Companies are looking new ways to get ahead of the talent game. One of the keys many organizations are finding success with is harnessing the power of on-demand talent. A new report from Business Talent Group lays out five ways that leading companies are using on-demand talent to keep moving forward on critical priorities.

When teams are stretched thin and leadership vacancies slow momentum, it’s easy to get bogged down. But you can keep advancing the ball down the field—and doing more with less—by harnessing the speed and flexibility of on-demand talent, according to a report from by Kelsey O’Neal, an executive director with Business Talent Group (BTG), a Heidrick & Struggles company. “Innovative companies are not only placing traditional interim leadership roles, but also boosting capacity up and down the org chart with interim and temporary engagements at the leadership level,” the report said.

Business Talent Group offers a look at some of the ways that leading companies are using on-demand talent to keep moving forward on critical priorities:

1. Start Building Capabilities Ahead of a Full-Time Hire.

“You might have a critical role open, but that doesn’t mean you need to wait until that position is filled to move on key priorities,” the BTG report said. “In fact, getting a jump start on critical work ahead of time is a great way to set your future permanent hire up for success.”

The report points to a multi-billion-dollar grocery chain that was in the midst of optimizing its ecommerce fulfillment network, but an open chief data officer role was slowing progress on the project. By engaging an interim data science leader, the team secured much-needed expertise and leadership right away, which not only enabled the company to stay competitive during a boom in online purchasing, but also helped ensure the eventual new CDO could hit the ground running.

2. Take Two Smaller Steps Instead of One Big One.

When companies are looking to set up or to step up new business lines, new functions, or new capabilities, they often approach leadership needs with a strong vision of the future state they are building toward, according to the Business Talent Group report. “Not surprisingly, key roles for these new areas are critical to ultimately fill with strong permanent hires—but the desire to move quickly from today to the future can lead to overly ambitious and nearly impossible-to-fill job descriptions,” it said. “For example, the need for a permanent CFO and finance team with public company experience is paramount for organizations looking forward to an IPO. But does having experience as a public company CFO in the steady state equip a leader with the same skills required to build the finance systems, policies, and team necessary for the IPO preparation and execution?”

Further, BTG explains that sometimes the sequence is just out of order, or the big picture and key reporting relationships are not settled enough to recruit confidently and successfully for the long-term. Distinguishing near-term versus long-term key activities and skill requirements—and then using on-demand talent solutions to fill those near-term needs—can unlock some of the logjams that can arise around major hires in significantly new moments.

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