Summary and closing remarks

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The relationships portrayed throughout this compendium are undoubtedly affected by a wide array of variables whose influences are not captured in the descriptive approach adopted in this compendium. The Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) provides a large gamut of workplaces and employee characteristics that can be used to shed further light on the many research hypotheses punctuating this compendium. In this compendium, we have highlighted just a few examples of what can be learned from the survey.

More jobs were created than destroyed in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005, leading to increased employment during these years. Job creation accounted for more of the job turnover.

Industries that tended to have high entry and exit costs, such as capital-intensive manufacturing, primary product manufacturing and secondary product manufacturing, also tended to have lower job creation and job turnover rates. Similarly, industries that tended to have lower entry and exit costs, such as retail trade, consumer services and business services, tended to have higher job creation and job turnover rates.

Most workplaces operated in an environment characterized by medium to high competition and fixed their prices about the same as their main competitors. The market geographic scope, irrespective of industry and workplace sizes, was most commonly local, followed by the rest of Canada, then United States and, least commonly, the rest of the world. As workplace size increased, the relative importance of the local market decreased and the relative importance of other markets increased.

Workplaces that did not export in 1999 but reported some export activity in 2005 (8.5%) outnumbered those that had exported in 1999 but were not in 2005 (6.3%). Expansion into international market was more likely than retrenchment.

Workplaces that have implemented innovative work practices or performance pay practices provided a more positive assessment of their productivity, product quality and customer satisfaction. The results seem to suggest that the adoption of high-performance workplace practices is associated with improvements in productivity and the creation of environments leading to greater effort and commitment from the workers.

Workers in workplaces that have implemented organizational changes, performance pay practices or introduced new products worked more hours than their counterparts in workplaces that have not done any of these things. Where non-wage benefits were provided, the average number of hours worked per person was higher. Workers in organizations without collective bargaining coverage worked more hours than their counterparts employed in workplaces with collective bargaining coverage.

Workers who were female or young or working part-time or working in marketing and sales occupation had the lowest average hourly earnings; whereas those who were male or older or working full-time or working in managerial and professional occupations had the highest. These differences, however, tended to soften as workplace size increased, in presence of union coverage and in presence of job and occupational mobility. While there was generally a wage premium associated with job mobility, in a few cases, changing jobs could lead to a drop in earnings.

Non-wage benefits were widespread in 2005, with almost three-quarters of workers having access to them. The most prevalent were health-related benefits: life and disability insurance plans, dental plans and supplemental medical insurance. Labour turnover was down where non-wage benefits and performance pay plans prevailed. Labour turnover in workplaces that did not provide non-wage benefits was noticeably higher than that of workplaces where these benefits were provided.