Employee Satisfaction
Majority of Canada’s Workers Happy, Bosses among Best in World
Kelly Services’ international workplace survey finds that 59 per cent of Canadian respondents are happy or very happy in their current job
November 28, 2006
How happy are Canadians with their jobs? The Kelly Global Workforce Index – commissioned by Kelly Services, the foremost global talent management solutions provider – surveyed approximately 70,000 people in 28 countries including more than 10,000 Canadians to find out how happy employees are in the workplace. The findings reveal that 59 per cent of Canadian workers were happy or very happy with their current position.
“It’s important to try and find what makes a fulfilled and motivated workforce because workers who enjoy their work will make a more effective contribution to the performance of the organization,” said Karin French, Vice President and General Manager for Kelly Canada. “The best employers understand this and provide people with interesting and challenging work as well as opportunities to learn and more fully develop their own skills.”
The quality of Canadian bosses also received high praise from workers. On a scale from one to 10, the average score Canadian employees gave their bosses was a very solid 7.2, ranking them third around the globe, behind Mexico and the U.S. Employers were rated on four attributes – communication, leadership, team spirit and delegation skills. Workers felt that bosses were best at delegating effectively, and did reasonably well in areas of communication, leadership and team spirit.
While Canadian bosses ranked very high on a world scale, Canadian employees did not fare as well. Of a list of 28 countries, Canada ranked 18th while the most content employees are in Denmark, Mexico and Sweden and the least happy in Hungary, Russia and Turkey.
Other findings from Kelly Services’ international workplace survey, specific to Canada include:
- respondents in Saskatchewan were the least content, with 26 per cent of employees unhappy or very unhappy in their current job
- those Canadians most happy in their jobs were in Central/Local Government (72 per cent), Education (68 per cent) and Financial Services (64 per cent)
- the bosses that received the highest score overall on a scale of one to 10 were reported in Newfoundlandand P.E.I.(8.4), Saskatchewan(7.4) and Quebecand Manitoba(7.3)
- while 81 per cent of respondents stated that they have no preference of female or male bosses, 13 per cent said they preferred a male boss compared with 6 per cent preferring a female boss
Despite the large numbers of Canadian employees that are very happy or happy in their current jobs, only 25.8 per cent of employees reported that they regularly receive rewards from their bosses for a job well done, while approximately 30 per cent of employees stated that they were rarely or never rewarded.
“If we look at what workers say is important to them, they want a workplace with good morale, stimulating work, a degree of autonomy, and one where they receive feedback from their bosses,” said French. “Many employers recognize this but it’s not universal. Sometimes senior managers are so busy managing the business they frequently overlook the people aspects, which are so important.”
About Kelly Services, Inc.
Kelly Services, Inc.(Nasdaq: KELYA, KELYB) is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Troy, Michigan (USA), offering staffing solutions that include temporary services, staff leasing, outsourcing, vendor on-site and full-time placement. Kelly operates in 30 countries and territories. Kelly provides employment for nearly 700,000 employees annually, with skills including office services, accounting, engineering, information technology, law, science, marketing, light industrial, education and health care. Revenue in 2005 was US$5.3 billion. Visit www.kellyservices.com.
- ## -
For more information, or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Wilcox Group
Toronto: 416-203-6666
Vancouver: 604-488-1100
kellyservices@wilcoxgroup.com
