79535 Pages
8661 Words
Identification Of The Reasons Why Agency Staff Make The Choice To Be Agency Staff As Opposed To Applying For Contract Work
Struggling with complex assignments? New Assignment Help is here to alleviate your academic stress. With our assignment writing help in the UK, students can access personalized assistance and guidance at every step. Don't forget to explore our Free Assignment Sample for valuable insights and ideas.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The agency staffs are responsible for understanding the workload of the other employees within the workplace and determining the potential workload of an employee while contract workers are the recruited staffs who perform under the guidelines of the organisation. This research paper mainly sheds on the roles and responsibilities of the agency staff as well as the contact workers and the main reason for the agency staff opposing working as contract workers.
Research Purpose
The principal purpose of this research paper is the proper identification of the main reason why the agency staff opposed being contract workers. This research is mainly done with a close survey on the participants who are related to this staff and had an experience as contract workers. Apart from that, this particular study focuses on the advantages of the roles of agency staff that guide improving the job satisfaction level of the agency staff. The challenges of the contract workers will be discussed and how their situation can be improved. Another purpose of the research is to improve the industry perspective on contract workers as they have no right to freely work within the workplace.
Research aims, objectives and questions
The principal aim of this research paper is to identify the reasons why the agency staff prefer to be the agency staff rather than applying for contract work.
Objectives
The objectives of the research are outlined below
- To evaluate the current situation of agency staff in the industry
- To identify the reasons for opposing agency staff to be contract worker
- To discuss the challenges of the contract workers
- To provide effective recommendations for improving the condition of agency staff and the contract workers
Questions
Q1. What is the current situation of agency staff in the industry?
Q2. What are the reasons for opposing contract staff?
Q3. What are the challenges of contract workers?
Q4. What are the effective recommendations for improving the condition of agency staff and contract workers?
Research rationale
The principal issue of this research is the identification of the reason for the opposition of agency staff to be contract workers within an organisation. This particular study will discuss all the challenges the contract workers which are the main reason for the opposition of the agency staff.
Figure 1.1: Engagement of contract workers in different industries
(Source: Schillemans and Bjurstrøm, 2020)
This figure concludes that candidates of any age prefer the agency staff rather than contract workers. It is also seen that the engagement of the candidates in the industry as contract workers is lovers compared to agency staff. According to recent research, it is disclosed that around 88% of graduate candidates are interested in agency staff services while only 20% of candidates agree to do the organizational contract work (Latulippe and Klenk, 2022). It is an issue because the organisations in the current situation are suffering from inadequate availability of contract workers which has a great impact on employee volume as well as business productivity. Apart from that, it is also seen that more than 80% of H.S students have a fascination to work in an agency work while only 27% of the candidates are opposed to doing contractual work in the organisation (Dunn et al. 2020). The retention rate of contact workers is gradually increasing and that creates a gap in the human resource aspects of any organisation.
Figure 1.2: “A comparison of agency staff with the contract workers in the current industry”
(Source: Laurie and Mortimer, 2019)
It is an issue now because in recent times candidates are mostly attracted to the agency staff because of their job facilities as well as because they can have the opportunity to improve organizational practices for better productivity. This study aslo disclosed that the rate of engagement of the agency staff increased in the age group of 25-35 years. Another piece of information available in that study disclosed that the engagement rate of the agency staff is gradually increasing after the age group of 35 years and it is seen that the engagement rate in the designation of agency staff is increasing every year with a rate of 12% (Kelliher et al. 2019). The regulations and the limitations are the main reasons for the opposition to contract workers raising opposition not only to the agency staff but also the other workers as well.
The time duration
Primary research has been done in this research study in terms of the data collection process and it is mostly collected through the survey method. The data collection process takes some time as the researchers have to do several things including participant arrangements, survey conduct and data collection. Therefore, it takes around 40 days to complete the process to provide the best outcomes. Then the researcher has taken some time to analyse the data properly and provide effective outcomes for the research. All the proposed study follow the educational guidelines as well as data protection act so that it takes the adequate time.
Research limitations
The limitation of the research is the proper identification of the reason to evaluate the opposition of the agency staff to be contract workers. The previous study was mainly based on the secondary data collection process that only provides the overview of the reason for opposition to contract workers that are less effective for better outcomes. On the other hand, this research includes a detailed survey of the participants associated with this job. These are limitations of the research and that is why further study has been conducted.
Summary
This section concludes that the proper identification of the reasons for opposing the agency staff be contract works. Apart from that, this research study disclosed that at the initial stage of the employment age the candidate's engagement as a contract worker is and that is why the rate of engagement of the contract workers is greater than the agency staff. The objective of the study is to identify the challenges contract works face within the organisation and to provide some effective recommendations to remedy the situation.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
The literature review portion of this study will highlight why the staff of the agency was selected to work as the permanent staff of the agency and oppose working on a contract basis. The role and responsibilities of the agency staff will also be evaluated in this study. Information regarding the contractual work and its impacts on the staff of the agency will also be explained in this work with relevant and authentic data.
