Clarity needed in training the ‘temps’: Agency staff’s greater risk of work-related disorders
Human Resource Management International Digest
ISSN: 0967-0734
Article publication date: 13 March 2017
Abstract
Purpose
Research shows that the risk of work-related disorders is higher among temporary agency workers than among other employees. The purpose of this paper is to describe the working conditions of temporary agency workers and explains which factors contribute towards work-related disorders for this group.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on a survey responded to by 482 agency workers in Sweden. The dependent variable is the prevalence of work-related disorders. Independent variables include personal characteristics, job characteristics, employment characteristics and temporary agency work characteristics.
Findings
The study indicates several risk factors: holding a position as a blue-collar worker; being assigned to more physically demanding work tasks and having fewer opportunities to learn new things than client organization employees; lacking training for work tasks; and lacking clarity regarding which work tasks to do during an assignment.
Originality/value
The theoretical implications of this study are related to the dual employment–management relationship in temporary agency work where the temporary work agency and client organization follow different logics. The logic in the employment relationship is to contract temporary agency workers out to client organizations; thus, there is no time for formal training. The logic in the management relationship lies in making temporary agency workers profitable as soon as possible, encouraging shortcuts in training and instruction; thus, temporary agency workers risk being left with a lack of clarity regarding what to do and how to do it.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Retraction notice
The Publisher wishes to retract the precis article “Clarity needed in training the ‘temps’: Agency staff’s greater risk of work-related disorders”, published in Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 25 No. 2, 2017. It has come to the attention of Emerald Publishing that this precis article contains large sections of unattributed text taken from the original research article “Between two stools: occupational injuries and risk factors for temporary agency workers”, by Kristina Håkansson, Tommy Isidorsson, published in International Journal of Workplace Health Management, Vol. 9 No. 3, 2016.
Precis articles are intended to summarise original academic research articles for a different audience, and should not include verbatim passages from the original articles. This error occurred due to a miscommunication in the commissioning process.
To avoid any repeated incidents of this nature, Emerald has fully revised its guidelines and briefed its Commissioning Editors. Human Resource Management International Digest sincerely apologises to the original authors and its readers for this error. The original article can be viewed here: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-07-2015-0038.
Citation
(2017), "Clarity needed in training the ‘temps’: Agency staff’s greater risk of work-related disorders", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 19-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/HRMID-01-2017-0006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited