Worklife and Safety: How We Compare
At GSS we give feedback on our work experience through two Accreditation Canada surveys. Results help us plan improvements internally. But how do our results compare to feedback from staff in other Canadian organizations?
When our accreditation is reviewed every 4 years, the final report includes how our most recent Worklife Pulse and Canadian Patient Safety Culture survey results compare to those of other organizations who work with Accreditation Canada. Here is what we learned in our June, 2022, accreditation report….
Chart A shows the comparison of the Worklife Pulse Survey results. The blue bars show the GSS staff responses compared to average staff responses from other organizations who completed the survey in 2021.
As the bars show, GSS staff agreement with positive statements about their workplace experience exceeds the average agreement from other organizations on all 7 survey areas: Job, Training and Development, Immediate Supervisor, Senior Management, Safety and Health, and Overall Experience.
Staff agreement was highest with positive statements about coworkers and immediate supervisors. The lowest agreement was with statements about Safety and Health, but still higher than the national average.
The biggest difference in GSS and national responses was in agreement with satisfaction statements about Senior Management: 90% of GSS agreed with the positive statements versus 64% in other organizations.
Now, Chart B shows the Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey results.
Again, the blue bars show that GSS staff agreement with positive statements was higher than the national average for the 8 areas considered: Senior and Supervisory leadership for safety, Learning culture, Enabling Open Communication (judgement-free, job repercussions for error), Incident follow up, Stand-alone items, Overall Perceptions of Client Safety.
The highest agreement with positive statements regarding Learning Culture where we had 92% agreement versus 74% agreement in other organizations.
The lowest agreement for GSS and other organizations was with statements about an open communication environment that is judgement-free and without job repercussions in relation to work errors. This is consistently an area where staff feel concern at GSS and in other organizations. At GSS, this has led to discussions at the General Staff Meetings and program meetings about how making errors that lead to learning differs from negligence or carelessness that would lead to a performance discussion.
This fall, we will be completing the first Worklife Pulse Survey since COVID began and a Canadian Patient Safety Survey is planned for next spring. As with past surveys, GSS is committed to using the results to improve the workplace and safety experience. The comparison of GSS and the national Canadian survey results shows the value of that commitment.