how to manage interim workers.

Hiring interim workers and not sure how to make them feel comfortable in your team?

Looking to hire someone on an interim contract with the potential of making them a permanent hire in the future?

Want to make sure your interim hires are productive from day one?

You’re not alone! From speaking with our accountancy and finance clients across the UK, a common challenge is how to best manage interim employees so that they make an impact in the time they are with you.

By managing any interim hires successfully, you’ll not only boost your own employer brand as a desired organisation to work with, but you’ll also get the most effective results from your employee.

To support you to achieve this, we have put together 5 top tips for managing interim workers:

• Have a clear action plan
• Work with permanent hires
• Ask questions and don’t assume
• Ensure activities and events are open to all
• Stay in touch with talent

Have a clear action plan.

Prior to bringing on interim workers, make sure you are able to answer the following questions:

• What is the approximate length of the project you want your worker to complete?
• What is the scope of the project and exactly what will it entail?
• How do you convey this information succinctly and accurately to someone who might be unfamiliar with your company?

Being an interim worker requires employees to slide as effortlessly as possible into new roles and learn quickly what is expected of them. You’ll enable workers to deliver their best work possible by ensuring that they’ve got all the information they need to complete the job. It can help to put all the information in writing too, so that the worker can review the parameters and processes of a project while doing the work.

Work with permanent hires.

It’s important to ensure that everyone in the team makes a worker feel welcome, not just the management. So, check in with your permanent team members and ensure they know what you expect from them when welcoming in an interim hire. This will ensure that perm and temp workers fit into the team together effectively, and so produce quality work.

Ask questions and don’t assume.

Moving from project to project and company to company means workers tend to amass a great deal of diverse experience - an interim worker may be able to bring more to the table that you initially hired them for! To get the most out of interim workers (and so they get the most out of their role) always ask questions about their previous professional experiences and hone in on any correlations to the type of work your company does. Don’t assume what their skill set is.

It can also be effective to ask interim workers’ opinions on relevant projects or plans - having a fresh perspective can make a real difference to the productivity of the team. 

Ensure activities and events are open to all.

It can really make a difference to the experience of an interim worker if you do everything you can to make working at your company as rewarding as it is for permanent hires. For example, loop them into meetings and communications that would be useful to them, whilst including them in any events or activities.

Stay in touch with talent.

Just because their project has come to a close doesn’t mean you should forget about them. Good talent is good talent, regardless of how it comes to you, and there may come a time when you need quality interim workers once again, or want to consider someone for a permanent role. So document their time at your company well and be sure to maintain the contact information (with permission of course). It can also be worth making the time to check in with workers every few months, to see what they are doing.

If you’ve got any questions or would like to discuss your interim hiring plans, please reach out to the team.