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For employers hoping to entice top tech talent in Canada, salary is no longer king. Today, workforce expectations have shifted since pre-Pandemic.
Results earlier this year revealed that, in the bid for talent, high salaries are not enough to mitigate frustrating work, as 71% said they would never take a job that is frustrating or unrewarding—even if the pay was higher.
“The employee experience has become the new currency in the search for talent and it’s critical that companies remain competitive,” Marc LeCuyer, vice president and general manager for ServiceNow Canada, stated in April.
For the second year in a row, flexibility in one’s work schedule “topped anything else for tech talent,” Hired recently reported.
Last year, just 18% of active jobseekers indicated they only wanted remote roles. By the end of this June, “93% of candidates show a steady preference for remote or hybrid jobs.”
Some prefer remote, others hybrid—but just 2% prefer exclusively in-office, according to Hired data. Expectations on work flexibility “remain sky high,” CEO Josh Brenner stated in the report, “placing the onus on employers to execute the right strategies to attract, hire, and retain top talent.”
Shopify recognizes that flexibility for employees extends beyond whether one works in-office or remotely. The Canadian tech firm is introducing a new feature for employees to give them more control over how they’re paid.
“Why should a company decide for you how much of your total reward should be in the form of cash vs equity?” Shopify asks, adding that you might “find base salary on your pay stub and equity in another, made even more complicated by vesting schedules, stock-market unpredictability, and unreliable bonuses tied to company performance.”
All of this can combine to “create pretty absurd outcomes, like your lifetime earnings being vastly different if you joined the day after Russia invades Ukraine because of its effect on the market beta,” tweeted cofounder Lütke.
Now through “Flex Comp,” employees “can choose exactly how they want to allocate their total reward,” according to Shopify.
Saving to buy a house? Take more cash. Early in your career? You might want to take more restricted stock units or options. Change your mind? Alter your ratio quarterly.
“Just over two years ago we launched our remote-first, Digital-by-Design way of working,” explains the Canadian fintech giant. “Flex Comp was the next logical build for Shopify to continue building a company for people—based on flexibility and choice.”
Take notes, employers.