Reports

This new study, published by Canadian Policy Research Networks, is urging employers and governments to focus on job quality as a means to recruit and retain the workers needed for Canada’s future prosperity. In 21st Century Job Quality: Achieving What Canadians Want, author Graham Lowe finds that the economic prosperity of the new century hasn’t […]

This report presents new findings from two national surveys, one of employers and the other of workers, on work-life balance and job stress. The report discusses the implications of these issues for employers and points to actions they can take to improve the quality of work life. Graham Lowe was commissioned by Wilson Banwell Human […]

Creating Healthy Health Care Workplaces in British Columbia: Evidence for Action. A DISCUSSION PAPER Prepared for the Provincial Health Services Authority. KEY MESSAGES There is a business case for investing in healthier work environments within health care. Furthermore, there are substantial costs to inaction. Return on investment (ROI) analyses has been used to evaluate workplace […]

Creating a Quality Work Environment RESULTS FROM THE HSAA 2006 WORK ENVIRONMENT SURVEY The Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA) conducted a Work Environment Survey to provide new evidence that can be used constructively to improve the work environments of HSAA members, and through this, contribute to health service excellence in Alberta. The 74-page report, […]

Across the country, nurses and other front-line health system workers are taking actions to improve the quality of their work environment. A high quality work environment is being accepted, albeit slowly, as a prerequisite for building the human resource capacity needed to sustain the health system. As more time and money are invested in trying […]

Healthy Workplace Strategies: Creating Change and Achieving Results. Healthy jobs and workplaces benefit workers and employers, customers and shareholders, citizens and society. This report focuses on the organizational change processes, strategies and tactics that can bring about healthier and more productive working conditions. The report offers an action model for achieving healthy organizations. The model […]

This paper examines two health issues of crucial importance to practitioners and policy makers: the work environment and organizational factors that positively influence workers’ health and well-being, and the relationship between healthy workplaces and productivity. Research in diverse disciplines agrees on the importance of supporting employees to be effective in their jobs in ways that […]

Despite much debate and commentary on the emerging knowledge economy in Canada and other industrialized countries, there has been little in-depth analysis of how gender issues are playing out in the process of economic and workplace change. Women’s experiences on the job are usually examined using a limited range of measures, and scant attention has […]

Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) convened in 2002 a national workshop in Ottawa to develop quality of worklife indicators for nurses in Canada. Using a collaborative, consensus-building process the workshop actively engaged participants in identifying a set of practical quality of worklife indicators (QWI) that will make a measurable difference for professional nurses. The workshop’s major […]

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: […]