Concept of agency staff
The staff of the agency has a contract for their service. It is called temporary work, it is not permanent work (nidirect.gov.uk, 2022). Basically, an agency has many departments of an organization. Every agency aims to fulfil the needs of the organization and how many employees need to achieve the vision. According to Aziz-Ur-Rehman and Siddiqui, (2019) every employee of the agency aims to improve the right services for the organization. The company works on the flexibility of workers and the organization. Workers have many advantages for the agency such as workers using the event called the stepping stone and trying for many types of work.
Employment business is a process of business that works temporarily for this business, especially in the hired company. As opined by Achour et al. (2018) an employment agency is one type of business that mainly works to find the job aspiration of people, who already have a job but have paid every employer. Every worker of the company has two goals, short-term goals, and long-term goals, people found temporary jobs with the help of the agencies and permanent jobs get a fixed goal as an employee of the agency.
The company that hires the agency then paid the fees. As per the opinion of Moore et al. (2018) every employee of the organization help to improve the agency and also the leaders of the organization helps employees succeed. Every agency is also responsible for the employee's success. As an employee of the agency, all rules and regulations are maintained by the employees. Every permanent employee has different rights from an agency.
Information on contractual work
Contractual work is worked for short time contracts, a worker of the organization hired a particular job for the contracting. According to Bhowmick and Chakraborty (2020), a specific example of a contract job is if an organization hired a marketer who is an expert in social media and then hires them to build a profile on social media and organize a unique strategy to build the business.
The particular project has a fixed time to end because it is contracted between the organization and the agencies. No benefits are not approved for any client like any type of insurance or health challenges. As explained by Oducado (2019), contractual jobs are increasing the discipline of every employee because this work has a deadline. Employees of the company are successful in their work because of their discipline and maintaining all rules and regulations. When the contract is fixed with the contractor and the client, then the job begins. Before the job, it is clear both the work schedule and the rate.
Factors considered by the agency staff while choosing a job
Several factors are there that staff need to consider while choosing a career or job in an agency or organization. The staff needs to evaluate the positivity of the workplace culture as it is very important before joining at work in any agency. The workplace culture should be discrimination-free, free of conflict, and include fewer risks at work. As per the famous scholar Belete (2018), it can be stead that a conflict-free work culture will help to provide all staff with high motivation and support and will also enhance the business value, profitability, and productivity over time. The staff select their job in an agency that has a positive workplace culture in order to remain stress-free at work and get more job opportunities both at national and international levels.
The agency staff can also choose the role of supervisor instead of being a contractual or part-time worker. The agency staff can select the agency where they can work efficiently and get support from the manager and leaders of the project team. The staff can select the agency that is constantly acquiring a leading position in the targeted market segments and in the share market. The agency that has high competitors in the international or national market can be selected by the staff to work in as it will provide them with higher job opportunities in the future days. The main role of agency staff is to complete all the tasks allotted to them within the deadline effectively and dedicatedly. The jobs that agency staffs do are all on a contractual basis and are done carefully and attentively. As opined by Laufset al. (2020), the agency staff often refuse to work on a contractual basis as there are high risks of the sudden hold of jobs and employment. The agency staffs also have several responsibilities at work including working safely with all team members in a project. Apart from this, following all job instructions is one of the major criteria at work that all staff of agencies must maintain.
The staff must use personal protective equipment while working in a challenging situation. The staff are expected to select the job role and responsibilities on the basis of their ability, eligibility, and passion. They must maintain punctuality at work and must develop proper time management skills. As per the famous scholar, Middlemiss et al. (2019), it can be mentioned that communication and collaboration skills must also be strong for all agency staff so that they can communicate effectively and without any fear in a cross-culture workplace.
The agency staff must select a job role in which they can work flexibly and effectively by understanding all major requirements and demands and completing the task within the deadline. The staff of an agency must have good problem-solving and decision-making skills to face any challenges that can come in their path during the work. As opined by Belete (2018), being a good team player is the major ability of agency staff and this can provide them with several job opportunities both at national and international levels. The agency staff must also have skills in conflict resolution so that they can deal with any kind of conflicts that may arise within the project team.
