<p>At the time of writing, the business world is currently recovering from a recession that struck globally in the late 2008. The financial crisis brought many consequences, not least in the labor market. In meantime, media is reporting of the increasing trends of companies outsourcing their employment needs, by using staffing companies. Could it be that there is a correlation between the recession and the companies’ choices to do so?</p><p>By revising literature on the topic we have found that the companies need for flexibility seem to be their main reason for using staffing companies. We have also come to review the first reports on the current increase of staffing company use in the US claimed to be caused by the current recession. Regarding the recession, we have come to find that it does have a structural impact on the labor market according to literature. An impact, that many claims is not temporary, but is here to stay.</p><p>We have departed from retroduction with a touch of abduction when investigating our research problem. In practice, we have conducted a study based on surveys where we have asked 37 people in managerial positions at the top 100 largest employers in Sweden about their views on the recession and their attitudes towards the staffing industry. In addition, we have conducted an interview with a manager from a staffing company in Sweden to get another view on the use of staffing companies.</p><p>The findings of this study include; even though several references in this paper forecast rapid growth during times of expansion for the staffing companies, this is not reflected within the responses in our sample. The companies perceive the situation of temporary staff as being better than what some theory suggests. There is reason to suggest that large companies that use staffing companies are moving towards a permanent need of temporary labor, and the respondent of such companies generally perceive staffing companies as a good option for mitigating labor-associated risks.</p><p>It is difficult to draw definite conclusions based on our findings. We have opted to give the reader some insight as to how the companies perceive the staffing industry, and how a manager of a staffing company perceives its current state. We would like to encourage further research to use the questions and suggestions raised in our paper to conduct tests in the area of temporary staffing from a corporate perspective to nourish the debate in the society with a scientific point of view.</p>

At the time of writing, the business world is currently recovering from a recession that struck globally in the late 2008. The financial crisis brought many consequences, not least in the labor market. In meantime, media is reporting of the increasing trends of companies outsourcing their employment needs, by using staffing companies. Could it be that there is a correlation between the recession and the companies’ choices to do so? By revising literature on the topic we have found that the companies need for flexibility seem to be their main reason for using staffing companies. We have also come to review the first reports on the current increase of staffing company use in the US claimed to be caused by the current recession. Regarding the recession, we have come to find that it does have a structural impact on the labor market according to literature. An impact, that many claims is not temporary, but is here to stay. We have departed from retroduction with a touch of abduction when investigating our research problem. In practice, we have conducted a study based on surveys where we have asked 37 people in managerial positions at the top 100 largest employers in Sweden about their views on the recession and their attitudes towards the staffing industry. In addition, we have conducted an interview with a manager from a staffing company in Sweden to get another view on the use of staffing companies. The findings of this study include; even though several references in this paper forecast rapid growth during times of expansion for the staffing companies, this is not reflected within the responses in our sample. The companies perceive the situation of temporary staff as being better than what some theory suggests. There is reason to suggest that large companies that use staffing companies are moving towards a permanent need of temporary labor, and the respondent of such companies generally perceive staffing companies as a good option for mitigating labor-associated risks. It is difficult to draw definite conclusions based on our findings. We have opted to give the reader some insight as to how the companies perceive the staffing industry, and how a manager of a staffing company perceives its current state. We would like to encourage further research to use the questions and suggestions raised in our paper to conduct tests in the area of temporary staffing from a corporate perspective to nourish the debate in the society with a scientific point of view.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to enlighten the knowledge and expand the understanding of the rapidly growing staffing agencies, which contributes to a great workflow and flexibility to the expense of secure employments. Through our own experience working in the staffing industry, we have asked the question “How does a group of low qualified staffing industry workers experience the working conditions in the staffing industry?” At the same time, we also chose to include the experiences of two recruiters to strengthen the experiences of ambulatory employees. (halftime workers) This study is based on a hermeneutic science method, we also used semi structured qualitative interviews to gather essential information and empirical data. To interpret the empirical material, we use tree theories as a tool to explain the phenomenon we intended to investigate. The theories are following Sasika Sassen – Expolsions, Guy Standing – The precarious and Norbert Elias &amp; John L Scotson`s theory of the established and outsiders.     Our interpretation of the empirical material indicates that factors such as safety, solidarity and work conditions are affected in a negative way when you have a part-time employment. Where some people belonging to an abnormal social category often gets excluded and marginalized and excluded by others in the workplace. Part- time employment is characterized by flexibility, insecurity, exclusion, subordination, and lack of community.

