Working Lives Scotland

23 Jun 2020

By Marek Zemanik, Senior Public Policy Adviser at CIPD Scotland.

A unique look at job quality

The CIPD conducts a range of research in relation to job quality, but this year is the first year we have published a dedicated report for Scotland. Working Lives Scotland analyses employment essentials, the day-to-day experienced realities of work and the impacts on people’s lives. Unlike our UK-wide Good Work Index, it is written around the five fair work dimensions as conceptualised by the Fair Work Convention in Scotland: respect, security, opportunity, fulfilment and effective voice. These dimensions have driven Scottish public policy initiatives over the last few years, so we are able to maximise the impact of our findings.

The report analyses both objective and subjective measures as well as universal and relative aspects of work. This is important, because job quality is not static – what works for some employees will be anathema to others. Objective measures look at things that should be unbiased, for example, how much people earn or contractual arrangements. Subjective measures, on the other hand, include things that reflect opinions or feelings – meaningful work, job satisfaction or quality of relationships. In addition, we also look at measures that are universal and will improve job quality for anyone (e.g. health), but also at aspects that are relative and will differ between employees (e.g. part-time employment). To get an accurate picture of job quality we need to look at all of these in the round.

What we found

The results suggest that job quality is not universal and there are trade-offs between elements of it. For example, while salary levels are a good indicator of job satisfaction, some of the better paid occupational classes identify poorer work-life balance. We also see occupations with a higher incidence of poor mental health and others with poor physical health impacts – sometimes both. We also highlight differences in job quality elements by gender, age and disability. The full report is available here, but the purpose of this blog is to highlight some of the key findings across each chapter.

Respect

This fair work dimension includes crucial job quality aspects like health and wellbeing at work, interpersonal relationships and relationships with managers. It also looks at issues in relation to work–life balance and the availability (and use) of flexible work arrangements. Most of the media coverage we received focused on some of the more concerning wellbeing findings. Some key highlights:

57% of employees experienced a health-related physical condition, while 52% reported experiencing a non-physical one.
30% of employees feel their work impacts negatively on their mental health, with 25% reporting negative impacts on their physical health.
For the most common reported non-physical conditions (sleep problems, anxiety and depression), the majority of employees said their job was a contributory factor.
A worrying 55% of employees reported going to work despite not feeling well enough.
There is good correlation between flexible work and job satisfaction.

Security

This dimension primarily covers employee pay, benefits and contracts. These are the issues that most people would identify first as key components of job quality - secure and stable employment, as well as a predictable and secure fixed income allow us to plan for the future, contribute to family stability and make us less reliant on the welfare system. Here’s what we found:

Data shows correlation between life satisfaction and pay levels and (to a slightly weaker extent) job satisfaction and pay levels.
Public sector employees are reporting higher levels of job security as well as a lower likelihood to quit.
There is also a correlation between job security and salary bands, with those on higher salaries reporting higher levels of job security.
64% of employees are reporting some levels of overwork, with 15% of employees saying they work 15+ more hours than they would like to.
On the other hand, 87% of employees say they work at least as many hours as they would like to, with only 8% saying they would like to work at least 5h per week more than they do.

Opportunity

One of the key features of any job quality concept is the importance of high-quality work to be available to everyone. For work to be fair, opportunities must be made available for everyone regardless of race, age, gender or disability. In addition, fair opportunities once in work – to develop skills or to progress one’s career – are an important element of fair work. Here are some of the most interesting findings:

Only 29% of employees believe their job offers good prospects for career advancement, while 52% believe their job offers good opportunities to develop their skills.
Both skills and career development opportunities differ (often significantly) by gender, age, sector and occupational class.
We find women are more likely to report poorer career development opportunities
The survey shows higher levels of presenteeism amongst employees with disabilities (63% vs 52% for those without disabilities)
Employees with disabilities also report poorer relationships with their managers.

Fulfilment

The fulfilment dimension focuses primarily on the nature of our jobs – whether we have the right equipment or premises for work, whether our workloads are manageable or whether we have enough autonomy. Furthermore, having jobs that are matched to our skills is clearly linked to performance. Work that is fulfilling, that an employee feels is aligned to a valuable purpose, is associated with job satisfaction. Our findings in this chapter are some of the most interesting in the report:

34% of all employees report their workload as too high in a normal week. This is worse across some industries, but not substantially different across salary bands.
Most employees report having adequate resources to do their jobs, as well as the right equipment and the training they require to do their job well.
Employees in better-paid jobs report higher levels of job autonomy.
Employees in the public sector are more likely to feel they are doing meaningful jobs, compared with private sector employees and there is a strong correlation between job satisfaction and meaningful work.
Over-qualification and skills under-utilisation are clearly linked to salary bands and, by extension, occupational classes.

Effective voice

Having a voice and a way to engage with one’s manager or employer is intrinsically important to job quality – having a meaningful voice is part of what makes us human, regardless of whether it leads to actual change. Employee voice also has an instrumental value in enabling workers to enact change, by being able to communicate concerns, provide feedback and make a difference. This is what we found:

19% of employees say they have no voice channel at work at all.
One-to-one meetings with managers and team meetings are the most commonly reported forms, available to 60% and 51% of employees respectively.
The availability of voice channels differs significantly between the public and private sectors in Scotland.
We find a significant difference in managerial openness to responding to employee suggestions, with the public sector comparing unfavourably to the private sector in this regard.
Our findings suggest that while larger employers are more likely to put in place formal voice arrangements, they perform poorly in responding to feedback.

Conclusion

Working Lives Scotland offers a rich picture of job quality across Scotland – the first report of its kind to do this. It finds gaps and identifies areas of focus for improving job quality even before the COVID-19 outbreak. The challenge for the next few months will be not losing sight of the importance of job quality – to individual wellbeing and to our economic recovery. We all have a role to play in ensuring the next few months are not a step backwards.

Our hope is that these findings will help both organisations and policymakers to shape the debate over public policy interventions and improved practice. There is a lot to unpick and certainly a lot to do.