Information regarding non-choosing of contracts work
Contractual workers are generally hired by the agencies in order to complete a particular task r project work within a provided deadline. After the project is completed the workers are dismissed from the agency or may be provided with placement as permanent staff. The eligibility and ability of these types of workers are up to the mark as the permanent staff of the organization. Once the task is completed these contractual workers are no longer kept employed by the agency. As per Shaikh, (2019), the agency staff neglect or do not want to choose a contractual work or task as they often feel exploited as they receive low payment even if they work more than the permanent staff of the agency. As opined by Brown et al. (2019), it can be stated that contractual workers have often been deprived of any kinds of benefits the companies such as medical insurance, medical leaves, paid holidays, and paternity or maternity leaves.
The agency staff does not want to work as contractual workers as they do not receive any protection under labor laws. As per Wang et al. (2019), it can be mentioned that contractual work also has several benefits, unlike full-time workers who can work their flexible time depending on their job role and responsibilities. They have higher control over their working hours and duties unlike the permanent staff of the agencies.
Importance of choosing agency staff job roles
Every agency has many departments in its organization. A business owner needs employees to develop their business in the industry. Agencies need to understand why an organization needs employees to achieve the goal and how important the staff role is (Kelliher et al. 2019). Employees help the agency to improve its services to create a good image in the industry. Employees are very important to an agency. The importance of employees is shown after getting the achievement or after the agency gets the result. Although the employee helps the organization leaders to determine the performances of each employee.
- Achieving goals: One of the most important factors of an agency is how the employees are performing with their duties. As commented by Choudhury (2020), every successful employee always meets their deadline, gets better in their performance day by day, and effectively concentrates on their own performance. If an agency has these types of stuff then it's really getting smooth to achieve the goal for the organization.
- Creating a work environment: If every staff of an agency effectively does their work in the workplace then the environment gets boosted. It is the responsibility of every employee to create a good environment in the workplace by doing their job positively (Duggan et al. 2020). To enhance the confidence of every employee the agency has to take the responsibility to encourage the employees with a reward for their jobs.
- Increase productivity: In a company, productivity is a very important factor. With the help of employees, the services get better and also got creative at the same time. An agency gets benefits after improving its productivity. Indirectly the employees are given their best performance to the agency to provide better products for consumers.
- Overtime work or remote work: For an agency, it is very important to take care of their employees, and employees also give that importance to the agency. For example, if an employee is on his holiday but after getting a message from his office he at that point is ready to provide the service to the organization, also helps the agency to grow and the consumers are more attracted to that agency.
Challenges faced while choosing contractual works
Poor communication
There are different teams who are involved in the same contract. The issue lies that each team signs the contract that is relevant to them. Thus, none of the departments is able to see the entire contract as a whole (Zou et al. 2019). Therefore, the final result of the contract is not similar to the needs of the contractors. Hence proper communication is a must for perfect results on every contractual project.
Lack of clarity
The contracts have a set of rules and guidelines that has to be followed by every team. Thus, it is done to ensure the proper execution of every project. Therefore, a contract has to be reviewed quite often to avoid the problem of going off track on the given project. The other advantage is the execution of business on the stipulated budget to have a large margin in the end.
Suppliers are not catering to the organization’s demands
the inefficiency of the workers in a contractual job is a very common problem. The issue is that the suppliers will be underperforming in most cases. The issue grows bigger when employers are not aware of it. Thus, they end up paying more than the amount deserved by the underperformed suppliers.
Unaware of hidden risks
The problem of having common risks is a serious issue in all spheres of business. Therefore, hidden risks come as a big challenge for contractual workers. As opined by Kang et al. (2019), the issue prevails if there is no one to warn about such risks. These are the times when the employer may have to deal with the problem of bankruptcy. Thus, having employers who outsource every project with credibility is a cardinal factor of contractual work. Every contract worker has to inform the employer of the risks before the papers are signed. This will help the employer to formulate plans either to evade such risk factors or neutralize them before it happens.
Theoretical paradigm
According to Kahn’s theory of employee engagement, there are three principles dimensions of employee engagement which include, Physical engagement, Cognitive engagement, and Emotional engagement. Here physical engagement involves the engagement of employees that spend their maximum effort using physical and mental strength. According to Khan, this will help employees to engage better with each other as they become linked with each other physically and mentally, and also use their energy at work which eventually increases a sense of feelings of confidence among each other (AKOB et al. 2020). Cognitive engagement focuses on employees being able to understand their employer's goals and different strategies in order to perform the task they need to do. According to Khan, this will help workers to be more creative and be more confident while taking any sort of decision. Emotional engagement is based on creating emotional relationships with employers (Zhou et al. 2022). In order to have a positive relationship organization will need to learn to create a sense of belonging at work, this will encourage employees to trust the values and ethics of the organization along with that employees will also be able to prepare themselves accordingly in order to achieve the goals or target set by the organization.
