Measuring the impact of part-time workers in service organizations

In this paper the authors investigate the complex issue of the trade-off between full-time and part-time staff and develop a relative ‘measure of flexibility’ for using part-time individuals. First, they demonstrate, as might be expected, how greater flexibility reduces idle labor capacity. Second, the authors define and test what is ‘scheduling flexibility,’ as measured by work-hours-per-day and work-days-per-week. Third, they document the marginal reduction in labor hours scheduled attainable with increased flexibility, using actual operating data from a lockbox department in a large Chicago commercial bank. And fourth, the authors demonstrate the cost implications of using part-time staff by employing operating data from the wire transfer department of a New York commercial bank, where they examine the problem using cost data as a basis for comparing the relative impact of various labor scheduling decisions and flexibility. The authors illustrate the common trade-offs that must be evaluated due to various labor costs, turnover rates, full and part-time personnel hours, and differing productivity rates among various categories of personnel. The present approach illustrates the type of analysis that should be conducted by practicing managers to adequately evaluate the trade-offs for the staffing decision when using both full and part-time personnel.