Imagine one-in-four workers at a company intended to quit within the next year—those would be some rough seas for the leadership team to navigate.
And yet this threat is not singular but Canadian-wide, according to the EY 2023 Work Reimagined Survey, which found that more than one-third of employees are willing to leave their jobs in the next 12 months.
Those most likely to commit to the quit hail from Gen Z and Millennial are groups, the fourth annual report says.
No surprise then that Attracting (36%) and Retaining (32%) talent rise to the surface as the top two priorities for employers, according to EY.
“Employers are at risk of underestimating the fluidity of the labour market, but with the right strategies in place, organizations can preserve their talent and ultimately build trust,” believes Danielle Laramée, People Advisory Services Leader at EY Canada. “This starts by providing total rewards that reflect employees’ changing priorities.”
But diving deeper into the data, we find a disconnect between employers-employee expectations that could be causing unnecessary friction.
For example, 85% of employers are liable to lean on flexibility as a talent magnet, but this perk only carries pull for 62% of workers.
The executive-peon disconnect can be summarized in a single comparison: A full three-quarters of manager say they are aligned on new ways of working—something barely half of employees agree with.
Compensation also remains a critical concern for many employees, given that they continue to fall behind their US counterparts.
But overall, Canadians are actually less likely to test the waters of the tech labour market than last year, given tightening economic factors such as a hiring slowdown.
Employees “indicate moderately less confidence in their leverage in the labor market, with 31% believing labor market conditions are now in their favour, compared to 37% last year,” according to EY’s report. While one-third are willing to peace out, that figure was north of 40% in 2022, before the tables turned on employees.
Moving forward, however, the vast majority of CEOs intend to expand their workforces, which could again tilt the balances of power that were thematic through this year’s EY report.