As per the AON-Hewitt model, there are mainly six driving forces of employee engagement and also three outcomes. These six drivers and the outcomes takes an important role for the agency staff or any kind of staff in regulating an effective performance with rational thoughts, emotions, intentions, and engagement with the organization. According to Rawat and Dadas, (2019) when these six drivers get satisfied then the three outcomes take place in the field. Three outcomes include saying positive things about colleagues and the organization. Staying in the organization and having a great sense of belongingness. Finally, strive for giving extra effort and be motivated throughout the work time.
It is clear that all the staff possess such drives and expect the outcomes. Here it is necessary to be the clarity regarding risks, and job roles and have a great practice of communication with the contractor. If these things are not present in any contract it may not produce any employee engagement and the employee avoid such incomplete contracts.
Literature Gap
There are major findings that the recruitment rate of the agency staff has increased. Besides that, the recruitment rate of the agency staff on a contract basis has shown a decrease. There is no proper empirical grounding explaining the factor behind that. This is creating a literary gap in this literature review.
Summary
It can be summarized that the key tool of recruiting the staff on the basis of the contracts is the well-clarified communication process. The major reason why the agency staff is avoiding the contracts is that it is a poor communication process, there is a lack of clarity and the fear of hidden risks. The theoretical paradigm in this context suggested that there are several things that agency staff priority set images about the working environment when it does not match with the information in the contracts, the agency staff faces challenges.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This research is based on the agency is a place of work where certain responsibilities are given to its employees. The choice to stay with agency work instead of opting for contract work is an understandable fact and it is related to some survey analysis of agency workflow nature. This chapter is aimed to give an understanding of different methodological concepts of agency workers’ behaviour to stay in non-contractual work. Survey data that are collected for this purpose can help in quantitative analysis.
Research Philosophy/Theoretical perspectives
Surveys are done based on a quantitative approach rather than analyzing qualitative data. Quantitative records help in more accurate data analysis. The research data that are collected through surveys should be relevant to the main context which is the agency staff's choice to stay in their existing work in non-contractual roles (Sileyew, 2019). The philosophy behind the research is the key to reaching certain opinions about the research results. The philosophical analysis for a theoretical perspective is related to positivism theory. This empiricist theory from a philosophical angle points to genuine knowledge in a positive sense or true from a definitive approach. The sensory experiences show some logic and reason that helps to derive the next facts. The research is based on the natural result and not emphasized any supernatural ideas. Positivism is amended and criticized by a stance of metatheoretical meaning and it is called Post positivism. It has an impact on the research philosophy.
Research Approach
The approach for researching certain facts can be progressed with quantitative analysis. In this study, the approach of research is quantitative. Quantitative results tend to give more accurate results than qualitative ones and it involves statistical and logical analysis. Polls, questionnaires, surveys and other structured tools are used for collecting responses quantitatively. The research is done with data sampling and close-ended questions. Data samples like how many workers want to stay in non-contractual agency work and how many of them want to opt-out give a clear idea of the overall tendency of the agency workers.
Data Collection Method
Data collection refers to a systematic approach to acquiring information on certain facts. Organizations like private companies, government agencies, and SMEs collect data for business analysis purposes and decision-making (Shallcross et al. 2021). In this study, the data collection is done with a quantitative approach. The quality of the collected data maintains a high level and the findings are differentiable. Organizations use primary and secondary data collection techniques for figuring out the actual operational state. Polls, interviews, surveys, and statistical methods are used as data collection techniques at the primary level whereas secondary data collection methods include data collection from internet resources, government reports, and financial and sales reports. The study is emphasized and based on survey data collection.
Sampling approach
It is a hard task for an organization to collect data from every individual as the process will consume a lot of energy and time. A Group of individuals based on certain characteristics are chosen for data collection. The specific group responsible for giving research data is known as samples and the process is called sampling. The demographic data analysis involves 100 of 25 to 60 years aged people irrespective of gender classification according to the research paper. Factors like population variability and size affect the sample size. It is the individual count in a sample size.
Analysing and Presenting Data
A researcher can understand the required improvements in a survey and its related process by collecting data and making an analysis of it. Data analysis can resolve many related queries. This is also helpful to bring a summarised idea (Shkoler, 2018). Data presentation is the systematic approach to showing the data. The associated skills should be properly understood along with associated skills. The data presentation also assists with the development of research queries and their solutions.
Ethical consideration
The survey analysis as part of the research method is done by maintaining several practices. An ethical approach is necessary to retain the best practices of survey analysis. The present research for finding the reason for agency workers’ wish to stay in their existing job relates to best research practices including the analysis by the survey. The surveys should be conducted maintaining informed consent and confidentiality. The confidential data should be kept among the parties who are allowed to get access and not any crucial data should go public. Survey ethics also includes informed consent from associated bodies including survey responders and surveyors.
