Flexible Staffing Arrangements Research Articles

Flexible CPA staffing in non‐Big 4 audit firms: Its determinants and implications for audit fees and audit quality

In this study, we discuss how small audit firms (i.e. non‐Big 4 audit firms) address the staffing crunch during the busy season. Using monthly certified public accountant (CPA) employment data from Korea, we find that the number of CPAs in non‐Big 4 audit firms peaks before the busy season but drops afterward, suggesting the prevalence of part‐time or short‐term employment (i.e. flexible staffing). Flexible CPA staffing is more prevalent in audit firms with lower sales, higher sales growth and lower profitability. We further document that the standard deviation of the changes in monthly CPA numbers within a year is negatively associated with audit fees, implying that flexible staffing enables small audit firms to charge lower fees to clients. Additionally, we find no evidence that flexible staffing significantly impairs audit quality. We also report evidence that non‐Big 4 audit firms attract more clients when they are more flexibly staffed than otherwise. Collectively, non‐Big 4 firms reduce operating leverage via flexible staffing arrangements and share the benefits with clients without compromising audit service quality.

Employers' perception of downsides to flexible staffing arrangements: exploring the role of strategic motives

PurposeFlexible staffing arrangements have become a permanent feature of employment in many industrial societies. This article examines how employers perceive the consequences of using flexible staffing arrangements. It presents and assesses theoretically informed hypotheses on organisational situations in which negative consequences are more likely to be perceived.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data (n = 761) from a bespoke employers survey, fielded in the Netherlands in 2019. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to measure and explain employers' perception of downsides to flexible staffing arrangements.FindingsEmployers report distinct downsides to the use of flexible staffing arrangements in terms of performance, management and employee well-being. Model estimates show that employers using flexible staffing arrangements to acquire specific expertise or to follow other organisations in their sector perceive more downsides.Originality/valueEmpirical research on employers' perception of the disadvantageous consequences of using flexible staffing arrangements is scarce. This article highlights that this practice can discourage investments in human capital and lead to a sense of insecurity among young workers. It draws attention to the relevance of distinguishing between strategic motives when trying to understand organisational behaviour regarding non-standard forms of employment.

Gendered and generational inequalities in the gig economy era

Over the last few decades, there has been a radical transformation of Australia's labour market and education sector, with intersecting implications for gender and generational inequalities. First, the composition of the labour force has changed. There has been a significant increase in women's participation in paid work, which has been driven by the changing industrial landscape as well a significant expansion of higher education opportunities for women. At the same time, there has been a steady decline in full-time youth employment. Youth unemployment has become a persistent problem for governments since the late 1980s and 1990s and has only worsened since the global financial crisis (Denny and Churchill, 2016). Primary industry and the manufacturing sectors, once reliant upon unskilled labour, in particular young people who left school early, have waned and there has been a countervailing growth in service industries that require professional, skilled workers (Cuervo and Wyn, 2011). Not only has the composition of the labour market changed, so too has its characteristics. New jobs have different conditions to the old ones. The contemporary labour market is increasingly characterised by what Guy Standing (2011) calls precarious work. Precarious work is 'uncertain, unstable, and insecure and in which employees bear the risks of work (as opposed to businesses and government) and receive limited benefits and statutory protections' (Kalleberg, 2018: 1). It is often described as contingent or non-regular work, or referred to as 'alternative work arrangements' or 'flexible staffing arrangements' (Kalleberg, 2018: 12). Examples of precarious work include temporary work; contract work, including independent contractors; part-time work with a desire for more hours; work with irregular hours; casual work; and own-account self-employed workers (Kalleberg, 2018: 12). The growth in precarious work is a result of structural changes which have eroded the standard employment arrangements that emerged in the post-war period (Kalleberg, 2018). These changes have given rise to what is being termed 'the gig economy': a new way of organising economic activity, where workers are not hired on a permanent basis but for shorter or longer term 'gigs'. This reconfigures labour markets and can on the one hand be seen to encourage a new, digital form of entrepreneurship and provide new opportunities for flexible work patterns. However, especially in a flexible, deregulated economy like Australia, it also exposes individuals to greater financial risks and social insecurities which can deepen existing inequalities. Younger generations are arriving in a labour market in which 'work' has increasingly been replaced by 'gigs' and 'tasks', and this kind of highly casualised, non-standard employment is having a spill-over effect on their non-working lives, which are increasingly disrupted by these social changes. This is what we term the gig economy era. In many ways, it is an extension and continuation of the neoliberal forces which have created the 'new precariat' (Standing, 2011), for whom insecure and non-standard employment has become the norm. The introduction to this special issue, 'Gender and Generational Inequalities in the Gig Economy', begins by mapping the context and configurations that have led to this era and its impact upon young men and women, and introduces the articles contained in the issue. It concludes with a discussion of future avenues for research.

The Benefits Implications of Recent Trends in Flexible Staffing Arrangements

Workers in flexible staffing arrangements - including temporary agency, direct-hire temporary, on-call, and contract workers - are much less likely than regular, direct-hire employees to be covered by laws mandating or regulating workplace benefits. Workers in such arrangements, in turn, are much less likely to receive pension, health insurance, and other benefits on the job. This paper documents these differences in coverage by benefits regulations and differences in benefits receipt. The paper also reviews evidence on the incentives employers have to use workers in these various flexible staffing arrangements. Although reducing benefits costs is not the only reason employers use flexible staffing arrangements, it is an important factor motivating many employers to use them, and the level of and growth in these arrangements would be lower in the absence of this incentive.

Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence from an Establishment Survey

This paper examines which employers use flexible staffing arrangements, why they use these arrangements, and their implications for workers and public policy, drawing on a nationally representative survey of private sector establishments. Use of flexible staffing arrangements - including temporary help agency, short-term, on-call, regular part-time, and contract workers - is widespread and two-thirds of employers believe this use will increase in the near future. Traditional reasons concerning the need to accommodate fluctuations in workload or absences in staff are the most commonly cited reasons for using all types of flexible staffing arrangements. Many employers also use agency temporaries and part-time workers to screen candidates for regular positions. Finally, savings on benefits costs is an important factor determining employers' use of flexible staffing arrangements. Workers in flexible staffing arrangements typically are not covered by regulations governing benefits, and they typically do not receive key benefits, like pension benefits and health insurance, when these benefits are offered to regular full-time workers.

Unions and the use of flexible staffing in korea: evidence from an establishment survey

Using data from the KLI Workplace Survey 2002, this study investigates the effects of unions on the use of flexible staffing arrangements. We find that union representation is positively associated with the employer's use of more flexible forms of employment. This union effect cannot be attributed to the unobserved characteristics of unionized establishments, which may promote the intensive use of flexible staffing arrangements. Our findings cast doubt on the claim that the union effect is a statistical artefact arising from a sorting process in which firms with higher propensities to use flexible staffing arrangements are more likely to be unionized.

A LONG JOBLESS RECOVERY: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LABOR MARKETS AFTER THE BURSTING OF THE HIGH‐TECH BUBBLE

This article assesses the employment situation in the U.S. information technology (IT) industry, examining recent job growth trends and the underlying factors, such as flexible staffing arrangements and offshore outsourcing, which are responsible for falling IT employment. The IT industry, which was at the center of the 1990s boom, was caught in the midst of the 2001 recession and the ensuing jobless recovery. Employment has fallen dramatically between March 2001 and March 2004 and the IT industry lost approximately 403,000 jobs, more than half of which were eliminated during the economic recovery. While cyclical factors are partially responsible for these employment declines, underlying weaknesses in IT labor markets remain as U.S. corporations continue to pursue restructuring tactics aimed at achieving immediate reductions in labor costs.

Temporary Agency Work, the Changing Employment Relationship and its Impact on Human Resource Management

