Temporary Staffing

In view of the ongoing recession, companies are in a pressure to cut costs. One of the areas apart from cutting infrastructure and maintainence costs is to lower down the cost on Human Capital. In such a scenario, organizations have resorted to hiring temporary employees and the trend is picking up, for one it gives the employee the desired flexibility to balance their work - personal life.If you look at this relationship in a bit more details, its a Win - Win for both employees and employers.

As per an article published in a leading daily, Temporary Staffing is an industry which is around 200 Billion $ worldwide. What is really making it an attractive option ?

From Employees perspective, it gives them a clear defined deliverable to work on, they can also decide how they go about achieving their goals. The results / outcome are measurable and they can use their skills effectively to influence the outcome. They also have the choice of doing other things which interest them. Also flexibly managing the duration of the employment.
From an Employer's perspective, they do not have to worry about investing too much on the employee. It helps them manage their employee pool without bothering too much about things which rarely happen in practice - Career Plans, Development. So its hiring employees, assigning them goals, monitoring performance and rewarding them.

However this has no real impact on cost savings, as pointed out by Subhash Khare, VP (central staffing & productivity), Wipro. Sometimes, specialized skills means extra cost, however if that could mean lower cost of HR administration,companies would be willing to consider this model.
However on the hindsight, traditionlist would question the impact of longevity on performance impact and also the strategy of the organization. The right model perhaps would be a combination of both !!!