A thoughtful approach toward temporary help (Sears)

“At Sears, in conjunction with our Procurement function, we had developed an effective temporary help model for project-based legal work. This model enabled us to evaluate the need for internal time/headcount, outside counsel use, and temporary assistance, adding a third leg to the legal support stool. The result was cost savings and the ability to work within headcount constraints.” This description comes from Met. Corp. Counsel, July 2006, at 30 in an interview of Heidi Rudolph.

This setup does not sound like Sears struck a deal with a provider of temporary staff. It sounds more like resource balancing based on a disciplined model of costs and positions.