Bakgrund: Ett återkommande problem bland tjänstemän inom bemanningsföretag är en hög personalomsättning som mestadels kan kopplas till stress och bristande engagemang. Detta medför utmaningar för företagen när det gäller att skapa lojalitet och behålla personal i en konkurrenskraftig bransch. Teambuilding är ett verktyg företag använder för dess positiva effekter, där återkommande begrepp är kommunikation, engagemang och ledarskap. Vidare är teambuildingens relation till lojalitet någonting som tidigare forskning belyser, vilket har använts som teoretiskt perspektiv i denna studie och ligger till grund för det framtagna syftet. Syfte: Att förklara influerandet av teambuilding på lojaliteten bland tjänstemän i bemanningsföretag. Metod: En induktiv ansats har varit grunden i denna studie eftersom vi vill förstå och förklara innan vi sedan applicerar en teori som ska hjälpa oss att tolka vår insamlade data. För att besvara vårt syfte inom den angivna tidsramen valde vi att genomföra en kvalitativ flerfallstudie. Vi har använt oss av semistrukturerade intervjuer och dessa har genomförts med åtta informanter från två olika bemanningsföretag. Innan det var möjligt att presentera empirin gjorde vi en tematisk dataanalys för att kartlägga informanternas upplevelser. Slutsats: Analysen av den data som samlades in kunde generera ett svar på syftet med studien. Resultatet visar att teambuilding har positiva effekter på lojaliteten bland tjänstemän i bemanningsföretag. Lojaliteten påverkades från olika perspektiv som dels bekräftade tidigare forskning men där även ett nytt synsätt på relationen mellan teambuilding och lojalitet påvisas. / Background: A recurring problem amongst officials in staffing companies is a high staff turnover that can mostly be linked to stress and a lack of commitment. This poses challenges for companies in terms of creating loyalty and retaining staff in a competitive industry. Team building is a tool companies use for its positive effects, where recurring concepts are communication, engagement, and leadership. Furthermore, the relationship of team building and loyalty is something that is highlighted by previous research, which in this study has been used as a theoretical perspective and helped form the developed purpose. Purpose: To explain the influence of team building on the loyalty among officials in staffing companies. Method: An inductive approach has been the basis of this study to understand and explain before applying a theory that will help us interpret our collected data. In order to answer the designed purpose within the specified timeframe, we chose to conduct a qualitative multiple case study. We have used semi-structured interviews, and these have been conducted with eight informants from two different staffing companies. Before it was possible to present the empirical data, we did a thematic data analysis to map out the informants' experiences. Conclusion: The analysis of the collected data was able to generate an answer to the designed purpose of the study. The result shows that team building has positive effects on loyalty among officials in the staffing companies. Loyalty was affected from different perspectives that both confirmed previous research but also demonstrated a new approach to the relationship between team building and loyalty.

