Tekijät

• Statistics Finland. Interview and Survey Services
• Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment

Asiasanat

career development, employees, employment, employment opportunities, expectation, flexible working time, hours of work, job satisfaction, occupational life, telework, wages, working conditions, 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, learning and training at work, wages, workplace bullying, capacity to work, and changes in working life. Questions in the barometer have mainly remained the same each year. The 2017 collection round included one new question regarding the flexibility of working hours.

First, the respondents were asked about the number of people employed at their 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. Satisfaction in the 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 employees' capacity to work, safety of work environment, and skills of employees. Discrimination at work based on ethnic group, age, gender, type of job contract, and health status was explored. Incidents of bullying, harassment and violence at work were surveyed.

The 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 the pay level. The respondents' participation in job-related training and the development of the workplace was investigated. The use of virtual workspaces and social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs as part of work tasks was charted.

Autonomy at work was surveyed 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 as well as work-related calls, emails and messages they had had to attend to outside their official working hours in the past 12 months.

One set of questions investigated the employees' perceived workload, capacity to work, estimates of own mental and physical capacity to work, and sickness absences. The respondents were asked how likely they thought it was that they would be dismissed or temporarily laid off, or that their tasks would change over the next year. Views were probed on the respondents' 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 respondents were asked how often they felt a community spirit at work, received appreciation from colleagues and partners, were able to fully utilise their professional skills, and had time to come up with new ideas.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's year of birth, age, gender, status in employment, employer type, weekly working hours, industry of employment, overtime, type of contract, and socioeconomic status.