactless payment” system discussed above. Each phase of this evolution relied on the one before it and was powered by technology.

As a result of this fated grocery run, I began thinking about parallels in the evolution of technology-enabled workforce management. First, remote work shook up the traditional working environment where all employees were co-located and working the same hours. As enterprises have adapted to remote work models, they are shifting to the second phase, workforce optimization. With a focus on skills rather than roles, an optimized workforce is a strategic mix of full-time employees and high-value contractors who deliver core business results.

Now, off on the horizon, is the third phase of workforce management: temporary teams.  

The notion of long-term teams as a business mainstay arose in the 1980s as that era’s “future of work.” Leaders embraced the belief that teams enhance creativity and productivity, partly because of the relationships that solidify as a result of Philip Tuckman’s forming-storming-norming-performing theory. The idea that long-term teams produce the best results is embedded in the business psyche.

But the notion of long-term teams has been called into question over recent years even as many enterprises still focus on them as a key to productivity. As the quest continues for high-performing teams, some experts assert that the cost-to-benefit ratio of maintaining a long-term team is too high—too much money for not enough results. Despite the shared mission, clear roles, and stable membership of such a team, most fall far short of high performance.

The solution is not to dump the use of teams entirely, but to change how teams work. After all, teams can excel at creating effective solutions to complex problems because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Instead, the solution is to replace “permanent” or “long-term” teams with temporary teams, made of blended and optimized groups of full-time workers and skilled contract labor.

Some form of temporary teams is already part of workforce management but, in most cases, these are positioned as adjuncts to permanent teams. Temporary teams, for example, are used for special projects or when a dip in workload creates a surplus of workers who can be deployed on short-term assignments. This, however, is far from the next phase of workforce management, which puts temporary teams in the central slot that permanent ones have occupied—across the entire enterprise.

Members of temporary teams connect, collaborate to achieve a specific result, and then disband. The process repeats as members move to other temporary teams. This team model is fluid, supporting the agility and flexibility that are imperative in the future of work. And the model does not preclude high performance. Many characteristics of high-performing teams are organizational culture characteristics—think diversity, respect, trust, and innovation, among others—so high-performing teams can still be a goal for leadership. The key is to have the right culture in which the teams operate.

The company that sees the value of making the shift can’t just take the old team model and plop it onto a temporary team model. A temporary team culture is skills-focused, values diversity, and thrives through change. An enterprise may have to shift policies and leadership approaches to create an environment that supports temporary teams. For example, individual performance measures, as well as pay and bonus scales, may need to change as workers shift managers according to the teams they work on. Managers themselves may need to recalibrate how they oversee the teams under their purview and learn new skills geared toward leading continuously shifting work groups.

Strategies that make temporary teams work include:

• Align Onboarding: Make sure that your onboarding processes are aligned with the model so that new employees and contractors understand what to expect.
• Emphasize Soft Skills: Soft skills are essential to the temporary team model. Include assessment of these skills in candidate evaluations and team composition decisions. Train current workers to acquire and improve skills like communication, problem-solving, and conflict management. 
• Curate A Consistent Contractor Pool: Maintaining an ongoing relationship with independent professionals who have high-value skills allows you to engage them as needed, which can save costs and ensure knowledge retention. 
• Strive For The Optimal Member Mix: Use a blueprint for team assembly that mixes veterans with new members. The veterans understand company processes and can bring learnings from other teamwork to the current group. New members, unencumbered by the past, can bring fresh perspectives that help spark creativity.
• Encourage Collaboration Over Competition: Foster and reward collaborative behaviors across the workforce so that workers cultivate cooperative habits that work from team to team.

The temporary team model is to workforce management as contactless or biometric payment is to point-of-sale transactions. It’s the next phase in ensuring future enterprise success, and savvy companies are putting the right culture, processes, and leadership in place to make the model a reality.

Miles Everson is CEO at MBO Partners, building the future of work by connecting top independent professionals and enterprises worldwide.