Temporary Workforce Research Articles

Chatbot as a Corporate Communication Tool: Best Practice of a Hungarian HR Services Company

The advent of cutting-edge technologies has changed the way humans communicate. Corporate communication also has to face the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities stemming from the evolution of infocommunication technologies. The paper aims to present the best practice of a Hungarian certified company providing full HR services regarding the use of a chatbot software application as a corporate communication tool. The company applies its award-winning chatbot to communicate with its temporary workforce in five different languages. The paper is a single-case study based on secondary and primary research. The empirical research is carried out by means of an in-depth interview with the examined company’s representative to get details about the successful application of the chatbot software. The results reveal that the company was able to successfully integrate a rule-based chatbot into its corporate communications. The use of the chatbot has brought a number of benefits, e.g. time- and cost-effectiveness, satisfaction from both the temporary workforce and the internal staff. The paper concludes that even the most basic type of chatbot software can be applied effectively if the users are informed and well-prepared in advance, meanwhile the knowledge base of the chatbot software is appropriately determined and constantly updated.

Here to stay? The rapid evolution of the temporary staffing market in Iceland

In recent years there has been a significant shortage of workers in Iceland. The traditional method of arranging temporary work, through direct contracts between employees and employers, has not sufficed. Moreover, there is a skills mismatch that compounds the shortage of workers as the sectors that have grown most rapidly in recent years mainly employ unskilled labor. This study examined the historical background of temporary work in Iceland, recent developments and in particular the growing importance of temporary staffing agencies, as well as the economic rationale for temporary staffing agencies, and the segmented labor market in Iceland. The study employs expert opinion approach, together with content and statistical analysis. Experts placed strongest emphasis on temporary workforce dependency on economic conditions, closely followed by sector triggered temporary workforce fluctuation. Socio-legal infrastructure for temporary workforce had the third strongest emphasis with other themes being less emphasized. These dramatic changes to the Icelandic labor market have undoubtedly had a significant impact on Icelandic society but there is surprisingly little research available into this. The efforts of unions and the Federation of Employees have helped to push through legislation on temporary staffing agencies and the rights of foreign workers, however, as long as there is economic rationale for their operation and a legal and regulatory framework that accommodates them the agencies can be expected to continue bringing temporary staff to Iceland. The impact on the labor market and society thus seems likely to be permanent.

Health service impacts and extractive industries: Experiences from health service leaders operating in a resource-dependent region

Resource extraction and development projects alter community health and well-being in complex and diverse ways. The extractive industry's impacts on local infrastructure and services are commonly recognized social externalities, yet little detail is available on how these manifest across the healthcare system. This study offers a better understanding of the health service impacts of resource extraction and development. It does this by capturing the observations and experiences of leaders from a rural, regional health authority who have worked with industry to manage impacts on health services during a period of rapid economic development and amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that impacts from resource extraction and development were experienced first and foremost in emergency departments but were also felt across the entire healthcare system. These pressures were primarily driven by the size of the temporary workforce but also influenced by factors such as the relative size of the workforce to the local community, the local context, and how well impacts were managed at the project level, including the competency of a project's medical service provider.

Precarious labour geographies of working holiday makers: querying sustainability

The boundaries between tourism and migration are blurry. This blurring has been beneficial for the governments of wealthy countries enabling them to import a large and flexible temporary workforce that can be directed toward regions and industries where there are labour shortages. Such is the case with the Australian Working Holiday Program (AWHP); a historically tourism-focused cultural exchange program that began in 1975. Since the 1990s, the Australian Government has leveraged the AWHP to support several of Australia’s critical industries. This has been achieved through the tweaking of mobility infrastructures that link Working Holiday Makers’ (WHMs) ability to stay in Australia to employment conditions. Such conditions increase precarity among WHMs, directing them towards remote regions and industries where there are evident labour shortages. While these mobility infrastructures significantly benefit Australia’s economy, they result in WHMs being highly vulnerable to exploitation. Such vulnerability is layered with WHMs from less wealthy, non-English-speaking countries facing the highest levels of vulnerability. This study investigates the way mobility infrastructures in the AWHP influence WHMs’ mobilities, as well as how such mobilities are experienced in uneven and unjust ways. There is urgency to interrogate the role that such programs play in contributing to unjust mobilities, and to query the attendant implications for sustainability.

