The triennial public service employee survey, released by Treasury Board Thursday, is the first to distinguish between the kinds of harassment workers face on the job.
Previous surveys found nearly 30 per cent of all employees said they faced some type of harassment over the previous two years – a level that workplace experts felt was high and could be contributing to the government’s rising disability claims for depression and anxiety.
MPs on the Status of Women Committee also prodded Treasury Board to use the survey to get at the nature of the harassment and why employees who feel harassed don’t lodge formal complaints.
The government added or modified 30 questions this year to get a better handle on harassment, as well as on discrimination and performance management, two other issues that have bubbled up since the 2011 survey.
The survey found 19 per cent claiming harassment. The most common types reported were offensive remarks, unfair treatment and being excluded or ignored. Sexual harassment, whether a comment or gesture, was reported by nine per cent of those who felt harassed, and two per cent said they faced “physical violence.”
“The way I look at it is that one in five people say they have been harassed and that’s a problem …and when 63 per cent say it came from the people with authority over them, that’s a red flag the government should take seriously,” said Robyn Benson, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
The public service employee survey, which began in 1999, was sent to 250,000 employees in 93 departments and agencies. More than 71 per cent of the public service responded between August and October of 2014.
The survey is conducted every three years to gather employees’ views on the state of the public service. Questions are bundled around four broad themes: employee engagement, leadership, the workplace and the workforce.
This was the first such survey since the Conservative government’s downsizing, and federal officials were braced for the survey to reflect some turmoil when employees were asked their views about engagement, leadership, workforce and working conditions. But the overall numbers didn’t show any big swings from previous results.
Unions were eager to see this year’s results, particularly with their goal, during contract negotiations, of getting provisions on wellness, mental health, anti-bullying, transparency and fighting harassment embedded in their contracts.
The survey has always shown that public servants like their jobs and are committed to the work they do but some responses suggest the pressure of the downsizing is starting to chip away at morale, said Benson.
She points to the 66 per cent who feel they have the support to “provide a high level of service” compared to 75 per cent in 2011. The proportion who felt they had support at work to juggle the demands of work and home dipped slightly.
“It is starting to show me what the cuts are doing to employees and for the PSAC, I feel somewhat vindicated on the (contract) demands we’re making for mental health,” she said.
The nearly 106 questions are aimed at highlighting where departments are doing well, as well as rooting out problems. With this information, departments are expected to draft action plans to “address people management issues.” Less than half of the respondents felt senior management would address concerns raised in the survey.
Canada’s top bureaucrat, Janice Charette, issued a statement promising the findings would be considered as part of the Blueprint 2020 exercise underway to help make the public service more open, innovative and “high-performing.”
“I am committed to a meaningful response to the results,” she said. “Public servants need to be engaged in dialogue and discussion on these results. Our modernization efforts will need to address concerns and continue to build on our strengths to ensure that Canada’s Public Service is well positioned for the future. “
In this survey, the government introduced a new definition of harassment to guide employees in answering. By the definition, the number who reported harassment was 19 per cent but that can’t be compared to the 2011 survey, in which nearly 30 per cent said they were harassed, because that survey didn’t define harassment the same way or distinguish between types.
For discrimination, the survey found eight per cent of respondents said they were discriminated against compared to 14 per cent in 2011, and they pointed to bosses and coworkers as the primary culprits.
In this survey, the government was also trying to get at why so few people have formally complained or used the various processes available to them.
About 25 per cent of those who felt harassed took no action at all. About seven per cent filed a grievance or formal complaint. The main reasons cited by those who didn’t were fear of reprisal; they didn’t think it would make a difference; concerns about the complaint process; and thinking the incident wasn’t serious enough.
Treasury Board’s harassment policy, which has been revamped over the years, is aimed at prevention and building a “respectful workplace.” It has acknowledged a lack of respect can breed harassment in the workplace. That’s also been a big focus of both unions and executives who have raised concerns about the lack of civility and respect for employees that comes from the top.
Overall, public servants seem to feel they work in a “respectful” and “ethical” workplace with 80 per cent saying colleagues behave in a respectful manner and 94 per cent reporting positive working relationships with colleagues. About 82 per cent said employees in their departments work in the public interest, compared to 78 per cent in 2011.
On leadership, employees are generally happier with their immediate supervisors than with senior management – a gap that has widened over time. About 75 per cent had favourable views about their supervisors but only half felt the same about the top brass.
Employees expressed frustrations about the impact cuts and other organizational factors had on their work: 48 per cent cited having to do more with fewer resources; 48 per complained about too many approval stages; and 37 per cent cited the lack of stability.
The government is releasing the survey in two parts. The first is a top-of-the-waves analysis of the overall results, followed later by a detailed breakdown of the findings in the 93 departments and agencies that took part in the survey. The survey was done by Statistics Canada.
“Our ultimate goal is that the government is safe and healthy workplace where public servants can provide quality public services to Canadians,” said Benson. “I know I sound like a broken record but that is the goal of any employer and union.”
kmay@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/Kathryn_may
Survey results, at a glance:
Employee Engagement:
– 93% say they will put in the extra effort to get the job done
– 79% like their job, a decrease from 84% in 2008
– 74% of employees report a sense of satisfaction from their work
Leadership:
– 75% of employees feel their supervisor keeps them informed about issues affecting their work
– 47% of employees say essential information flows effectively from senior management to staff
Performance Management:
– 79% say their work is assessed against identified goals and objectives
– 72% say they get useful feedback about their job performance
Training and Development:
– 63% say they get the training they need to do their job
– 52% feel their organization does a good job of supporting career development
Empowerment:
– 66% feel they have support to provide a high level of service
– 62% of employees believed that they have opportunities to provide input into decisions that affect their work, down from 68% in 2011
Work-life balance and workload:
– 78% say immediate supervisors supports the use of flexible work arrangements
–70% say they can complete their assigned workload during their regular working hours
–71% of employees say they have support for work-life balance
Respectful and ethical workplace:
– 94% say they have positive working relationships with colleagues
– 80% feel their colleagues behave in a respectful manner
– 79% feel that their organization respects them
–82% believe that employees in their organization carry out their duties in the public’s interest
Harassment:
– 19% say they were harassed in the past two years
Discrimination:
– Eight per cent of employees said they faced discrimination in the past two years. (The most common types were: Sex at 24 per cent; age at 23 per cent; and race at 20 per cent.)
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: KATHRYN MAY
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