The Effects of Part-Time Employees in Supermarkets on Human Resource Practices

Abstract

How might the human resource policies and practices offered to full-time employees be determined by organizational choices to hire part-time workers as part of their staffing strategies? What do organizations do proactively to avoid damaging their work relationships with their full-time employees because of staffing strategies that include part-time employees? As part-time employees are typically a less costly source of labor, full-time employees may see part-time employees as a threat to their job security and a violation of the relational aspects of their psychological contracts. It is proposed that to alleviate full-time employees' concerns, organizations will modify the compensation and benefits packages they offer to their full-time employees to include more security features, thereby improving the relational aspect of their full-time employees' psychological contracts. Hypotheses were tested using survey data of human resource practices for full-time employees in supermarkets across the United States. The results indicate mixed support with a noteably contrarian finding with respect to healthcare. While organizations will reap some financial benefits from the use of part-time workers, they must also be aware of the secondary impacts of these choices on their full-time employees.