Problemformulering: Studier har visat att frivilliga inhyrda tenderar vara mer nöjda med aspekter som arbetstillfredsställelse och stöd från arbetsgivare, medan ofrivilliga är mer otrygga i sin rörliga arbetssituation och är mer benägna att sluta. Detta är en fråga om arbetstillfredsställelse, som är avgörande för vår hälsa. Ett problem när vi vill undersöka frivillighet i valet av en anställning som inhyrd är att många studier om detta är gamla eller internationella och gjorda i länder med annan reglering för bemanning än vi har i Sverige. Det innebär att många enkäter och frågeställningar är utformade på ett sätt som inte säkert fungerar optimalt i en svensk kontext, vilket kan innebära en avsaknad av skalor som kan mäta frivillighet anpassat till bemanning i Sverige. Syftet är att utveckla, reliabilitetstesta och preliminärt validera en skala passande i en svensk kontext, som kan mäta graden av frivillighet i en anställning som inhyrd via bemanningsföretag. Som metod användes en mixad metod, med fem kvalitativa kognitiva intervjuer som hjälp för att utforma skalan, som sedan skickas ut som webbenkät till 77 bemanningsanställda, vilket genererade i 26 kvantitativa svar. Dessa låg sedan till grund för tester av skalans reliabilitet och validitet. Resultat: Skalan i sin helhet hade otillräcklig reliabilitet och delades upp i två subskalor. En med items relaterade till frivillighet och en till ofrivillighet, vilket gav acceptabel reliabilitet till skalorna. Korrelationerna mellan de båda skalorna och indexet för arbetstillfredsställelse, visade sig dock vara mycket svaga, något som kan vara en konsekvens av ett mycket litet sampel. Slutsats: Trots acceptabel reliabilitet hos skalorna, visar sig validiteten vara övergripande svag. Skalan för frivillighet visar ett svagt positivt samband mellan arbetstillfredsställelse och frivillighet som ligger i linje med i flera tidigare studier. Skalan för ofrivillighet visar däremot närmast obefintligt samband med arbetstillfredsställelse. / Studies has shown differences between voluntary and involuntary agency workers perceived employment security and satisfaction in their flexible work situation. This is a matter of job satisfaction, that is crucial to our health. A problem when wanting to investigate voluntariness of agency workers is that many previous studies are old or international, and as the staffing regulation may differ in different countries, this has led to a lack of surveys that measure voluntariness in adaptation to a Swedish context. The aim of this study was to develop, test reliability and preliminary validate a scale that measure voluntariness of agency workers in staffing companies, suitable in Sweden. A mixed method was used; five qualitative cognitive interviews helped design the scale, that later was sent out as a web survey. The responses underwent reliability and validity tests, which revealed that the scale had poor reliability. The scale was therefore divided into two subscales, one related to voluntariness and the other to involuntariness, which gave acceptable reliability to the scales. However, despite the approved reliability, the validity proved to be overall weak. The voluntary scale however, showed a small positive relationship between job satisfaction and voluntariness, which is in line with previous studies.

Tjänster är en växande marknad där bemanningsföretagen har fått en ökad betydelse bland annat beroende av marknadens höga krav på tillgänglighet och flexibilitet. I dagens samhälle är det viktigt att produkter och tjänster inte bara fyller en funktion utan också uttrycker och förmedlar rätt budskap till intressenterna. Design har därför fått en allt viktigare funktion inom företag som vill utmärka och särskilja sig. För att frambringa ett starkt och trovärdigt varumärke som differentierar sig gentemot konkurrenterna, borde skapandet av varumärket inkluderas i en designstrategi där kvaliteten på designen är väsentlig. Studien syftar till att skapa en tydligare bild om och på vilket sätt ett tjänsteföretag arbetar med designstrategi i en förändringsprocess och hur de når ut till målgruppen. Urvalet för denna studie är tjänsteföretaget Academic Work, kommunikationsbyrån Naked, som företaget har tagit hjälp av i framtagandet av det nya konceptet, och slutligen en av företagets utvalda målgrupper, studenter. Genomförandet av denna studie bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med Academic Work och Naked samt en kvantitativ enkätundersökning med målgruppen studenter. De viktigaste slutsatserna från studien är att Academic Work: Inte har en entydig och självklar syn på designstrategi utifrån en förändringsprocess. Inte uttalat varit medvetna om att design har betydelse när de skulle se över sin marknadsföring och kommunikationsplattform, och är inte, eller i vart fall i ringa ut-sträckning, medvetna om designstrategins betydelse. Anlitat externa konsulter för att få hjälp med förändringsprocessen och de har därigenom implementerat design och designstrategi i processen. Förutom slutsatserna kring Academic Work har även följande slutsatser dragits: Det är viktigt med en tydlig kommunikation mellan företaget och externa konsulter för