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The Quality Worklife Quality Healthcare Collaborative (QWQHC) is a coalition of 12 national health organizations working together to create healthier workplaces in healthcare with the aim of improving patient care. The Collaborative has initiated a national call to action for healthcare leaders to drive improvements in quality of worklife and quality healthcare through system-wide engagement, action, accountability, and knowledge exchange.

One of the QWQHC’s primary objectives is to promote and support the use of quality of worklife (QWL) measurement. The Collaborative brings the importance of this to the forefront by encouraging organizations to engage in various measurement activities, including the identification and monitoring of QWL indicators, the use of employee survey methods and the evaluation of healthy workplace initiatives and practices. By so doing, organizations are positioned to better understand and address workplace-related issues, gauge their progress, introduce accountability measures and assess the effectiveness of their efforts and investments in this area.

In spring 2009, the QWQHC engaged healthcare organizations across Canada in a project aimed at gaining a better understanding of the use of indicators as part of worklife measurement activities. More specifically, we sought to identify the indicators that are most commonly collected; the tools that are used to collect measures; the perceived value of measurement in effecting change; and associated barriers and enablers. The results of this initiative can be found in the QWQHC report, “A Snapshot of Worklife Measurement in Canadian Healthcare Organizations: Indicator Survey Results”.