Flexible workforce management. An exploratory study

Abstract

A flexible workforce is a key competitive advantage to deal with a constantly changing environment, such as order fluctuations and filling knowledge gaps due to a shortage of skilled staff. So far, only few empirical results are available on how companies successfully manage the “Flexible Workforce”. In the present exploratory study, we examine the flexible workforce practice and management in Swiss organisations using a quantitative approach. Data were collected through an online survey, in which 224 HR professionals of Swiss companies took part. The results suggest that organisations engaging in a flexible workforce benefit from outcomes like dealing with peaks in workload, filling knowledge gaps, implementation of new ideas and succession planning. The extent to which companies can benefit from the use of a flexible workforce depends, among other things, on the complexity of the tasks and organisational characteristics such as the culture of trust and the practice of knowledge management.