Canadian insights: Top four global talent trends

1. Drive human-centric productivity

• 98% of companies plan a transformation driven by workforce productivity. While crafting new productivity strategies, companies are realizing that keeping those strategies human centric is what will decide how successful those strategies will be.
• In Canada, executives report that the difficulty in finding the right information, too much busy work, and ineffective organizational structures are top contributors to poor productivity. To combat those challenges, Canadian HR leaders can take advantage of the anticipated AI-enabled productivity gains (30%) and think about how to use those gains to reskill employees. Organizations will need to strategically bring talent along and that the work operating model is sustainable for the future. Redesign should ensure that productivity gains are shared equitably and inclusively.

2. Build trust

• Building a more human-centric workplace starts with investing in a trusting relationship with employees, HR, and executives. Trust allows employees to believe their leaders have their best interests at heart. Building trust in the workplace is a matter of demonstrating care for employees rather than just telling employees they matter.
• While trust is crucial to business growth, it doesn’t always come easily. About 85% of Canadian employees trust in their organization to do the right thing for the business, 80% trust their organization to do the right thing for employees, and 78% trust their organization to do the right thing for society. These trust indicators are significantly higher than those seen globally, which means that Canadian organizations have a tangible asset with incredible value for employee engagement, productivity, and retention. The key is in how they maintain and augment this trust, particularly as employee expectations grow in regard to critical issues such as pay transparency.

3. Focus on employee health and well-being

• Healthy employees lead to a healthy workplace, which is why 71% of Canadian executives believe that investing in employee health delivers a measurable return. This differs significantly from the 59% of US executives and 66% of global executives who feel the same.
• This year, Canadian employee health and well-being is up 3%. Productivity has also risen 3%, showing a close correlation between health and productivity. Over half of executives believe that well-being and health are closely related to productivity, making quality health benefits crucial to company success.
• 64% of Canadian HR managers prioritize physical and mental health benefits, which is higher than reported for US and global HR managers. In addition, 54% plan to use AI to help prevent employee burnout, fighting the staggering statistic of 80% of employees currently at risk of burnout.

4. Cultivate a digital-first culture

• The digital transformation has opened new doors for improving company function, productivity, and health. However, only 53% of Canadian executives believe their digital strategy promotes cross-department collaboration. This is lower than the 65% of global executives and 67% of US executives who believe in their digital collaboration.
• What worries Canadian executives most is whether the rapid pace of innovation will surpass their workforce upskilling and reskilling. They are also concerned about not inspiring their workers enough to adopt the new technologies and the consequences of replacing humans with too much AI.
• As a result, only 37% of Canadian executives believe incorporating AI and automation will deliver substantial business growth.
• To cultivate a digital-first culture, businesses must begin transforming their mentality and structure to support the changes and needs of new technology. In Canada, 79% of employees define their organization as having a digital-first culture. This is lower than the US and global results.