Horror in the Trenches! Part Three

By James Montague

So Stephanie has decided to implement a temporary staffing model.  The expenses work and she gets immediate relief for her overworked staff.  The only decision left is what pieces of the logistical process to have temporary staff work on.  For Stephanie there are pieces of the meeting development process that are better kept with her in-house planners; budgets, contract negotiations and speaker recruitment.  To her organization these are items they want to keep a close watch on because they have the most potential to adversely affect clients.  Other pieces like registration, on-site management, venue selection, F&B and travel are important but if managed properly can be handled by temporary staff or outsourced completely.

Stephanie also needs to decide if one organization has the resources to handle all of the areas she needs.  The decision to bring in temporary staffing can also weigh on the vendor she chooses to help support her.  Do they have people with the skill set to provide some or all of the services needed?  Will she need to engage more than one vendor to fulfill all her needs?  Who will manage the vendor(s)?  Are there organizations that have people skilled in her specific area of meeting management; association, medical meetings, government meetings, etc? 

Ok you guys have been silent long enough out there in cyberland!  I’m sure your colleagues would welcome your ideas or horror stories with temporary staffing!  Or has every temp you brought in worked out perfectly? 

Tomorrow we will discuss the process for engaging temporary staffing vendors and my checklist for vendor selections.