Dr. Linda Duxbury

Canada’s Most Accomplished Work-Life Balance Expert

Dr. Linda Duxbury is Canada’s most accomplished researcher, writer and speaker and work-life balance.  With her work, she has influenced policy and attitudes and created supportive work environments in both the public and private sectors.  Currently, Dr. Duxbury is a professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa. She has co-written numerous comprehensive national studies on work-life balance, and their effect on business. 

In the last decade, Dr. Druxbury has completed major studies on Balancing Work and Family in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Additionally, she has explored HR and work-family related issues in small businesses; management Support- what is it? Why does it matter?; career development in the public sector and high tech sector; generational differences in work values.

Dr. Duxbury also conducts research that evaluates the organization and individual impacts of life within the workplace. This includes email, portable offices, smartphones, flexible work arrangements, shiftwork and change management.  She also studied the important qualities and characteristics of a “supportive” manager. 

Dr. Linda Duxbury has completed three national studies (1991,2001,2012) on work-life balance in which over 70,000 Canadian employees participated in. Presently, she is conducting a national study observing work-balance and caregiving. She is also busy with a research project evaluating the sustainability of policing in Canada. 

In her career, she published both academic and practitioner literature in areas such as work-family conflict, change management, etc. 

Always an enlightening and popular speaker, Dr. Duxbury’s ideas and research are highly valued by major corporations and government agencies.

MANAGING A CHANGING WORKFORCE

There has been a fundamental shift in the nature of employer-employee relationships. Organizations are beginning to seek and retain good employees in a declining labour market. Human resource management will become a critical success factor in the new millennium, as companies have to focus on recruitment, retention of employees of all ages, succession planning, work-life balance and career development. In this compelling keynote, Dr. Linda Duxbury will address the issues of formative influences shaping the different generations. She will explore possible sources of generational conflict within the workforce. Dr. Duxbury will provide you with valuable information on how to adapt to meet the needs of these different groups of employees. 

MANAGING A CHANGING WORKFORCE: CHANGING HOW WE MANAGE

This talk is a follow up for the talk on ‘Managing a Changing Workforce’. It provides a critical analysis and overview of key disconnects that may be contributing to a disengaged workforce and difficulties with respect to recruitment and retention. Issues covered in this talk include work-life balance, reward and recognition, respect, trust, communication, performance management, and talent management/succession planning and offers suggestions on how organizations can make positive changes in each of these areas. The talk ends with a summary of how the different generational cohorts view each of these issues and a number of suggestions on how employers and managers can use the information covered in the talk to adapt to meet the needs of employees today.

DEALING WITH THE BOILED FROGS: IT’S ALL ABOUT WORKLOADS

Many employers implement family-friendly policies such as flextime and compressed workweeks – but do not get the desired results. This talk focuses on the reason why many of the family-friendly practices just do not seem to work – they are implemented into a culture that focuses on hours of work rather than output: where “presenteeism” is equated with productivity. This talk begins with an examination of why employee workloads, especially at the managerial and professional level, have increased over the past several decades. It then presents evidence on why employers should care – the impact of high workloads on the employer’s bottom line. The talk ends with a number of suggestions on how workloads can be decreased – without hiring more staff.