It's long been assumed that Montreal's treacherous road works in the summer time have a negative economic impact on the city, but now a new survey conducted by the Order of Human Resources Professionals is quantifying that assumption even further.
The survey released Wednesday revealed that human resource directors in Montreal have noticed varying degrees of the traffic situation's impact on employee recruitment, productivity and stress levels at the office.
The most telling figure was that 55 per cent of the survey's respondents felt that road works were affecting their ability to manage employees. And among those respondents, 47 per cent indicated they had lost potential job candidates because of potential traffic problems getting to work.
"The situation is serious," said Florent Francoeur, the CEO of the Order. "We're already coping with a labour shortage and companies are struggling to fill some positions. Montreal can't afford to lose jobs because of road works."
Productivity in the workplace also appears to be severely affected, the survey suggests.
Of the 322 respondents, 80.4 per cent said more employees are arriving late to work, and 67.3 per cent said employees are leaving early to accommodate for traffic on the ride home. Furthermore, 42.9 per cent of respondents said on average 15 to 30 minutes a day get wasted due to road work, while another 23.6 per cent said 30 to 60 minutes are lost every day.
Finally, 79.8 per cent of respondents said their employees are more stressed due to the heavy construction season, 70.8 per cent said fatigue is higher and 64.3 per cent said employees are more irritable.
Francoeur notes that the survey was done in the summer months, when school is out and traffic is supposed to be lighter.
"Since it's more than likely that things will get worse once September rolls around, we are very concerned for Quebec businesses, which are already facing a multitude of challenges," Francoeur said.
You can view the survey's results (in French) by clicking here.
