TY - JOUR
T1 - New contractual relationships in the agency worker market
T2 - The case of the UK's National Health Service
AU - Hoque, Kim
AU - Kirkpatrick, Ian
AU - De Ruyter, Alex
AU - Lonsdale, Chris
PY - 2008/9/1
Y1 - 2008/9/1
N2 - In recent years, there has been a trend towards the negotiation of closer contractual relationships between employers and employment agencies. However, little is known about this change or its likely consequences. In theory, such relationships can benefit employers by lowering fees and also reducing many of the hidden costs associated with the use of agency staff by improving the effectiveness of placement matching. Against this is the suggestion that formal partnerships are unlikely to have a positive impact given the uncertainty of demand for temporary labour and broader tendencies for risk displacement in buyer-supplier networks. In this article, our aim is to explore this matter focusing on recent developments in the UK's National Health Service. We find that new contractual relationships such as framework agreements and master vendor contracts are having mixed effects. While they serve to reduce direct costs for employers in the short term, this has been at the expense of relationship building and improvements in placement matching. These developments are also found to have some potentially negative consequences for the agency workforce itself.
AB - In recent years, there has been a trend towards the negotiation of closer contractual relationships between employers and employment agencies. However, little is known about this change or its likely consequences. In theory, such relationships can benefit employers by lowering fees and also reducing many of the hidden costs associated with the use of agency staff by improving the effectiveness of placement matching. Against this is the suggestion that formal partnerships are unlikely to have a positive impact given the uncertainty of demand for temporary labour and broader tendencies for risk displacement in buyer-supplier networks. In this article, our aim is to explore this matter focusing on recent developments in the UK's National Health Service. We find that new contractual relationships such as framework agreements and master vendor contracts are having mixed effects. While they serve to reduce direct costs for employers in the short term, this has been at the expense of relationship building and improvements in placement matching. These developments are also found to have some potentially negative consequences for the agency workforce itself.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=49249116956&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00693.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2008.00693.x
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:49249116956
SN - 0007-1080
VL - 46
SP - 389
EP - 412
JO - British Journal of Industrial Relations
JF - British Journal of Industrial Relations
IS - 3
ER -