att stärka företagets varumärke och värden. Enkätundersökningen visar på att företaget nått ut till ekonomer i större grad än till humanister. Studenterna beskriver Academic Work utifrån givna påståenden som: seriösa, intressanta, vägvisande, karriär och arbete. / Services are a growing market where agencies have taken on increased importance, partly because of the market's higher demands on availability and flexibility. It’s important today that products and services not only fulfill a function, they also need to express and convey the right message to the consumers. Therefore has design got an increasingly important role in companies. To generate a strong and credible brand that differentiates itself from competitors, a distinctive design and developed design strategy is necessary. The study aims to create a picture on whether and how a service company works with design strategy in a process of change and how the target group conceives the new design. This study is based in the service company Academic Work changed design, the communications agency Naked who helped them and one of Academic Works target groups, students. Information from above is given via qualitative interviews with Academic Work and Naked and a quantitative survey that students have filled in. The main conclusions of this study are that Academic Work: Not have a clear and obvious approach to the design strategy based on a process of change. Not explicitly been aware that the design has a meaning when they would review their marketing and communications platform, and is not or at least to a limited extent, aware of the importance of the strategy design. Used external experts, Naked, for help with the change process, have implemented the design and design strategy in the process. In addition to conclusions about Academic Work have also the following conclusions been made:  Communication between the company and external experts is important regarding companies brand and their values. The survey shows that the company has primarily reached out to economists in greater degree than the humanists. Students describe Academic Work, from given statements, as: genuine, interesting, pioneering, career and work.

The aim of the study was to investigate how hired consultants experience their form of employment and how it affects their work situation. To investigate how the form of employment is experienced and influenced, a qualitative method has been used with semi-structured interviews. A total of six hired consultants were interviewed, collected data were analyzed through a manifest content analysis. The results show that the hired consultants perceive their form of employment as uncertain and insecure because it is dependent on the client company's production. At the same time, the form of employment can contribute to increased work experience due to the varying labor market of work assignments that the staffing company can offer. Factors that the hired consultants highlight that affects the work situation are stress and perceived requirements because they can not control or always affect the distribution of work tasks, workload. Termination periods at the client company by hired consultants create fear and anxiety to lose the work assignment. The conclusion of the study is that the hired consultants feel that the advantages of the form of employment are that it can contribute to increased work experience and that the disadvantages are that it is perceived as insecure and insecure. The factors that affect the organizational work environment are stress, perceived demands, and fear of getting rid of the work assignment. The social work environment was positively affected by support from colleagues and assignment managers. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur inhyrda konsulter upplever sin anställningsform samt hur den påverkar deras arbetssituation. För att undersöka hur anställningsformen upplevs och påverkar har en kvalitativ metod använts med semistrukturerade intervjuer. Sammanlagt intervjuades sex inhyrda konsulter och insamlad data analyserades genom en manifest innehållsanalys. Resultatet visar att de inhyrda konsulterna upplever sin anställningsform som osäker och otrygg för att den är beroende av kundföretagets produktion. Samtidigt som anställningsformen kan bidra till ökad arbetslivserfarenhet tack vare den varierande arbetsmarknaden av arbetsuppdrag som bemanningsföretaget kan erbjuda. Faktorer som de inhyrda konsulterna belyser som påverkar arbetssituationen är stress och upplevda krav, för att de inte kan kontrollera eller alltid påverka fördelning av arbetsuppgifter eller arbetsbelastning. Uppsägningsperioder på kundföretaget av inhyrda konsulter skapar en rädsla och oro för att bli av med arbetsuppdraget. Slutsatsen med studien är att de inhyrda konsulterna upplever att fördelarna med anställningsformen är att den kan bidra med ökad arbetslivserfarenhet och att nackdelarna är att den upplevs som otrygg och osäker. De faktorer som påverkar den organisatoriska arbetsmiljön är stress, upplevda krav och rädsla att bli av med arbetsuppdraget. Den sociala arbetsmiljön påverkades positivt genom stöd från kollegor och uppdragschefer.