OSFI 2016 Employee Survey
Executive Summary

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Submitted to:

Office of the Superintendant of Financial Institutions
information@osfi-bsif.gc.ca
www.osfi-bsif.gc.ca

The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) Canada is the federal regulator and supervisor of over 1,800 financial institutions, including deposit-taking institutions, insurance companies and federally regulated private pensions plans. Approximately every two years OSFI conducts a survey of its employees, of which there are over 650 presently employed at four locations across Canada. The objective of the employee survey is to allow OSFI management to understand if employees’ needs are being met and to plan priorities for dealing with any issues employees may have. This report presents the 2016 findings and provides a discussion of these results in comparison to the 2014 OSFI employee survey.

The survey was completed online by OSFI employees between January 19 and February 15, 2016. The questionnaire explored various themes of employee satisfaction. Survey results were explored overall, in comparison to previous years’ results and by major segments of OSFI (sectors/groups and city). An overall response rate of 91 per cent was achieved. Since the survey attempted to include all employees (i.e., was conducted as a census) it is unnecessary to apply a margin of error to the survey results.

Note regarding extrapolation of findings to a broader audience: Since a census approach was undertaken and, given the extremely strong response rate, results are considered representative of the population of OSFI employees.

Overall Scores

• Scores are reported as an average (mean) of responses on a five-point scale.
• Across the 65 closed-ended questions in the survey that are directly comparable to results from 2014, the average score is 4.05, which is very similar to the score found in 2014 (4.04).

Strengths

• Employee commitment to OSFI remains high, with employees providing similar strong ratings compared to previous years across measures of commitment. In particular, pride in OSFI is similar with nine in ten employees agreeing that they are proud to work for OSFI. Nearly all employees (96%, with 70% strongly agreeing) report having positive working relationships with their coworkers. Almost nine in ten employees (87%) find their work meaningful, and eight in ten would recommend OSFI as a good place to work, although this has been declining since 2012 (50% strongly agree, compared to 54% in 2014 and 59% in 2012).
• Employees are generally positive with regard to corporate focus, driven in large part by employee confidence in their understanding of OSFI’s mandate and values, and their willingness to help colleagues outside of their work unit when appropriate (76% to 82% of employees strongly agree on these measures). Nine in ten employees also report understanding the priorities of their sector/group (55% strongly agreeing). These numbers are comparable to 2014 when 58 to 85 per cent of employees strongly agree that they understand OSFI’s mandate, values, and the priorities of their sector/group (willingness to help colleagues was not a measure in 2014).
• Employees generally agree they receive adequate support for some aspects of career development particularly that they receive the internal and/or external training they need to do their job (70%) and that they are able to get on-the-job-coaching when they need it (66%).
• Consistent with 2014, employees are positive with many aspects of work-life balance. Employees are very positive about their supervisors’ support of work/life/family balance (85%), of participation in wellness activities (80%), and of the use of flexible work arrangements (83%). There is also strong agreement that OSFI provides appropriate resources to assist in managing work-life balance (81%) and has good policies to support work-life balance (80%).
• Ratings regarding immediate supervisors have remained very high since 2012 with positive ratings ranging from 78 per cent to 87 per cent across all measures. In particular, employees agree that their immediate supervisor treats them with respect (86%, with 70% strongly agreeing), and that they feel free to voice their opinions to their immediate supervisor (87%, with 67% strongly agreeing).
• Similar to 2014, the highest rated measures for senior management are demonstrating OSFI’s values (75%) and treating employees with respect (74%), although these measures have declined since they were last reported (down from 77% and 79% respectively).
• Employees are very positive about their ability to work in the official language of their choice. In particular, employees are able to communicate with their immediate supervisor in the official language of their choice (94%, with 85% strongly agreeing) and agree that training is offered in both official languages (92%, with 80% strongly).
• OSFI employees are also positive about the two measures of support for diversity which are new to the 2016 survey. Over eight in ten (83%) believe OSFI implements activities and practices to support a diverse workplace, and a similar proportion (84%) believe OSFI respects individual differences.

Areas for Attention

• Consistent with previous surveys, broader communication (between teams, communication about the future of the organization) is perceived to be weaker than communication at the team and sector/group level.
• Intent to look for work in the next 12 months has increased from 17 per cent in 2014 to 23 per cent.
• Performance management is an area that received mixed reviews from employees. As seen in previous surveys, the issue of dealing with poor performers in the workplace elicits some lower scores. There is also a sizable proportion that does not feel they receive meaningful recognition for work well done (24%), or that the performance review process is useful in setting objectives to improve job performance (24%).
• There may be a desire for more assignments and deployments at OSFI, based on a large proportion of employees who disagree that they currently have enough opportunities (48%, up from 38% in 2014). Some employees also indicate a perception that there is unfairness when it comes to filling positions at OSFI.
• Some issues surrounding workload remain an area of concern. Almost four in ten employees (38%) feel that changing priorities and workload negatively affect the quality of their work, which has not improved since 2012. More than three in ten (34%) say that they frequently experience stress because of their workload, making it difficult to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal life and almost the same proportion (33%) say that the quality of their work is affected by the workload, however, both of these measures have significantly improved since 2014.

The results of this research will be used to help identify areas of improvement for OSFI going forward. The total expenditure for the POR project is $49,933.31 (including HST).