Challenges in Manpower Management: Discuss the Challenges Faced by the Automotive Industry in Managing Manpower Due to Rigid Labor Laws and Complex Legal Systems, Especially Concerning Temporary Increases in Workforce to Meet Demand Fluctuations

The automotive industry is at the forefront of technological innovation and economic growth. However, it faces significant challenges in manpower management, particularly due to rigid labor laws and complex legal systems. These challenges are exacerbated when addressing temporary workforce increases to meet demand fluctuations. This paper aims to discuss the multifaceted issues that arise in the context of labor flexibility, talent acquisition, and retention strategies within the automotive sector. Firstly, the industry contends with the difficulty of attracting and retaining talent in a competitive landscape where technology companies and startups often offer more appealing opportunities. The rapid pace of technological advancements demands a workforce that is adaptable and skilled in new and evolving competencies. However, traditional labor laws often do not accommodate the flexible arrangements required to attract such talent. Secondly, the high turnover rate within the automotive industry further complicates manpower management. The need to cultivate leaders from within is hindered by generational differences and a redundant skill set that is increasingly becoming automated. This situation is compounded by the industry’s struggle to maintain employee health and safety, which is paramount given the physical nature of manufacturing jobs. Lastly, the legal complexities associated with temporary staffing to manage demand peaks present a significant hurdle. The industry must navigate a labyrinth of employment regulations that vary by region and often restrict the ability to swiftly adjust workforce levels in response to market needs. The automotive industry must develop robust strategies to overcome these challenges. This includes fostering organizational resilience, reimagining talent management, and advocating for labor law reforms that reflect the dynamic nature of the industry and its workforce requirements. The ability to adapt to these challenges will be a determining factor in the industry’s capacity to sustain innovation and growth in the coming years.

Emergency responses for a health workforce under pressure: Lessons learned from system responses to the first wave of the pandemic in Canada.

The global health workforce crisis, simmering for decades, was brought to a rolling boil by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With scarce literature, evidence, or best practices to draw from, countries around the world moved to flex their workforces to meet acute challenges of the pandemic, facing demands related to patient volume, patient acuity, and worker vulnerability and absenteeism. One early hypothesis suggested that the acute, short-term pandemic phase would be followed by several waves of resource demands extending over the longer term. However, as the acute phase of the pandemic abated, temporary workforce policies expired and others were repealed with a view of returning to 'normal'. The workforce needs of subsequent phases of pandemic effects were largely ignored despite our new equilibrium resting nowhere near our pre-COVID baseline. In this paper, we describe Canada's early pandemic workforce response. We report the results of an environmental scan of the early workforce strategies adopted in Canada during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Within an expanded three-part conceptual framework for supporting a sustainable health workforce, we describe 470 strategies and policies that aimed to increase the numbers and flexibility of health workers in Canada, and to maximise their continued availability to work. These strategies targeted all types of health workers and roles, enabling changes to the places health work is done, the way in which care is delivered, and the mechanisms by which it is regulated. Telehealth strategies and virtual care were the most prevalent, followed by role expansion, licensure flexibility, mental health supports for workers, and return to practice of retirees. We explore the degree to which these short-term, acute response strategies might be adapted or extended to support the evolving workforce's long-term needs.

The Variance Learning Curve in Retail Order Picking

The notion that prior experience can improve future performance has reached general acceptance in the operations and supply chain management literature. However, prior experience may not only have a positive impact on average performance but in addition also on the variance of performance. We empirically examine this issue by considering the performance of 19 temporary workers in retail order picking new to this task, performing 22,603 storage location visits and use a two-stage estimation method of a heteroskedastic learning curve model. In the first stage, we estimate the impact of prior experience on task performance time. For the second stage, we extract the error terms from the first stage model and use it as the dependent variable in the second stage. Through this, we can estimate the impact of prior experience on performance variability. Our first stage model suggests that prior experience can improve average task performance on a system level for all new temporary order pickers observed. However, on an individual level, these learning curves are heterogeneous, with varying intercepts, slopes, and functional forms. Going beyond the impact of experience on average performance, our second stage model finds that one week of experience working in the examined warehouse can reduce performance variability by 26%, but at diminishing increments. These findings suggest that prior experience can mitigate variability in task performance time, which indicates that the recently discussed variance learning curve exists for order picking tasks. Our results allow managers to make informed decisions on how to benefit from the positive effects of prior experience on average performance and performance variability when employing a temporary workforce for the example case of retail warehouse order picking.

