Can on-the-job training stabilize employment among rural migrant workers?

Abstract

Purpose Whether training contributes to stabilizing employment among rural migrant workers in cities remains unclear. Based on this gap in the research, the purpose of this paper is to examine how on-the-job training affects rural migrant workers’ job mobility in China. Design/methodology/approach By using randomly sampled survey data on migrant workers in Liaoning province in 2014, the authors applied a logistic model and survival analysis to explore the effect of on-the-job training on migrant workers’ job turnover and understand workers’ job change behaviour after receiving on-the-job training. Findings The results showed that job training provided by employers can significantly reduce migrant workers’ turnover by increasing specific human capital. By contrast, training provided by the government or migrant workers themselves focuses on increasing general human capital and thus fails to reduce job turnover. Moreover, further discussion revealed that, in the trained group, those people with a short tenure and low wage in the first job, people without any skills before migration, male migrant workers, and people that work in medium-sized and large cities have a higher probability of changing jobs. These findings suggest that to tackle the high rate of job mobility among rural migrant workers, firms should entice this labour to train by adjusting their internal training mechanisms, and local governments should subsidize firms that provide on-the-job training for rural migrant workers to help share the costs and risks of training. Moreover, for sake of reducing job changing among those trained workers, firms even should take actions to protect their labour rights of migrant workers and to ensure that they receive equal treatment to their urban counterparts. Originality/value This paper makes three contributions to the field of job mobility in China. First, it explores the mechanism between on-the-job training and rural migrant workers’ job mobility. Second, it empirically analyses the effect of on-the-job training on migrant workers’ job mobility as well as the different effects of general and specific training. Lastly, its results have important policy implications for the employment stability of rural migrant workers.

The Static and Dynamic Effects of Capital Factors on the Social Adaptation of Chinese Migrant Workers

“…These researchers argue that social interaction can improve positive evaluation and acceptance of migrants, reducing the subjective social distance between them and local residents. Jiang et al (2016) conducts research in Liaoning Province and finds that increasing investment in human capital can reduce the disorderly flow of migrant workers and improve their adaptability. Low-quality human capital has a negative impact on the transfer of rural labour (Cheng, 2006).…”

“…The stocks and increments of the capital factors are all different from person to person. The imbalance in the ratio of capital structure limits the choices that migrant workers can make during the development of the influx, resulting in hurdles for migrant workers in the process of social adaptation (Jiang et al, 2016). Compared to the inhabitants, they are restricted in terms of employment, housing, socialization, etc., and thus experience a relative sense of deprivation, which in turn triggers spontaneous group segregation and inhibits the process of social adaptation.…”

“…Low-quality human capital has a negative impact on the transfer of rural labour (Cheng, 2006). Jiang et al (2016) conducts research in Liaoning Province and finds that increasing investment in human capital can reduce the disorderly flow of migrant workers and improve their adaptability. At the same time, migrant workers also lack social capital (Cheng and Zhang, 2013).…”

The workplace meal: a migrant workers' perspective

“…To mitigate employees' discomfort and stress over communication problems, managers may need to offer support, which can be costly (Malik et al, 2017). Training migrant workers and enabling their integration into the working environment is also necessary and expensive in terms of time and resources, especially given the high turnover within the industry (Hearns et al, 2007;Jiang et al, 2016). The same can be said for the implementation of a management system in order to increase retention and productivity that militates against discrimination, especially within the context of cultural diversity that characterises hospitality (Devine et al, 2007).…”

The Impact of On-the-job Training on Job Mobility of Migrant Workers in China

“…However, the effect of on-the-training on migrant workers mobility is unclear, only little few literatures have discussed it. Having concluded these studies, we found that they only analyzed the impact of on-the-job training on the overall incidence of job turnover (Xie, 2009;Chen et al, 2011;Zhang & Shen, 2013;Jiang, Zhang, Qi, & Zhou, 2016;Jiang & Chen, 2016). But, there are types of job mobility, so we need to further explore the effect of training on each type of mobility and find the differences of its effects.…”