Introduction Analysis of labour flexibility has formed significant
stream of HRM research over past 25 years.
Changes in the way we think about labour flexibility
Atkinson’s (1984) Flexible Firm model
Criticisms
Other evidence for strategic approaches to labour flexibility?
We contribute to this argument, using NHS and LAs as case studies
Developments in agency work for nursing and social care
Labour flexibility: ad-hoc or strategic?
Demand-side explanations (sic. “externalization theory – Purcell et al., 2004)
The Flexible Firm (Atkinson, 1984)
Core (permanent – functional flexibility) and periphery (casual/part-time etc – numericla flexibility)
Employers exercise deliberate intent in terms of utilising each category
Human Resources Architectures (Lepak and Snell, 1999)
Links TCE and Human Capital approaches
Only offer permanent jobs to those who have high value and “uniqueness” of human capital
Labour flexibility: ad-hoc or strategic?
Criticisms of externalization theory
Highly transactional approach to the use of agency workers
“laissez faire management” (Koene and van Riemsdijk, 2005)
Conflates employment status with job content
Overstates strategic intent of employers
Potential for ad-hoc measures, muddling through or fire-fighting (Peel and Boxall, 2005)
Ignores supply-side (e.g. bargaining power of workers)
Free agents (Kunda et al., 2002)
Labour flexibility: ad-hoc or strategic?
Evidence for a strategic approach
Research having taken a narrow focus as to how functional or numerical flexibility is pursued (Kalleberg, 2001)
Emergent strategies (Procter et al., 1994)
Organisations can demonstrate planned approaches in using agency workers as supplements or substitutes (Stanworth and Druker, 2006)
Engage with agency workers and integrate them into the organisation where needed (“special approach” – Koene and van Riemsdijk, 2005)
Technology as transformative?
Debate on flexibility largely conducted in the absence of discussion on impact of new technology to transform management of flexible staffing needs:
“[t]here has long been a significant divorce in the public management field between the practical and empirical centrality of IT and information changes on the one hand and their marginality, indeed almost complete absence, from the central texts of public management theory and the literature on public sector change on the other”
- Dunleavy et al. (2006: 468).
Technology as transformative?
Post-NPM shift to management regime of “Digital Era Governance”? (Dunleavy et al., 2006)
Transformative role of new IT systems
IT not new, but recent systems have power to transform relations with wider stakeholders......
“changes in management systems and in methods of interacting with citizens and other service-users in civil society in the underpinning and integrating of current
bureaucratic adaptations” (ibid. 468)
Technology as transformative?
Public sector developments:
More use of MIS and e-procurement
Instant information on contracting practices and rates offered by agencies
Greater coordination by purchasing organisations
Less scope for opportunism by agencies
Emergence of sophisticated Vendor Management Systems (VMS)
Agencies as “managed service providers”
Technology as transformative?
Engagement with temps = more control of recruitment, selection, training and integration into org + wider HR practices (ideal flexible staffing mix?)
Impact of new information technology on the procurement of agency workers –transformative => contributes to providing more info to management on flexible staffing needs
= MORE CONTROL; CONTROL OVER AGENCIES ANDCONTROL OVER LINE MANAGERS
– FIRST STEP TO MORE STRATEGIC APPROACH
Research questions
To what extent can the new management practices pertaining to the use of agency staff be interpreted as evidence for a more strategic approach?
How has the use of information technology facilitated a more strategic approach?
Are there any limiting factors within public sector organisations that have obstructed a shift to a more strategic approach to the management of agency (and other flexible) staff?
Employment & Agency Work in the UK NHS & LAs
NHS:
1.36 million staff in 2008; 408,000 qualified nursing staff (NHS IC, 2010)
agency nurses cover individual shifts; maternity leave /sickness and ebbs and flows in demand for services
LAs:
250,000 workers in English LA social care during 2008; 50,000 social workers
continued favourable conditions for the use of agency workers (“long term” agency workers)
Ongoing recruitment and retention difficulties
Methods and data
Mixture of primary and secondary data
Interviews with clinical, senior and operational managers, agency workers and agency/VMS managers:
3 NHS Trusts and 3 LAs in the Greater London Area, conducted between October 2007 and September 2008.
Semi-structured interviews took approximately between an hour and 90 minutes
Pragmatist epistemological position
Key characteristics of case study organisations
LA1 LA2 LA3 HT1 HT2 HT3
Total employment (LA or Trust)
7,987 8,600 10,500 9,000 2,500 6,000
Annual Gross Expenditure (£ millions)
528 999 983 676 260 402
Total employment of nurses (inc midwives) or social workers
195 258 345 3,150 900 1,928
No. of FTE posts filled by agency nurses or social workers in given month, 2008
47 (June) 101 (Feb) 207 (Jan) 109 (Jan) 29 (Feb) 60 (est. of annual
average)
Findings Variations between the NHS and LAs in the practices
pertaining to the management of agency staff
More coordinated and instrumental practices evident in NHS Trusts
The Situation Prior to Change
Catalysts for Change
After the Change: emerging strategic capability
The Situation prior to Change
Generally ad-hoc approach to managing flexible staffing needs
Line managers using agency staff for
“traditional” reasons such as short-term cover
covering for unfilled vacancies was a more widespread problem in social care),
without the permission (or indeed the knowledge) of senior managers
High degree of asymmetric information and coordination failure on the part of Trusts and LAs.
“…what happened in the past was there were hard-to-fill posts and because there is a service need, managers… rather than thinking about a recruitment strategy, have gone straight to an agency, got somebody in and then thought ‘well I’ve solved that problem for the moment, so I’ll go and solve some other problem’ and just let it tick over.
Rather than then going back and trying to address the recruitment issues, they just let it carry on….” (Recruitment and Contracts Manager, HT).
Catalysts for Change
Absence of any strategic oversight of agency use, or any clear HR strategies for flexibility requirements
created conditions ideal for an expansion of agency provision
Growing awareness of the costs of using agency workers
Pressure from central government to manage and reduce agency spend
Concerns over quality and commitment of agency staff
After the Change: emerging strategic capability
HTs:
Coordinated attempt to regulate and reduce agency use
Framework Agreements and e-procurement
Increased use of bank nursing and centralisation of banks
LAs
Widespread use of VMS
More attempts to engage agency workers and increase appeal of permanent work
Growing centralisation and controls over decision making and tighter restrictions on spending
Reduction in line manager autonomy:
HTs:
Centralised banks and declining agency use; increased role for procurement and bank managers
Proactive bank strategies
LAs:
Control and coordination through VMS
neutral vendor to oversee and administer all aspects of the agency worker procurement and placement
“the wards are not supposed to go direct [to the agency to make a booking]. And one of the things that I’ve done to actually make sure that that doesn’t happen is I’ve warned the agencies if the booking doesn’t come through us in the staff bank or the bedside manager, I won’t pay their invoice….
occasionally one or two might slip through the net but if I find out about them you know, then I do have to speak to that person and just remind them” (Nurse Bank Manager, HT).
More evidence of workforce planning – improved Management Information Systems
Emergence of new IT systems, an integral component of VMS
More systematic approach to the management of flexible staffing
Increased ability to plan shifts and rosters
Emergent capabilities in workforce planning
LAs increasingly pool and exchange data on pay rates and agency commission rates via VMS
Identify agency staff to offer permanent jobs
An IT system in practice:
“So it will say to run that ward at that level … it is retrospective, so it is a useful planning tool for staffing….
So the dependency acuity tool is key to how we work out staffing establishments in the Trust and it allows them then to calculate how many staff they need. It allows them to look at … you know, it tells them, is it really fluctuating? ” (Director of Nurse Education and Workforce Development, HT)
Discussion
Tentative shift towards a more coordinated, centralised approach
New systems do not represent a panacea to the problems that existed previously:
Compliance issues (e.g., going “off Agreement”)
Ability and willingness of line managers to use and engage with new systems
New systems were still in an early stage of development
e.g, on-line systems co-existing with paper systems
However, clear positive impact in enhancing the ability to calculate flexibility needs
Conclusions
Manifest desire by senior managers to exert greater control
much tighter contractual relationships with agencies, as espoused through Framework Agreements and Vendor Management Systems
Increased centralisation and coordination of the management of flexible staffing needs
New IT systems point to increased ability to predict demand levels and consequently plan staffing numbers
Conclusions
These developments suggest at least a partial move towards a more strategic approach in the management of agency/flexible workers.
Hence, this paper calls for a revision of existing accounts of how organisations approach labour flexibility:
New mechanisms and institutions around a more coordinated approach to flexibility – a process which in turn has had radical consequences for the management of HR.
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