Limitations
The survey analysis provides researchers with valuable information but there are some limitations. The concerned population for the survey lacks access restrictions. Time is a big factor in managing survey reports and other analytical data. Surveyors sometimes fail to arrange necessary funding for the survey. As a result, the survey is limited to only a small amount of the population and the sampling is done partially (Travers et al. 2019). Market competition has become a scope of limitation of surveys. The surveyors sometimes give less priority to survey results for meeting task deadlines.
Research Plan
The research plan is built through several processes. These include determining the purpose of the associated project. The individual goals should be identified. The method that makes the best match with the research purpose should be chosen. The task allocation then needs to be done among surveyors. The timeline should be decided while the researchers make a project summary. The research results should be presented accurately with a chosen method (Zhang et al. 2021).
Summary
The methodology for this research approach is divided into several features that help to understand all methodological aspects. The research is associated with quantitative analysis and the results are based on survey data. It follows the positivism theory while making a more logical or calculative approach. Data is collected by primary or secondary approaches by organizations. The survey is done as part of the primary approach. Sampling in surveys makes the task easy as it is based on specific individual groups. Surveys are done with some ethical practices.
Chapter 4: Result & Discussion
People are mostly interested in joining the organisation as agency staff. Agency staff are permanent and they can have other companies benefit in addition to their wages. The professional and skill development of the agency staff is higher in comparison to the contractual workers. The work security and work security facility are higher for the agency staff since they are permanent employees. On the other hand, contractual workers have a higher level of flexibility and liberty compared to agency staff since they are not bound by strict company policies. A healthy environment in the organisation also provides a better work environment for the agency staff. Contractual workers do not have access to this work environment on a periodic basis. However, both workers have the facility to work remotely and increase their network.
Demographics Analysis
Age
1. What is your age? |
a. 25- 35years |
48 |
b. 36-45 years |
28 |
c. 45-55 years |
14 |
d. 56-60 years |
10 |
Table 4.2.1: Age
(Source: Self-created)
As per the survey analysis, 48 members belong to the age group between 25 to 35 years whereas 28 members are within the age group of 36 to 45 years. The member number is 14 when it comes in between the age group of 45 to 55 years. The rest 10 members fall under the category of 56 to 60 years age group.
Occupation
2. What is your occupation? |
a. Agency staff |
40 |
b. Contractual worker |
30 |
c. Business owner |
5 |
d. Unemployed |
25 |
Table 4.2.2: Occupation
(Source: Self-created)
According to the data, 40% of the members who have participated in the survey are agency staff and 30% of them are contractual workers. 5% of the members have their own businesses and employ these people whereas 25% of the members are not unemployed.
Survey Findings [Graphs and tables]
Monetary benefits
3. Monetary benefits |
• Strongly disagree |
10 |
• Disagree |
10 |
• Neutral |
50 |
• Agree |
20 |
• Strongly Agree |
10 |
Table 4.3.1: Monetary benefits
(Source: Self-created)
There are various occasions where contractual workers receive higher monetary benefits in comparison to agency staff. The agency staff members are permanent employees of an organisation and they receive lower wages every month. On the other hand, contractual workers receive higher payments for completing one project. Contractual workers need to keep working on the projects to keep achieving higher monetary benefits than the agency staff. The study shows that 10 members strongly disagree, 10 members disagree, 50 members neither agree nor disagree, 20 members agree and 10 members highly agree with this fact.
Professional development
4. Professional development |
· Strongly disagree |
5 |
· Disagree |
10 |
· Neutral |
40 |
· Agree |
17 |
· Strongly agree |
28 |
Table 4.3.2: Professional development
(Source: Self-created)
Professionals can develop their interpersonal and organisational skills when they are constantly working on projects and working with other people instead of working alone and sometimes. The data represents that 5% of people strongly disagree with this fact, 10% of the people disagree with this fact, 40% of the people are neutral, 17% of the people agree and 17% of them strongly agree.
Flexibility and liberty
5. Flexibility and liberty |
· Strongly disagree |
8 |
· Disagree |
10 |
· Neutral |
18 |
· Agree |
40 |
· Strongly agree |
24 |
Table 4.3.3: Flexibility and liberty
(Source: Self-created)
Contractual workers have higher flexibility and liberty when it comes to completing projects. Contractual workers are not strictly bound by company rules like agency staff. 8% of members strongly feel that the information is not correct, 10% of members disagree, 18% of members have not thought of this fact, 40% members agree and 24% members strongly disagree with this fact.
Work environment
6. Work environment |
· Strongly disagree |
10 |
· Disagree |
10 |
· Neutral |
13 |
· Agree |
27 |
· Strongly agree |
40 |
Table 4.3.4: Work environment
(Source: Self-created)
Agency workers are obliged to work in an environment where they constantly have to work with a team and they get a proper evaluation from their hierarchy. 10 survey members strongly disagree, 10 survey members only disagree, 13 survey members are neutral, 27 survey members agree and 40 survey members highly agree with this fact.