The increasing use of temporary agency work in Germany has implications for the nature of the employment relationship. The notion of a clearly defined employer-employee relationship becomes difficult to uphold in triangular relationships like in the case of temporary agency work where the agencies employees are working at the site of the client company. The blurring of the boundaries of organisations and of the employment relationship leads to ambiguities that affect Human Resource Management. Given the dominance of new institutional economic approaches in the analysis of temporary agency work, it is not surprising that the ambiguities and the effects and consequences of the use of temporary agency workers on the Human Resource Management of client companies have been underestimated and not been explored in detail. This paper wants to close that gap by adding a Human Resource Management perspective to the current debate in order to gain insight on the role of Human Resource Management in triangular relationships. By building on theoretical discussions and empirical studies the implications of the use of temporary agency workers for the Human Resource Management of client companies are analyzed with a special regard to commitment and identification with the client company. Different suggestions how to organize Human Resource Management instruments for temporary agency workers are presented to illustrate the value of a diverse Human Resource Management for different groups of the workforce. Key words: Temporary Agency Work, Employment Relationship, New Institutional Economics 1. Temporary agency work as an example of non-standard employment relations The notion of a clearly defined employment relationship becomes difficult to uphold as changes in the organization of work facilitated by technological improvements have blurred the boundaries between standard and non-standard employment relations. Consequently, non-standard employment relations such as temporary agency work have become increasingly prominent ways of organizing work in recent years (Nienhuser/Matiaske 2003: 467; Bothfeld/Kaiser 2003: 489; Jahn/Rudolph 2002: 1ff.). There are many different terms used in the literature to describe non-standard employment relations (Kalleberg 2000). For example, non-standard employment relations have been referred to as flexible staffing arrangements (Abraham 1988, Houseman 2001), market-mediated arrangements (Abraham 1990), flexible working practices (Brewster et al 1997) or more generally as atypical employment (Delsen 1995; De Grip et al 1997; Cordova 1986). However all definitions imply that non-standard employment departs from the standard work arrangement. Standard work arrangements are generally associated with full-time positions that are based on an indefinite contract and are performed at the employer's site under the employer's direction (Muckenberger 1985: 429; Bosch 1986: 165; Talos 1999: 417/418; Rogowski/Schomann 1996: 224ff). Though, global economic changes, increased competition and uncertainty among companies put greater pressure on them to push for greater profits and more flexible work arrangements, non-standard employment relations are not new. There have always been employment relations that did not fit the standard model of full-time work (Peck 1996). This is also true for temporary agency work that first emerged in the United States after the second World War (Mitlacher 2004: 9). As an example of a non-standard employment relation, temporary agency work involves the externalisation of administrative control and responsibility (Pfeffer/Baron 1988). Temporary work agencies employ workers and hire them out to a client company where they work at the client's premises and direction while the agency charges a fee for this service (Kalleberg 2000: 346). This creates a triangular relationship where a worker establishes connections with different companies (Bronstein 1991; Vosko 1997). The following section illustrates the recent development of the temporary work industry in Germany. …

The Slipperiness of Stability: Contracting for Flexible and Triangular Employment Relationships in the New Economy

This Article argues for the need for new laws and adequate guidelines for today's flexible staffing arrangements. Flexible employment arrangements in the new market are simultaneously efficiency-driven and developed through continuous political and legal action. While the employment agency industry is potentially a welfare-enhancing sector in certain environments, it also produces new forms of mistreatment of workers in the absence of adequate regulatory incentives. These new economic structures necessitate the development of a new normative model that allows certain forms of market flexibility yet maintains the social norms that continue to inform fair employment policies. Part II of this Article explores the range of taxonomies and categories that have developed in the flexible staffing industry. This Article sets forth the argument that the complexity and variety that characterize the industry is not accidental, but a product of legal and economic struggles for recognition of flexible employment arrangements as legitimate practices in the new economy. Part III further describes the various factors that motivate the emergence of flexible employment from the perspective of employers and workers. These factors include both legitimate economic needs and problematic attempts to evade legal protections. Part IV then moves to a third set of factors that motivate flexible staffing arrangements-those of the flourishing employment agency industry. This Part further describes the public efforts of the staffing industry to legitimize its status in the triangular employment context, including the advocacy, lobbying, and public relations efforts by its trade associations. Part V is an analysis of the recent efforts by courts, administrative agencies, and legislative commissions to define the legal parameters of the various new flexible employment arrangements. Drawing on comparative insights, as well as the problems and inconsistencies among recent cases, Part V demonstrates the inadequacies of the existing common law doctrine in addressing these new challenges and suggests alternative doctrines and policies that would be better suited to achieve the necessary balance between flexibility and fairness.