Maximizing the Benefits of an On-Demand Workforce: Fill Rate-Based Allocation and Coordination Mechanisms

Problem definition: With the rapid growth of the gig economy, on-demand staffing platforms have emerged to help companies manage their temporary workforce. This emerging business-to-business context motivates us to study a new form of supply chain coordination problem. We consider a staffing platform managing an on-demand workforce to serve multiple firms facing stochastic labor demand. Before demand realization, each individual firm can hire permanent employees, whereas the platform determines a compensation rate for potential on-demand workers. After knowing the realized demand, firms in need can request on-demand workers from the platform, and then, the platform operator allocates the available on-demand workforce among the firms. We explore how to maximize and distribute the benefits of an on-demand workforce through coordinating self-interested parties in the staffing system. Methodology/results: We combine game theory and online optimization techniques to address the challenges in incentivizing and coordinating the online workforce. We propose a novel and easily implementable fill rate-based allocation and coordination mechanism that enables the on-demand workforce to be shared optimally when individual firms and the platform operator make decisions in their own interest. We also show that the proposed mechanism can be adapted to the cases when contract terms need to be identical to all firms and when actual demand is unverifiable. Managerial implications: The proposed contract mechanism is in line with the performance-based contracting commonly used in on-demand staffing services. Our results suggest that under an appropriately designed performance-based mechanism, individual firms and the platform operator can share the maximum benefits of on-demand staffing. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant 71871097] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/msom.2021.0327 .

Making a virtue of necessity once again: assessing the effect of temporary labor on lean practices in highly routinized environments

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate how temporary labor moderates the relation between two well-known lean initiatives (process flow and process quality) and line productivity. This paper focuses on high-volume, low-variety (HVLV) shop floors, where work experience may not be as relevant as expected and extrinsic motivation of the temporary workforce could become a key driver of individual performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors follow an insider econometrics approach based on panel microdata (1,793 observations) from nine lines over two years in a Spanish manufacturing plant. The authors selected this setting for two reasons: Spain has traditionally had one of the highest levels of temporary employment in the world, so it perfectly represents labor market trends in OECD countries. Simultaneously, the authors also searched for a type of shop floor that could be representative of one of the most common manufacturing environments: a shop floor with highly repetitive and low-complexity work tasks. Findings The results of this paper suggest that in HVLV environments, temporary labor could contribute up to a 1.4% improvement in line productivity, provided there is a strong lean implementation. Otherwise, the use of temporary labor could undermine the positive effects of both process flow and process quality on plant productivity. Originality/value External incentives derived from high levels of unemployment, coupled with manufacturing’s increasing automation and specialization, may be minimizing the weaknesses traditionally associated with temporary workers in lean environments. By contrast, those shop floors lacking lean standards face serious productivity consequences from adjusting to global trends by using temporary work.

MANAGING: GIG WORKERS ECONOMY IN SUPPLY CHAIN

Gig economy in supply chain, can be successful, scalability, flexibility, with the workforce, agility, labour force flexibility, in achieving key areas of service levels in supply chain. Supply chain should be able to meet the changes in demand in the logistic sector, with a clear need for an agile contingent workforce, in supply chain. Supply chain gig workers are to fill the gap in supply chain, to boost the capacity, also able to undertake large scale projects, during a limited timeframe, of work in supply chain. Supply chain having temporary workforces, will also be able to meet the needs of the business, delivery, schedules, which can also be able to circumvent the high cost, with unnecessary permanent requirement in supply chain. Supply chain mainly depends upon the talent requirement within the industry of supply chain, is likely to subject of changes, depending upon the use of predictive analysis, to identify the factors that is liable to meet the impact of productivity in supply chain. Supply chain data driven is considered as an important in a gig economy, as it should be able to target free-lance workers, also the required manpower to meet the specific needs of supply chain, as gig economy is also able to bring the action on mobile, voice messages, internet of things in supply chain. Gig economy is integrating the concept of moving forward to strategy of digitalization, for sustainability in logistic, supply chain, facing an uphill task in business organization, to move the forefront in Internet of Things, machine building, in the perspective requirement of skilled manpower building, which is driven by talent, in order to face the business economy in supply chain.