Work-life balance
7. Work-life balance |
· Strongly disagree |
8 |
· Disagree |
12 |
· Neutral |
28 |
· Agree |
32 |
· Strongly agree |
20 |
Table 4.3.5: Work-life balance
(Source: Self-created)
The staff of an agency has a proper work schedule where they are previously aware of their work time whereas contractual workers do not have any fixed work time schedule. 8% strongly disagree, 12% disagree, 28% are neutral, 32% agree and 20% strongly agree with this fact.
Work security
8. Work security |
· Strongly disagree |
8 |
· Disagree |
12 |
· Neutral |
20 |
· Agree |
32 |
· Strongly agree |
28 |
Table 4.3.6: Work security
(Source: Self-created)
The agency staff has more work security in comparison to contractual workers since they permanently work within the organisation. 8% of the members strongly disagree, 12% disagree, 20% neither agree nor disagree, 32% agree and 28% strongly agree with the data.
Network
9. Network |
· Strongly disagree |
10 |
· Disagree |
9 |
· Neutral |
40 |
· Agree |
21 |
· Strongly agree |
20 |
Table 4.3.7: Network
(Source: Self-created)
Both the agency staff and contractual workers have the capability to increase their network while they are working within or with an organization. The data analysis suggests that 10% of the members strongly disagree, 9% disagree, 40% neither agree nor disagree, 21% agree and 20% strongly agree with this fact.
Remote working facility
10. Remote working facility |
· Strongly disagree |
17 |
· Disagree |
3 |
· Neutral |
40 |
· Agree |
20 |
· Strongly agree |
20 |
Table 4.3.8: Remote working facility
(Source: Self-created)
The arrival of the covid pandemic has increased the remote working facility for both agency staff and contractual workers. 17 members strongly disagree, 3 members disagree, 40 members are neutral, 20 members agree and 20 members strongly agree with this data.
Survey Analysis
Demographic analysis
- Age: The conduction of the survey within the organisation suggests that young, mid-age and old adults are employed within the organisation. The employees fall under four age groups such as 25 to 35 years, 36 to 45 years, 45 to 55 years and 56 to 60 years. The age group of 25 to 35 years is the highest and that is 48%. This suggests that the country has a higher level of young adults and they dominate other age groups. The percentage of old adults is the lowest and that is 10% for 56 to 60 years of people.
- Occupation: Most of the survey members are agency staff, but there are other members as well who are related to contractual work. There are some members who are associated with owning a business and these businesses hire both agency staff and contractual workers. 40% of the survey participants are agency staff and this shows that the employees are most interested in joining as the agency staff. The contractual workers have a percentage of only 30 since these are not permanent employees. This suggests the interest level of the employees for joining as an agency staff instead of joining as an employee. There are some people who do not like to work under anyone's guidance but instead plan to own a business and this percentage is 5%. The rest of the participants are not willing to or getting any work.
Survey findings
The study has shown that 10 people strongly agree that the monetary benefits of the contractual workers are less as compared to the agency staff. Ten disagree on the difference of monetary benefits between the staff and the agency staff. Fifty remained neutral on providing any such views on the difference in the monetary benefits.
Professional development: Professional development depends on the mindset of the individual. People can develop skills that are related to the service they offer or their company offers if they are eager to learn it. Both the agency employees and contractual workers can learn about the required skills if they are interest to learn it. However, it is expected from the contractual workers that they are more capable of doing their job in comparison to agency staff. The data from the survey shows that 40% of the people believe they can develop their professional skills irrespective of being an agency staff or contractual worker.
Contractual workers have more flexibility and liberty in their work process since they are not obliged to obey all the rules of the company. Contractual workers also do not have any sort of fixed schedule like agency staff and this gives them a lot of flexibility and liberty.8% of the survey participants strongly disagree with this fact whereas 40% and 24% of participants agree and strongly agree with this fact.
Work environment is a big factor when it comes to the productivity of the work. Agency staffs are permanent employees of the company and therefore they interact with a team to improve the team building skills. This creates a feeling of belongingness among the employees that the contractual workers cannot have. 27% and 40% survey participants agree and strongly agree with this data.
Summary
Agency staffs are employed permanently within an organization and they are obliged to work on any project taken by the organization. On the other hand, contractual workers are not obliged to work on any project and they have the liberty to choose the project. The contractual workers sign a bond with the company where they are responsible for completing the company projects within a specific time period. Both the agency staff and contractual workers help the organization complete its projects within the correct time period. The agency staff has better work stability in comparison to contractual workers as contractual workers are not permanent within an organization. There are various pros and cons to working both as agency staff and as contractual workers. The hiring of a contractual worker will be more costly in comparison to the agency staff in the long run. The hiring of the contractual worker is, however, on a short-time basis.
