Worklife Pulse Survey

Early this year, about one-third of Niagara Health staff filled out a Worklife Pulse Survey as part of our Accreditation process. This survey, conducted every few years, asks questions about workplace satisfaction, communications and other key work issues. Survey results are used to make improvements in our workplace.

In the 2009 survey, there was improvement noted in 16 of the 21 questions, with the most noticeable increases in the areas of satisfaction with job clarity, safe work environment, communication in the NHS and in the work area, work/life balance, workload and job control.

The Worklife Pulse Survey also identified the following areas for improvement: organizational satisfaction, satisfaction with involvement in decision making, employment relationships (trust), workload, work stress, support for learning and development, and organizational communication.

A focus group of front-line staff, leadership and unions has met to review the results of the pulse survey and to prioritize areas to work on. Following their initial brainstorming meeting, this group identified three key areas of focus:

• support for learning and development,
• effective communication for both the NHS and the work area, and
• improved relationships between manager and staff, staff to staff and between departments.

This focus group is developing an initial action plan to address these key areas. It will be rolled out across the NHS as part of the Strategic Human Resources Plan, to improve our work environment and move towards the desired goal of a healthy workplace. «