But management has done little to plan for the rising use of contingency workers
Temp workers come and go, seemingly having little long-term effect on the workplace environment. Or do they?
The practice of flexible staffing — augmenting the “core” workforce with short-term positions — allows organizations to adjust to market shifts. But it isn’t clear yet what other effects arise from the increasing dependence on temporary workers, says Emile Tompa, a researcher with the Institute for Work and Health who has begun a study of the personal health effects of contingency work.
An increasingly complex and global business environment has given rise to more and more workers providing contingency service to employers. The institute estimates temporary workers may comprise as much as one-third of Canada’s labour force, with more employment services firms coming on the market each year.
The traditional norm of a company with its permanent staff and benefits program is in decline, says Tompa, a trend likely to continue with the Canadian economy’s shift from manufacturing to services.
Are planners and managers thinking about the effects this trend may have on workers, the workplace environment and, ultimately, the bottom line? Tompa hopes to provide some answers through research.
“The potential health consequences arising from new forms of work arrangements have not been given adequate attention,” says Tompa, who will study factors related to changes in labour and employment status. These include loss of income or support, as well as potential physical effects of not having permanent employment.
“We do know there is a link between job insecurity and health. Since insecurity is an underlying issue in contingent work arrangements, it is one of the factors we would like to better understand.”
Contingency workers may also lack the adequate health and safety training, and hazardous surveillance protections of full-time workers, Tompa says.
“Links between population health and economic productivity have become a significant policy concern,” Tompa says. “With the aging of the labour force in Canada and many other developed countries, labour-force health will become an even more important issue in the near future.” Temp working conditions can now be added to the mix.
The heavy reliance on temp workers will also have an impact on the work environment. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, says Barbara Moses, an organizational career management expert and author of What Next? The Corporate Guide to Taking Control of Your Working Life.
“Sometimes the (workplace) culture can be ossified, and temp workers can play a role in adding vitality and divergent points of view,” says Moses.
But, she adds, it’s not a given that those new ideas or points of view are accepted. “I’d say there has to be certain mass of temp workers for that to have any impact.”
Moses speaks of extreme examples where temp workers cut employees’ coats out of frustration with working conditions. In another case, clients suspected leaks of confidential information, such as mergers, as the work of temp workers who feel less constrained by loyalty to the organization.
But for the most part, those seem to be the worst-case examples of temp worker impact. In fact, Moses says some organizations have kept their practices in pace with these fundamental changes in staffing strategies. Some even offer training and professional development benefits to contingency workers.
“Some others, on the other hand, treat them like fifth-class citizens,” she adds.
Judith Haiven, a management professor at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, says there is a concern employers are not investing in the training and education of contingent workers, and that ultimately the skills development of the workforce suffers.
“I’d love to know who is doing serious training,” Haiven says. “What we find mostly is that business is calling on the publicly funded community colleges to deliver courses for the ‘new worker’ so companies rarely have to spend their money doing this.”
In sectors such as call centres and home care where contingent workforces are common, workers are left to pay for their own training, while companies feast on the advantages of hiring contingent staff.
Haiven points to the training that many community colleges in the Maritimes offer for the large number of call centres springing up in the region.
The companies are not the ones paying for the nine to 10 months of training, she says, but “they benefit by hiring and shedding these people as they want and as their business waxes or wanes.”
Haiven says home-care workers in Saskatchewan can invest up to $3,000 for community college training, but may only make $10 per hour when hired by provincial health authorities, without any guarantee of a 40-hour work week.
But training has become the central investment in the business strategy of many employment agencies, says Robert Hosking, Toronto branch manager for Accountemps, which specializes in contingency workers in accounting and finance. Many temporary employees come to them after leaving (or losing) full-time work, and build their skills while working to become more marketable.
“Ultimately, much of our effort is about building our relationship with, and gaining the loyalty of, our temporary employees,” says Hosking. Accountemps invests in the skills and training of employees after they have worked with the firm for a specified amount of time. “It helps us, because eventually (many) become a client and will call us themselves for placements.”
Hosking says his firm holds regular meetings, open houses and training for its registered temporary candidates. This includes online tutoring in software they may use on the job and tuition reimbursement for skills training.
And whether or not organizations are accounting for the impact of their use of contingency work, Hosking, like Tompa, sees no chance of the pendulum swinging back.
“I think our workforce is evolving now to the point where it’s … very much expected that they’re going to need large numbers of temporary employees to meet their productivity goals,” he says, adding that his firm places a “great deal of emphasis” on helping its temp workers understand the corporate culture they’re going into.
“(Using temp workers) has become such an accepted practice now that we feel that their impact on the work environment goes hand in hand with that of the permanent employees,” Hosking says.
