Improving Employees’ Wellbeing in Finland’s Hospitality Sector: A Focus on Contingent Work of Temporary Agency Workers
Do, Gia Loc (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052013663
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052013663
Tiivistelmä
Employees are the core value of an organization, and employees’ wellbeing is a critical factor that affects the employees’ experience, which could lead to many other consequences, such as employment engagement, productivity, job satisfaction, etc. Temporary Agency Work is a non-traditional type of employment, which is often structured with uncertainty. This study examined temporary agency workers wellbeing in Finland’s hospitality sector, specialized in restaurant industry. The aims of this research were to identify key factors affecting employees’ perceptions of their wellbeing and explore the future outcome of this type of employment. The objective of this research was to propose actionable strategies to enhance employees’ wellbeing for staffing agencies.
The theoretical framework of this thesis is structured into two categories: reasons for employing temporary agency workers in contingent work, and the temporary agency workers’ wellbeing in Finland. The first category explores the role of contingent workforce in general, the motivations of employers when employing temporary agency workers in contingent work arrangements, and a critique against employers while using temporary workers – Institutional Toying. The second category, which is the main focus area of the study, applies appropriate theoretical frameworks to address the purpose of the study, which are the job demand-resource model, perceived organizational support, and a critical phenomenon - employment insecurity. The implementation of these theories provides the basis for formulating research questionnaires survey.
The research method of this study was quantitative approach with few open-ended questions by conducting an online survey. By applying this research method, the results not only provided statistical data but also added deeper context to the statistics data.
Unfortunately, the data collected wasn’t large enough to fully reflect the whole temporary agency work in Finland’s restaurant industry and the employees’ wellbeing, and no generalizations could be made based on the results. However, they do provide interesting details about the respondents' experiences. The results of this study reveal that, although the employees’ wellbeing maintains at a good level, however, temporary agency workers in Finland still face certain challenges, with low wages as the most affected factor, following with employment insecurity and ineffective management support. Lastly, the future outcome of temporary agency work in Finland remain unpredictable from the study results.
The recommendations to enhance employees’ wellbeing management were made for both agencies and employees. The agencies should have a well-structured in the organization with responsibility for taking care of employees’ wellbeing. By having Occupational Health and Safety department, accessible communication channels and consider both perspectives from employees and user company in terms of addressing work issues. Employees should also take care of their own wellbeing with preferred activities and methods.
The theoretical framework of this thesis is structured into two categories: reasons for employing temporary agency workers in contingent work, and the temporary agency workers’ wellbeing in Finland. The first category explores the role of contingent workforce in general, the motivations of employers when employing temporary agency workers in contingent work arrangements, and a critique against employers while using temporary workers – Institutional Toying. The second category, which is the main focus area of the study, applies appropriate theoretical frameworks to address the purpose of the study, which are the job demand-resource model, perceived organizational support, and a critical phenomenon - employment insecurity. The implementation of these theories provides the basis for formulating research questionnaires survey.
The research method of this study was quantitative approach with few open-ended questions by conducting an online survey. By applying this research method, the results not only provided statistical data but also added deeper context to the statistics data.
Unfortunately, the data collected wasn’t large enough to fully reflect the whole temporary agency work in Finland’s restaurant industry and the employees’ wellbeing, and no generalizations could be made based on the results. However, they do provide interesting details about the respondents' experiences. The results of this study reveal that, although the employees’ wellbeing maintains at a good level, however, temporary agency workers in Finland still face certain challenges, with low wages as the most affected factor, following with employment insecurity and ineffective management support. Lastly, the future outcome of temporary agency work in Finland remain unpredictable from the study results.
The recommendations to enhance employees’ wellbeing management were made for both agencies and employees. The agencies should have a well-structured in the organization with responsibility for taking care of employees’ wellbeing. By having Occupational Health and Safety department, accessible communication channels and consider both perspectives from employees and user company in terms of addressing work issues. Employees should also take care of their own wellbeing with preferred activities and methods.