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In the process industry, there is regularly a demand for temporary capacity. At the executive and middle management levels, roles are often filled by strategically knowledgeable and experienced interim managers. At the operational level, engaging hands-on operations professionals on a secondment basis is a frequently chosen solution. In such cases, it is important to pre-determine which roles they will temporarily fulfill within a team or organization.
Often, the demand for temporary extra capacity arises from additional temporary work: an implementation project (such as ERP) or improvement project. It might seem obvious to let hired personnel take over this extra work. When there is a lack of necessary knowledge, experience, and skills, employing a seconded professional on projects or improvement initiatives can indeed be a solution. The idea is that teams and employees can remain focused on the core business, as temporary extra capacity is created for innovation, improvement, and progress. A good solution, as long as it does not become the standard reflex.
Sometimes the aforementioned solution may seem like a missed opportunity. You can also choose to temporarily free up your own people from their daily tasks and add them to project or improvement teams. After all, they are the process experts. They bring valuable knowledge and experience from daily operations. This enhances the efficiency of a project, as they know exactly what it is about and can constantly reflect: does what we envision fit into our operation? What is needed to smartly and efficiently implement our change and improvement plans?
Besides optimally utilizing internally available knowledge and experience, the choice to place your own people on implementation and improvement projects offers numerous other advantages. The involvement of your own people ensures that changes and improvements are directly supported internally. They have contributed to it themselves, it is not just "thrown over the fence." By involving your own people in important organizational developments, you also express appreciation and trust towards them. Additionally, you provide variety in their work. Lastly, but importantly, as an organization, you develop your internal continuous improvement capacity. Learning by doing!
You can, however, only deploy your people once, and daily processes rely on the same people. By using seconded capacity to take over some of the daily tasks, your own people can focus on the improvement project. An additional advantage is that an external professional can look at your daily processes from a broad perspective and with a fresh eye. This again generates new improvement initiatives!
When filling capacity on a secondment basis, you as an entrepreneur have choices. There is no single recipe. Being aware of this and continually choosing the best, most suitable solution at the time, allows you to make optimal use of both your own people and temporarily deployable professionals from outside.
Wouter van de Beek
Business Manager & Consultant