The Use of Flexible Staffing Arrangements in Core Production Jobs

Abstract

Using data from their own 1994-96 survey of human resource managers in Alabama establishments, the authors investigate what determines the use of flexible staffing arrangements in core jobs and how such arrangements affect the job security provided to regular core employees. They find that union representation deterred in-house flexible arrangements, but not subcontracting; the likelihood of subcontracting was positively related to core employees' wages, relative to wages of other similar workers in the industry; and the use of flexible staffing arrangements was positively associated with two factors: core employee hiring costs and a business strategy emphasizing low-cost production (versus, for example, market specialization). They also find evidence that regular core employees gained enhanced employment stability through their employer's use of flexible staffing arrangements to vary labor inputs in core jobs.