Chapter 5: Conclusion & Recommendations
Conclusion
The research is purposed to identify the reasons for agency workers' interest in working as agency workers and switching to contractual work. This is also done to evaluate the staff of agencies. The time duration should be determined properly to get the research results. The limitation of this research is that it is only related to the collection of mandatory data.The choice of work in agencies as agency staff rather than working as a contractual staff happens as they find various opportunities like permanent payroll, work safety, fewer deadlines and other beneficial factors.
Linking with objectives
Evaluation of the current situation of agency staff in the industry
Agency staff are opted to choose between working as agency staff and working on contractual bases. They get work satisfaction and a good working environment in the agencies (Abdurakhmanova and Abdurakhmanov, 2019). Worker safety is important and the agency workers get the best safety threats while working in the agency.
Identification of the reasons for opposing agency staff to be a contract worker
Contractual works feature time limits and workers face many hassles while finishing their tasks by deadlines. This does not feature in permanent work for agency workers so they oppose working on a contractual basis.
The challenges of the contract workers
Contract workers sometimes go through feelings of exploitation due to low payments. They feel pressurized due to heavy workloads. They do not get any protection like labour laws.
Recommendation
The research analysis shows that some agency staff want to stay in their existing role while other workers opt for contractual jobs due to some reasons. The agencies should bring some strategic changes to make their employees stay in their business. Salary improvement can put the unwilling workers to stay in their agency worker role. Less payment sometimes makes the workers of the agencies feel annoyed (Kelliher et al. 2019). Leading agencies in the international market follow the procedure of business inclusion to strengthen the payment structure. The payment increase can prevent a worker to opt for alternative options like contractual jobs.
Work freedom is always desirable for performance improvements. The management teams of different agencies can give more focus to time management by making some modifications to employee strength and work procedures. Agency workers will give more respect to their work by getting time flexibility and using that extra time for performance improvements.
Most agencies have limited placement opportunities and their employees can hardly opt for shifting to other branches in the same country. The employees of agencies work with a limited skill set and some employees switch to contractual jobs for upgrading their skills. These skills are earned from interaction with international clients (Boeri et al. 2020). Agencies can extend employment opportunities by availing their branches in different countries.
Future scope
Contractual work can be an opportunity for work freedom but it can’t meet the level of work safety as permanent work can give. This is one reason why agency workers are staying with their existing employment and not opting for a job on a contract basis. Taking this positive note, it is assumed that the agencies will bring opportunities for more employment. Some agencies have already made plans for enlarging their businesses to the international level (Spurk and Straub, 2020). Technology improvement is making quality changes in agency operations. This brings a possibility of a salary hike. Business inclusions and technology improvement are also bringing innovative ideas to agency work.
References
Chapter 1
Journals
Dunn, M., Sheehan, M., Hordern, J., Turnham, H.L. and Wilkinson, D., 2020. ‘Your country needs you’: the ethics of allocating staff to high-risk clinical roles in the management of patients with COVID-19. Journal of Medical Ethics, 46(7), pp.436-440.
Kelliher, C., Richardson, J. and Boiarintseva, G., 2019. All of work? All of life? Reconceptualising work?life balance for the 21st century. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(2), pp.97-112.
Latulippe, N. and Klenk, N., 2020. Making room and moving over: knowledge co-production, Indigenous knowledge sovereignty and the politics of global environmental change decision-making. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 42, pp.7-14.
Laurie, S. and Mortimer, K., 2019. How to achieve true integration: the impact of integrated marketing communication on the client/agency relationship. Journal of Marketing Management, 35(3-4), pp.231-252.
Schillemans, T. and Bjurstrøm, K.H., 2020. Trust and verification: Balancing agency and stewardship theory in the governance of agencies. International Public Management Journal, 23(5), pp.650-676.
Chapter 2
Journals
Achour, N., Munokaran, S., Barker, F. and Soetanto, R., 2018. Staff stress: the sleeping cell of healthcare failure. Procedia engineering, 212, pp.459-466.
AKOB, M., ARIANTY, R. and Putra, A.H.P.K., 2020. The mediating role of distribution Kahn's engagement: An empirical evidence of salesforce in Indonesia. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 7(2), pp.249-260.
Aziz-Ur-Rehman, M. and Siddiqui, D.A., 2019. Relationship between flexible working arrangements and job satisfaction mediated by work-life balance: Evidence from public sector universities employees of Pakistan. Available at SSRN 3510918.
Belete, A.K., 2018. Turnover intention influencing factors of employees: an empirical work review. Journal of Entrepreneurship & Organization Management, 7(3), pp.1-7.
