Quality of Work Life
CQL's success depends on the quality of life of our employees. CQL's Quality of Work Life Committee strives to strenghten our employees' work and personal quality of life. CQL's Employee Outcomes have been developed to ensure that the same set of standards we apply to supports and services for people with disabilities are also present for our CQL employees. CQL is committed to these outcomes for our staff – and here’s a concrete way we do it. Just like our Personal Outcome Measures®, these outcomes were developed from personal interviews, are clearly stated, measurable and used to improve people's quality of life.
Our Outcomes for Employees are:
Respect
- Employees are valued
- Employees are recognized for their contributions
- Employees have mutually trusting relationships with each other
- Employees work in safe environments
- Employees are treated fairly
Balance
- Employees balance personal and work life
- Employees build social capital in their own community.
- Employees are successful without working long hours. Employees have adequate time to complete assignments
- Employees are energized to produce quality work
- Employees’ commitments beyond work are known and respected by CQL
Opportunity
- Employees grow and develop
- Employees are satisfied with their work
- Employees have access to the resources they need
- Employees contribute
- Employees have influence at CQL
Social Capital Service
We recognize that each and every staff member has something to contribute to Community Life® and could be a valuable resource for social capital ideas. We realize how wonderful it could be if any CQL employee could offer personal experience to our customers. CQL makes the commitment to helping our employees increase their own social capital by offering paid days off to participate in volunteer activities.
Finding the time to participate in community activities can be a challenge, so we offer our employees the opportunity to spend up to 10 days a year to volunteer. Although we highly encourage every employee to take advantage of this benefit, it is a voluntary activity.
CQL Cultivates Communities of Practice
“Communities of practice are groups of people who share a passion for something that they know how to do and who interact regularly to learn how to do it better.” - Etienne Wenger, the researcher who first coined the term.
Corresponding with the development of the Quality Measures 2005®, a community of CQL staff began discussions to learn together about the application of the new measures. The community develops the practice. The learning is organic. As more community members have the opportunity to apply the measures in a variety of settings from accreditation, training and certification, to community assessment, the more we learn about the best practice.
The practice is defined by the people who are out there doing the work. The community officially meets via teleconference monthly. Calls are recorded so that members who are unable to call in can still keep up with the community. Members of the community continue to contact each other and continue to learn beyond the more structured monthly meetings.
The community benefits individual members by supporting personal development and providing access to expertise and networking opportunities. CQL benefits from the knowledge sharing and innovation that naturally flows from the community.
“The Community of Practice has resulted in our members having a deeper understanding of the 2005 measures and adds a degree of reliability to ensure consistency in how each team member is interpreting and applying the measures. It’s a true example of how CQL can use its own data to understand the meaning, make change where it’s needed, identify needs, and develop new products or services. But it’s more than that. Our calls are always full of energy and invigorating dialogue – despite being on the phone without visual contact. Our members give up their evenings after a long day of work for these calls – that’s how much they believe in what is gained by our Community of Practice calls.”
- Albert Van Kleeck, Director of Accreditation
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