But in today's quickly changing marketplace, where employers can never predict what is just around the corner, the old-fashioned long-term employer-employee relationship just doesn't fit. The key to continued success for companies today is the ability to adapt rapidly to new circumstances -- whether they are unexpected market opportunities or suddenly vanishing market opportunities. Depending on the circumstances, staffing may have to expand rapidly or contract rapidly -- or both at the same time. Certain skills may be required all of a sudden and others just as suddenly may be no longer necessary. What's more, there is no reliable way to predict these sudden shifts. Nor is there a reliable measure of how long a particular employer will need to be staffed-up or staffed-down in a particular segment of its workforce. In the new economy, staffing needs will be in constant flux. Employers must gear their staffing strategies around coping with this reality.

To meet unpredictable staffing needs on an as-needed basis, employers must move toward a more fluid staffing model. Most organizations have already done this by utilizing temps, independent contractors, outsourcing, and so on. But their organization charts do not reflect it, nor do their expectations about relationships with their employees, nor do their management practices and rewards systems. The most important ability of a manager nowadays is being able to get the best work out of the best people consistently -- wherever, whenever, and however the best people can contribute the most work at the highest levels of speed and accuracy.
 

1) Shrink your core group. And retool your organization so it can thrive with a very small number of full-time, long-term, on-site employees. 2) Grow your fluid talent pool. And organize as much of the day-to-day work as possible so it can be done by relatively short-term employees working in more flexible arrangements. 3) Build a proprietary talent database of individual contributors who could be called upon on a temporary basis as needed. 4) Develop solid working relationships with a wide range of vendors who can be counted upon for outsourcing. 5) Maintain an internal group of contributors who are not permanently assigned to any particular tasks/ responsibilities, teams, locations, or schedules -- who can be called upon and deployed to fill in staffing gaps wherever and whenever they occur.