Dear Andy.(credit @ work)

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Although my department currently has a hiring freeze in place, I am told I am authorized to bring in temporary staff as needed to manage through busy periods. Do you have any suggestions for getting the most out of interim employees?

It's fortunate that you have the option to bring in temporary professionals. Your company recognizes that maintaining adequate staffing levels is just as important during an economic downturn as it is during more robust times.

During difficult business periods, firms rely heavily on their credit and collections departments to help them improve cash flow and profitability and typically bring in temporary staff for one area or for a combination of a few areas. In many cases, interim professionals are asked to focus on tasks that will have an immediate impact on cash flow. Companies also work with interim employees for credit analysis projects or to handle delinquent accounts. In addition, these professionals can free up full-time personnel who have been pulled off of their core responsibilities in order to assist in other areas to again concentrate on their primary roles.

With this in mind, here are some steps you can take to get the most benefit from interim staff:

Understand their strengths. You'll get more from your staffing investment if you take the time at the outset to ask temporary professionals about their work experience, professional interests and strengths. This information can provide additional insights into how you can best put their abilities to work within your department.

Have a clearly defined role. Identify exactly what you want temporary staff to accomplish, and tailor the role as much as possible to the individual's strengths. For instance, you might task the person with collecting from certain industries.