Tekijät

• Statistics Finland. Interview and Survey Services
• Ministry of Employment and the Economy

Asiasanat

career development, employment, employment opportunities, flexible working time, job characteristics, job satisfaction, labour and employment, occupational life, social media, wages, working conditions, workloads, workplace bullying

Sisällön kuvaus

The annual survey studied employee opinion on the quality of working life in Finland. Main themes included organisation of work, development opportunities and flexibility, wages, workplace bullying, capacity to work, and changes in working life. Questions in the barometer have mainly remained the same each year. For the 2014 collection round, new questions were added about ideas on the development of the workplace, flexible working time, method of agreeing on the wage and social media. Questions about management and leadership were not included this time.

First, the respondents were asked how many years they had worked for the employer they were working for at the time, whether they were in a management position, and how many persons worked at the workplace. Changes in the number of staff, distribution of work and tasks, and implementation of new working methods and systems over the past 12 months were charted. Psychosocial working environment was charted with questions about openness, encouragement and equality in the workplace, job stability, and opportunities for employees to develop and apply new ideas. Further questions covered measures taken to improve health of employees, safety of work environment, and skills of employees. Discrimination at work based on ethnic group, age, gender and type of job contract was explored. Incidents of bullying, harassment and violence at work were surveyed.

Next set of questions investigated the respondents' membership in a trade union or professional association, flexible working time arrangements at the workplace, pay and bonus systems, and satisfaction with pay level. The respondents' participation in job-related training and development of the workplace was investigated. Use of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs, in the performance of work tasks was charted.

Autonomy at work was charted by asking about influence over own work tasks and working pace, over the distribution of work in the workplace, and about working to a tight schedule. The respondents were asked about working outside the main workplace (at home, client's office, in the field) in the past 12 months, and work-related calls, emails and messages they had had to attend to outside their official working hours.

One set of questions investigated the employees' perceived workload, capacity to work, estimate of own mental and physical capacity to work, sickness absences, long-term illnesses and disabilities, and hindrance caused by illness/disability at work. The respondents were asked how likely they thought it was that they would be dismissed or laid off, or that their tasks would be changed over the next year. Views were probed on the likelihood of getting an equal job if they became unemployed, on the general employment situation in Finland, possible changes in working life in general, and the employer's financial situation. Finally, the respondent's emotional state was investigated with a few questions.

Background variables from the Labour Force Survey 2014 were utilised in the Finnish Working Life Barometer. Background variables included, among others, the respondent's year of birth, age, gender, region, type of municipality, education, economic activity, status in employment, industry of employment, occupational group, employer type, type of contract, weekly working hours, and additional jobs.