This report provides key findings and recommendations from a study of work-life conflict and employee well-being that involved 4500 police officers working for 25 police forces across Canada. Findings from this study should help police forces across Canada implement policies and practices that will help them thrive in a "sellers market for labour."
The study examined work-life experiences of 25,000 Canadians who were employed full time in 71 public, private and not-for-profit organizations across all provinces and territories between June 2011 and June 2012. Two-thirds of survey respondents had incomes of $60,000 or more a year and two-thirds were parents.
Previous studies were conducted in 1991 and 2001.
“It is fascinating to see what has changed over time and what hasn’t,’’ said Duxbury.
Among the findings:
Most Canadian employees still work a fixed nine-to-five schedule – about two-thirds.
Overall, the typical employee spends 50.2 hours in work-related activities a week. Just over half of employees take work home to complete outside regular hours.
The use of flexible work arrangements such as a compressed work week (15 per cent) and flexible schedules (14 per cent) is much less common.
Fifty-seven per cent of those surveyed reported high levels of stress.
One-third of working hours are spent using email.
Employees in the survey were twice as likely to let work interfere with family as the reverse.
Work-life conflict was associated with higher absenteeism and lower productivity.
Succession planning, knowledge transfer and change management are likely to be a problem for many Canadian organizations.
There has been little career mobility within Canadian firms over the past several years.