Combining System Integrity Verification with Identity and Access Management

Digital transformation and the utilization of Industrial IoT (IIoT) introduces numerous interconnected devices to factories increasing among others the challenge of managing their software versions and giving attackers new possibilities to exploit various software vulnerabilities.
 Factory networks were earlier isolated from the Internet. However, this separation is no longer valid and there can be connections that allow intruders to penetrate into information systems of factories. Another issue is that although factories typically are physically isolated, it is not necessarily safe to assume that physical security is in good shape as the novel supply networks comprise subcontracted activities and temporary work force. Another threat can also arise from unauthorized monitoring of devices and the unauthorized replacement of existing ones.
 Based on the previous, it is crucial that IIoT security should be built into factories of the future (FoF) right from the design phase and even low-end devices need to be supported. Trusted computing concept called remote attestation should be used. Remote attestation allows remote parties to verify the integrity of each system component. System components should include trusted hardware components that can be used to measure executable software. The term measurement means calculating the cryptographic hash of the binary component before passing control to it. Trusted hardware components should also have a mechanism to protect the integrity of the measurement list and cryptographic keys that can be used to sign integrity assertions. The verifier part should have a storage of reference integrity metrics identifying the expected values of these measurements.
 Deploying trusted computing and remote attestation concepts to industrial automation is not straightforward. Even if it is possible to use remote attestation with suitable hardware components, it is not clear how remote attestation should be integrated with various operational technology (OT) industrial automation protocols. Approaches to use remote attestation with existing industrial automation protocols (e.g., OPC UA) is discussed. Advanced identity and access management (e.g., OAuth2, OpenID Connect) can be used to combine integrity measurements with device identity information so that the remote attestation process is triggered by authentication during the first transaction. The focus is on machine-to-machine (M2M) communications with immutable device identities and integrity evidence transfer.

Job satisfaction across Europe: An analysis of the heterogeneous temporary workforce in 27 countries.

The consequences of temporary jobs for job satisfaction are not clear. This article examines the effect of two crucial moderators in the association between temporary contracts and job satisfaction: the reason for being a temporary worker and the duration of temporary contracts. Using the ad-hoc module of the 2017 EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), this study examines 27 European countries separately. Results show that involuntary temporary workers (those who wanted a permanent contract but could not find one) tend to be less satisfied than permanent employees. However, voluntary temporary workers (those who prefer temporary over permanent jobs) and temporary workers in apprenticeships or probation periods are generally as satisfied as permanent employees. Shorter contracts frequently exert negative effects on job satisfaction, but only among involuntary temporary workers. Results differ between countries: the differences between temporary and permanent workers are insignificant in Scandinavian countries but large in the post-Socialist states.

Particularities of Temporary Work. Advantages and Vulnerabilities

Temporary work is an alternative to providing the activity and procuring external, current labor force, more and more common in the countries of the European Union, including Romania. The alternative of such work is beneficial to all parties involved in the triangular employment relationship: the temporary work agent, the temporary employee and the user of the temporary workforce. This article proposes a brief presentation of some theoretical aspects related to temporary work (the importance of temporary work in today's society, the Community and national legislative framework, the actors of the temporary work relationship and the relationship between them, such as listing the conditions and authorization of the employee temporary in Romania) followed by an analysis on the evolution of employment agents registered in Romania in the period 2007-2021.

The Investigation on Solution for Diseases Caused by Contingent Work

Contingent work was deemed as a precarious employment which could be characterised by an atypical, temporary and marginal form of work arrangement. There is increasing evidence that contingent employment is significantly associated with adverse health outcomes and three health outcomes will be expounded in this paper: depressive disorders, work-related fatigue and occupational injuries. Simultaneously, fruitful micro-and macro-level precautionary and recovery measures are also be provided, including application of positive psychology interventions (PPI strategies), amelioration of work environments and social support, establishment of a fatigue risk management system (FRMS), and development of multifaceted approaches. Furthermore, various recommendations will be afforded to improve the sustainability and practicability of the aforementioned measures in the future research. Overall, the effective implementation of precautions aimed at health promotion and injury prevention for temporary workforce is of paramount importance to the healthy development of the nation.

The Mediation Impact of Contingent Workforce in the Connection between Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction

Most recently there has been wonderful development in the market for a temporary, or contingent, labor power in the United States. The total labor market during 10 years amid somewhere in the range of 1986 and 1996 developed by 1.7 percent, in a similar period, work in contingent services became 10.3 percent. Among the technical, pro-fessional,and managerial category of contingent workforce, there is a rapid growth of payroll noticed. Contingence workforce continues to thrive in Asian countries too. India is no exceptional from this viewpoint hence this has made the purpose of the present research paper to contribute the brief and clear insights towards contingent workforce, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. The present paper is an empirical evidence for the mediation effect of contingent workforce in the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. This is a survey-based research work carried out to explore the subject of temporary workforce in Indian context. A sample of 284 respondents were participated in the survey and the typical fining from the present study is contingent workforce fully mediates the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Partial Least Square based Structural Equation Modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Economic Shocks From the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic for Anesthesiologists and Their Practices.

Economic Shocks From the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic for Anesthesiologists and Their Practices.

Er grasið alltaf grænna annars staðar? Væntingar og reynsla erlends starfsfólks af starfsmannaleigu og íslensku samfélagi

Í kjölfar hrunsins 2008 hafa aðstæður í íslensku efnahagslífi, svo sem blómstrandi ferðaþjónusta og byggingariðnaður, leitt til fjölgunar starfsfólks sem kemur tímabundið til landsins. Flestir sem sinna tímabundnum störfum hérlendis koma frá Austur-Evrópu og löndum með lítt þróað eða óstöðugt efnahagsástand. Tvöföldun fjölda starfsmannaleiga og tíföldun tímabundinna starfsmanna undanfarin tvö ár bera með sér stórkostlegar breytingar í þjóðfélaginu og viðskiptalífinu, en þrátt fyrir það hefur þessari þróun verið lítill gaumur gefinn í rannsóknum. Enn fremur hafa engar rannsóknir verið gerðar á væntingum tímabundinna starfsmanna á Íslandi til þessa. Þessi rannsókn kannaði reynslu tímabundinna starfsmanna sem komnir voru til landsins og bar saman við væntingar þeirra sem voru ókomnir, með áherslu á væntingar til starfsmannaleigu og íslensks þjóðfélags. Helstu niðurstöður sýna að þessir starfsmenn hafa nokkuð háar væntingar hvað varðar starfsmannaleigur og íslenskt þjóðfélag fyrir komuna hingað til lands. Upplifun og reynsla þeirra sem komnir voru var að ýmsu leyti frábrugðin, þrátt fyrir að sumt hafi farið fram úr væntingum þeirra. Niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar gefa tilefni til frekari rannsókna á væntingastjórnun í tengslum við tímabundin störf og er mikilvægt framlag til skilnings á mikilvægi bættrar aðlögunar erlendra tímabundinna starfsmanna, stjórnunar breytileika og afkomu.

Lithuanian Temporary Workers in Iceland in Another Economic Boom: Expectations and Experiences

Abstract Economic changes and a booming tourism industry in Iceland have triggered a rise in temporary workforce, where employees are brought to Iceland from Eastern Europe and other less economically developed countries. Major societal and economic shifts are evidenced by a doubled number of temporary staffing agencies and a ten-fold increase in foreign temporary agency workers. However, limited research exists regarding the phenomenon. Furthermore, the expectations of temporary work force in Iceland have not been researched. The study employed field survey methods to investigate pre-arrival expectations and post-arrival experiences of temporary agency workers regarding temporary agencies and Icelandic society. The findings indicate that the employees had relatively high expectations towards the temporary staffing agency and Icelandic society before arriving in Iceland. However, the findings also indicated unmet expectations in these respects. The study provides empirical data that serves as catalyst for both expectation management and better integration of foreign temporary workforce.

Training Temporary Reference Staff for Maximized Learning: A Case Study

This paper will discuss the 2018 redesign of the University of Michigan Library's Ask a Librarian reference service. The library's tiered reference model relies heavily on the support of graduate student and part-time staff — a temporary workforce that is expectably vulnerable to high turnover. As such, a training program must consider the vast knowledge required of staff to prepare them for providing reference service, provide ongoing support/training, and be sensitive to the constraints, responsibilities, and roles of these employees, who are often first and foremost, full-time students and/or individuals working multiple jobs. The training redesign focused on the creation of an interactive, online learning component that could also provide a knowledge base of support for staff to continually refer to, while engaged learning activities were emphasized during limited in-person training sessions to reinforce training and offer opportunities to build camaraderie between new staff and their fellow colleagues.

Changing demographics of scientific careers: The rise of the temporary workforce.

Contemporary science has been characterized by an exponential growth in publications and a rise of team science. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of awarded PhD degrees, which has not been accompanied by a similar expansion in the number of academic positions. In such a competitive environment, an important measure of academic success is the ability to maintain a long active career in science. In this paper, we study workforce trends in three scientific disciplines over half a century. We find dramatic shortening of careers of scientists across all three disciplines. The time over which half of the cohort has left the field has shortened from 35 y in the 1960s to only 5 y in the 2010s. In addition, we find a rapid rise (from 25 to 60% since the 1960s) of a group of scientists who spend their entire career only as supporting authors without having led a publication. Altogether, the fraction of entering researchers who achieve full careers has diminished, while the class of temporary scientists has escalated. We provide an interpretation of our empirical results in terms of a survival model from which we infer potential factors of success in scientific career survivability. Cohort attrition can be successfully modeled by a relatively simple hazard probability function. Although we find statistically significant trends between survivability and an author's early productivity, neither productivity nor the citation impact of early work or the level of initial collaboration can serve as a reliable predictor of ultimate survivability.