Kirk LeMessurier is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
The practice of flexible staffing — augmenting the “core” workforce with short-term positions — allows organizations to adjust to market shifts. But it isn’t clear yet what other effects arise from the increasing dependence on temporary workers, says Emile Tompa, a researcher with the Institute for Work and Health who has begun a study of the personal health effects of contingency work.
An increasingly complex and global business environment has given rise to more and more workers providing contingency service to employers. The institute estimates temporary workers may comprise as much as one-third of Canada’s labour force, with more employment services firms coming on the market each year.
The traditional norm of a company with its permanent staff and benefits program is in decline, says Tompa, a trend likely to continue with the Canadian economy’s shift from manufacturing to services.
Are planners and managers thinking about the effects this trend may have on workers, the workplace environment and, ultimately, the bottom line? Tompa hopes to provide some answers through research.
“The potential health consequences arising from new forms of work arrangements have not been given adequate attention,” says Tompa, who will study factors related to changes in labour and employment status. These include loss of income or support, as well as potential physical effects of not having permanent employment.
“We do know there is a link between job insecurity and health. Since insecurity is an underlying issue in contingent work arrangements, it is one of the factors we would like to better understand.”
Contingency workers may also lack the adequate health and safety training, and hazardous surveillance protections of full-time workers, Tompa says.
“Links between population health and economic productivity have become a significant policy concern,” Tompa says. “With the aging of the labour force in Canada and many other developed countries, labour-force health will become an even more important issue in the near future.” Temp working conditions can now be added to the mix.
The heavy reliance on temp workers will also have an impact on the work environment. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, says Barbara Moses, an organizational career management expert and author of What Next? The Corporate Guide to Taking Control of Your Working Life.
“Sometimes the (workplace) culture can be ossified, and temp workers can play a role in adding vitality and divergent points of view,” says Moses.
But, she adds, it’s not a given that those new ideas or points of view are accepted. “I’d say there has to be certain mass of temp workers for that to have any impact.”
Moses speaks of extreme examples where temp workers cut employees’ coats out of frustration with working conditions. In another case, clients suspected leaks of confidential information, such as mergers, as the work of temp workers who feel less constrained by loyalty to the organization.
But for the most part, those seem to be the worst-case examples of temp worker impact. In fact, Moses says some organizations have kept their practices in pace with these fundamental changes in staffing strategies. Some even offer training and professional development benefits to contingency workers.
“Some others, on the other hand, treat them like fifth-class citizens,” she adds.
Judith Haiven, a management professor at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, says there is a concern employers are not investing in the training and education of contingent workers, and that ultimately the skills development of the workforce suffers.
“I’d love to know who is doing serious training,” Haiven says. “What we find mostly is that business is calling on the publicly funded community colleges to deliver courses for the ‘new worker’ so companies rarely have to spend their money doing this.”
In sectors such as call centres and home care where contingent workforces are common, workers are left to pay for their own training, while companies feast on the advantages of hiring contingent staff.
Haiven points to the training that many community colleges in the Maritimes offer for the large number of call centres springing up in the region.
The companies are not the ones paying for the nine to 10 months of training, she says, but “they benefit by hiring and shedding these people as they want and as their business waxes or wanes.”
Haiven says home-care workers in Saskatchewan can invest up to $3,000 for community college training, but may only make $10 per hour when hired by provincial health authorities, without any guarantee of a 40-hour work week.
But training has become the central investment in the business strategy of many employment agencies, says Robert Hosking, Toronto branch manager for Accountemps, which specializes in contingency workers in accounting and finance. Many temporary employees come to them after leaving (or losing) full-time work, and build their skills while working to become more marketable.
“Ultimately, much of our effort is about building our relationship with, and gaining the loyalty of, our temporary employees,” says Hosking. Accountemps invests in the skills and training of employees after they have worked with the firm for a specified amount of time. “It helps us, because eventually (many) become a client and will call us themselves for placements.”
Hosking says his firm holds regular meetings, open houses and training for its registered temporary candidates. This includes online tutoring in software they may use on the job and tuition reimbursement for skills training.
And whether or not organizations are accounting for the impact of their use of contingency work, Hosking, like Tompa, sees no chance of the pendulum swinging back.
“I think our workforce is evolving now to the point where it’s … very much expected that they’re going to need large numbers of temporary employees to meet their productivity goals,” he says, adding that his firm places a “great deal of emphasis” on helping its temp workers understand the corporate culture they’re going into.
“(Using temp workers) has become such an accepted practice now that we feel that their impact on the work environment goes hand in hand with that of the permanent employees,” Hosking says.
Kirk LeMessurier is a Toronto-based freelance writer.
