Let’s make work better for everyone 

“If you're an employer, there's an opportunity for you to make your place of work so great, so attractive, so operationally effective that you can achieve your goals.” 

This opportunity is a direct result of the State of Work survey from Homefield People & Strategy Manager of Client Experience, Brynden Devenny explains.  

“We work with businesses, organizational development, strategic planning, team development. And we’re hearing employees say their employers don’t understand what they like, and don’t like, about work. And our bosses, our leaders – they're not getting people applying for jobs. People are leaving for reasons that surprise them.” 

Devenny says this survey is their way of bringing all parties into the same room to find out how to make work better for everyone.  

“Do you love going to work? What would you change about it? And if you run a business, do you know if your team loves coming to work?” 

These are some of the key questions at the heart of the State of Work survey. However, one of the first questions on the survey is your postal code, which you’ll find with any survey.  

“It’s completely anonymous,” adds Devenny.  

Brynden Devenny, Homefield People & Strategy Manager of Client Experience, leads a session with business owners and leaders

Of course, anyone can go online and see stats from large centres like Toronto or Vancouver, but smaller cities and rural communities are often overlooked. Entering that postal code allows Homefield People & Strategy to zero in on information coming from specific rural communities.  

“Culture varies wildly from community to community, and we want to learn from that,” says Devenny. “This allows us to look into specific communities and see how they’ve responded. 

“And here's the fun part – if you're an employer, there's an opportunity at the end of the survey to ask for a copy of the data. We’ll be able to get you information that’s relevant to your region and sector. There will also be an opportunity to have a conversation about it.” 

The State of Work survey launched recently in Swift Current and Devenny says it has already yielded interesting results. 

“We realized that employers – either the owner or the business leader or a board of directors – saw the workplace culture as being extremely healthy, believing ‘people want to work here; people love this place.’ But when we asked employees the exact same question, they said ‘not so much; it's not as great as you think it is.’ Now, were they far apart? Maybe, maybe not. But we realize there are conversations that need to be had – because it's very difficult to recruit people. So as an employer, how can you make this place great, so people want to stick around?” 

The State of Work survey is the first step in generating a genuine understanding for employers and employees.  

Whether you run a business or work in a business, it’s a great opportunity to share your thoughts in a way that will make a difference in your community.  

What is it like to go to work? What is it like to experience work, for you? Share your thoughts. And share this article.  

Take the survey, which ends June 30, now, at https://myhomefield.ca/state-of-work 

To learn more about Homefield People & Strategy, send Brynden an email at brynden.devenny@myhomefield.ca or give him a call at 204-471-3985.