Bhowmick, M.D.R. and Chakraborty, S., 2020. Stress at the Workplace: A Case Study on Contractual College Teachers in Upper Assam. IOSR-JBM, 16, pp.37-41.
Brown, R., Alderson, H., Kaner, E., McGovern, R. and Lingam, R., 2019. “There are carers, and then there are carers who actually care”; Conceptualizations of care among looked after children and care leavers, social workers and carers. Child Abuse & Neglect, 92, pp.219-229.
Choudhury, P., Foroughi, C. and Larson, B., 2021. Work?from?anywhere: The productivity effects of geographic flexibility. Strategic Management Journal, 42(4), pp.655-683.
Duggan, J., Sherman, U., Carbery, R. and McDonnell, A., 2020. Algorithmic management and app?work in the gig economy: A research agenda for employment relations and HRM. Human Resource Management Journal, 30(1), pp.114-132.
Kang, J., Xiong, Z., Niyato, D., Ye, D., Kim, D.I. and Zhao, J., 2019. Toward secure blockchain-enabled internet of vehicles: Optimizing consensus management using reputation and contract theory. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 68(3), pp.2906-2920.
Kelliher, C., Richardson, J. and Boiarintseva, G., 2019. All of work? All of life? Reconceptualising work?life balance for the 21st century. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(2), pp.97-112.
Laufs, J. and Waseem, Z., 2020. Policing in pandemics: A systematic review and best practices for police response to COVID-19. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 51, p.101812.
Middlemiss, L., Ambrosio-Albalá, P., Emmel, N., Gillard, R., Gilbertson, J., Hargreaves, T., Mullen, C., Ryan, T., Snell, C. and Tod, A., 2019. Energy poverty and social relations: A capabilities approach. Energy research & social science, 55, pp.227-235.
Moore, S., Tailby, S., Antunes, B. and Newsome, K., 2018. ‘Fits and fancies’: the Taylor Review, the construction of preference and labour market segmentation. Industrial Relations Journal, 49(5-6), pp.403-419.
Oducado, R.M.F., 2019. Leader empowering behaviors and psychological empowerment as perceived by young hospital staff nurses: A pilot study. JurnalNers, 14(1), p.47.
Rawat, P.A. and Dadas, A.B., 2019. A study of employee engagement models to build new business approaches. Neville Wadia Institute of Management Studies & Research.
Shaikh, M. and Levina, N., 2019. Selecting an open innovation community as an alliance partner: Looking for healthy communities and ecosystems. Research Policy, 48(8), p.103766.
Wang, D., Lu, Y. and Fang, S., 2019. Connection between relationship quality and megaproject success: Moderating role of contractual functions. Advances in Civil Engineering, 2019.
Zou, W., Lo, D., Kochhar, P.S., Le, X.B.D., Xia, X., Feng, Y., Chen, Z. and Xu, B., 2019. Smart contract development: Challenges and opportunities. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 47(10), pp.2084-2106.
Website
nidirect.gov.uk, (2022), Theagency workers Available at:https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/agency-workers#toc-0 [Accessed on: 12th November, 2022].
Chapter 3
Book
Sileyew, K.J., 2019. Research design and methodology (pp. 1-12). Rijeka: IntechOpen.
Journals
Hao, S., Zhou, Y. and Guo, Y., 2020. A brief survey on semantic segmentation with deep learning. Neurocomputing, 406, pp.302-321.
Shallcross, N.J., Parnell, G.S., Pohl, E. and Goerger, S.R., 2021. Using value of information in quantitative set?based design. Systems Engineering, 24(6), pp.439-455.
Shkoler, O., 2018. Using contemporary quantitative techniques. In Quantitative Research Methods in Consumer Psychology (pp. 22-58). Routledge.
Travers, J., Romero-Ortuno, R., Bailey, J. and Cooney, M.T., 2019. Delaying and reversing frailty: a systematic review of primary care interventions. British Journal of General Practice, 69(678), pp.e61-e69.
Zhang, Y., Ti?o, P., Leonardis, A. and Tang, K., 2021. A survey on neural network interpretability. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence.
Chapter 5
Journals
Abdurakhmanova, G. and Abdurakhmanov, K., 2019. Labor migration of the population and evaluation of supply chain on the labor market. ????????????????????????.
Boeri, T., Caiumi, A. and Paccagnella, M., 2020. Mitigating the work-safety trade-off. Covid Economics, 2(8), pp.60-66.
Kelliher, C., Richardson, J. and Boiarintseva, G., 2019. All of work? All of life? Reconceptualising work?life balance for the 21st century. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(2), pp.97-112.
Spurk, D. and Straub, C., 2020. Flexible employment relationships and careers in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of vocational behavior, 119, p.103435