Canadians want quality. We want quality time with our loved-ones, quality consumer products, and quality service as customers. What about the quality of work?
Blog
Employment relationships as the centrepiece of a new labour policy paradigm
This paper examines changes in employment relationships in Canada during the late 20th century. Despite well documented transformations in labour market structures and work contexts, we are only now grasping the significance of these trends for the relationships between workers and employers. Considerable debate revolves around the extent and nature of new employment relationships. Still, […]
Acquisition of employability skills by high school students
Much of the debate about enhancing the employability skills of Canadian youth is premised on untested assumptions. This paper examines Alberta high school students’ self-reports of the employability skills they have acquired in high school courses, formal work experience programs, paid part-time employment, and volunteer work. Certain types of employability skills are considerably more likely […]
Creating High-Quality Health Care Workplaces
Health human resources have emerged as a top priority for research and action. This paper echoes calls for a fundamentally new approach to the people side of the health care system – treating employees as assets that need to be nurtured rather than costs that need to be controlled. The question guiding the paper is: […]
Report on the National Roundtable on Learning
Participants at the National Roundtable on Learning, convened by Canadian Policy Research Networks on behalf of Human Resources Development Canada, proposed a Vision for Learning as a way to address the widely expressed concern at the Roundtable that Canada is not moving fast enough to increase learning opportunities and to remove barriers to learning. Acknowledging […]
Building collaborative labour relations in government workplaces
The scale and complexity of change in governments demands a collaborative approach that taps into all available knowledge and expertise. Employees need a more active role in designing and implementing change strategies at the workplace level. This requires new ways for government managers and unions to work together.
How governments can become employers of choice
Governments want to become ’employers of choice’. Many are striving to be more flexible, knowledge-intensive and learning-based. Reaching these goals requires nothing short of bold new ways of organizing, managing, supporting and rewarding people.
What’s a Good Job? The Importance of Employment Relationships.
This report presents key findings, and practical implications, from Canadian Policy Research Network’s ‘Changing Employment Relationships’ project.
Employer of Choice: Workplace Innovation in Government.
Canada’s governments want to become “employers of choice.” Many are striving to be more flexible, knowledge-intensive and learning-based. Reaching these goals will require nothing short of a bold new human resource strategy that can promote change within each government workplace – a strategy that encourages innovative ways of organizing, managing, supporting and rewarding people. How […]
Organizing the next generation: influences on young workers’ willingness to join unions
This paper argues that union attitudes and behaviour are important but neglected features of the school–work transition process. Using longitudinal panel data from a study of high school and university graduates in three Canadian cities, we examine how young people’s previous union membership, attitudes and educational, labour market and workplace experiences shape their willingness to […]