Externalizing employment: flexible staffing arrangements in US organizations

Flexible staffing arrangements (such as temporary, contract, and part-time work) enable organizations to externalize administrative control or limit the duration of employment. We examine the prevalence and correlates of such arrangements using a recent large, representative survey of US establishments. We first develop a typology of flexible staffing arrangements and discuss reasons why organizations may adopt them. We then present measures of these flexible staffing arrangements and describe their distribution among US establishments. Finally, we examine hypotheses about the types of employers that are more or less likely to use the various types of flexible staffing arrangements, finding support for both cost-reduction and resource dependence perspectives. The use of flexible arrangements is more common in large establishments, in seasonal industries, and in establishments with highly female workforces.

Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence from an Establishment Survey

Drawing on a nationally representative survey of private sector establishments, the author presents new evidence on which employers use flexible staffing arrangements and why they use them. The surveyed employers made widespread use not only of regular part-time workers but also of short-term hires, on-call workers, agency temporaries, and contract workers. Two-thirds expected flexible staffing use to increase in their industry in the near future. Most commonly cited as reasons for using all types of flexible staffing arrangements were the needs to adjust for workload fluctuations and staff absences. Many employers also used agency temporaries and part-time workers to screen workers for regular positions. In addition, the survey evidence points to savings on benefits costs as an important factor in employers' decisions to use most flexible arrangements. The author examines the implications of why employers use the various types of flexible staffing arrangements for workers and public policy.

Why Employers Use Flexible Staffing Arrangements: Evidence from an Establishment Survey

Drawing on a nationally representative survey of private sector establishments, the author presents new evidence on which employers use flexible staffing arrangements and why they use them. The surveyed employers made widespread use not only of regular part-time workers but also of short-term hires, on-call workers, agency temporaries, and contract workers. Two-thirds expected flexible staffing use to increase in their industry in the near future. Most commonly cited as reasons for using all types of flexible staffing arrangements were the needs to adjust for workload fluctuations and staff absences. Many employers also used agency temporaries and part-time workers to screen workers for regular positions. In addition, the survey evidence points to savings on benefits costs as an important factor in employers' decisions to use most flexible arrangements. The author examines the implications of why employers use the various types of flexible staffing arrangements for workers and public policy.

The Increased Labour Market Participation of Dutch Students

Since the beginning of the 1980s students' labour market participation in the Netherlands has increased enormously. The first part of this article offers a description of the changed labour market position of students in the Netherlands. It demonstrates that this is the result both of changes in the system of student financing and of an increased use of flexible staffing arrangements by employers. The second part of the paper concentrates on the question whether the displacement of workers with lower levels of education was caused by an increasing labour market participation of students. It finds that the labour market participation of lower educated workers dropped at about the same time as students started to enter the lowest job levels, which were the former stronghold of the lower educated workers. Since many of the jobs at this level ask for part-time or temporary work, students have a competitive advantage in comparison to lower educated workers.

The Use of Flexible Staffing Arrangements in Core Production Jobs

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.

The Use of Flexible Staffing Arrangements in Core Production Jobs

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.

The Implications of Flexible Staffing Arrangements for Job Stability

In this paper, we examine the job stability of workers in a wide range of flexible staffing arrangements: agency temporary, direct-hire temporary, on-call, contract company, independent contractor, and regular part-time work. We draw upon two data sources in our analysis. The first is a nationwide survey of employers on their use of flexible staffing arrangements conducted by the Upjohn Institute of Employment Research. This survey provides evidence on why employers use various types of flexible staffing arrangements and the extent to which employers move workers in these positions into regular arrangements within their organization. The second data source is the Supplement to the February 1995 Current Population Survey on Contingent and Alternative Work Arrangements. Exploiting the longitudinal component of the CPS, we compare the subsequent labor market status of individuals in flexible work arrangements and those in regular full-time positions in February 1995. We find that, except for independent contractors, workers in flexible staffing arrangements have less job stability than those in regular full-time arrangements in the sense that they are more likely to switch employers, become unemployed, or involuntarily drop out of the labor force within a year. However, the degree of job stability varies considerably across arrangements. We also show that the recent growth in certain types of flexible staffing arrangements could have translated into small declines in aggregate job stability and can account for a substantial share of the modest increase in job switching observed over the last decade.