10 Stats Canadian Employers Should Be Paying Attention To Right Now
2020: what a year! This year has brought such sweeping change that it’s hard to reconcile the difference between our lives this time last year and what we’re experiencing now. Just about every aspect of modern life has felt the wrath of 2020, making adaptation one of the key themes of the year.
Of course, one of the biggest adaptations our country faced this year is in regards to the way we work and how businesses operate. On one end of the spectrum, every business that had the ability to asked its workforce to clock in from home, ushering in the collared shirt on top/sweatpants on the bottom era of remote work for millions of Canadians. On the other end, for businesses that rely on in-person service to profit (whether in part or in full), like restaurants and bars, retail shops, salons and more, adaptation unfortunately became a question of survival. It’s estimated that more than 3 million Canadians lost their jobs in March and April, and these losses were the most dramatic in the aforementioned service industries.
With it still unclear if we’ll ever return to the pre-COVID definition of “normal”, employers across the board are trying to figure out how to get ahead in this new workplace climate. However, a silver lining of the pandemic is that it’s offering employers a chance to stop and reassess the way they’ve managed their business and their relationships with their employees in the past. Looking forward to 2021, you’ve got a chance to make some updates that might create a ripple effect of positive outcomes for both your business and your employees. As such, we wanted to wrap up this year with 10 stats that we think collectively sum up what employers should be taking away from 2020. Here we go…
1. 53% of Canadians live paycheck to paycheck.
This stat is staggering! Living paycheck-to-paycheck means a person uses most or all of their monthly income to cover their expenses, leaving little to nothing left over to save. This does not correlate to any specific income level, but instead describes one’s financial situation. In general, people who live paycheck-to-paycheck rely heavily on credit and aren’t well-equipped to cover the costs of any unplanned, significant expenses. People can usually get by living paycheck-to-paycheck (though just barely), but when faced with sudden economic contractions like those created as a result of the pandemic, they often find themselves in trouble. As such, routinely living paycheck-to-paycheck leaves people vulnerable to facing serious consequences, like eviction, poverty and hunger.
2. 85% of employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work.
It’s clear why this is problematic for employers. Whereas an engaged employee will work hard to ensure the success of your organization, a disengaged employee isn’t bothered if your business doesn’t meet its goals. This kind of attitude can cost you in a number of ways, such as lost wages paid for time spent distracted at work, losing customers due to poor customer service, difficult team dynamics and more. Research also unsurprisingly shows that disengaged employees are more likely to move on to another employment opportunity than an employee that’s engaged at work, meaning your turnover rate is likely to suffer as a result.
3. 2 out of 3 employees are more stressed since the start of the pandemic.
Employers, take note: your employees are stressed out, and this has a direct effect on your business. It shouldn’t come as a surprise given everything people had to be worried about in 2020 (social distancing, contracting the virus, lockdowns… the list goes on!), but people are definitely feeling the emotional toll created by COVID-19.
Beyond all the public health and social implications created by the pandemic, there’s only a small number of people our country that have not experienced adverse financial conditions. Financial stress was already the leading cause of stress for employees pre-pandemic, and stress follows employees into their workplace. It’s reported that 50% of employees admit to spending 3 or more hours per week focused on their financial issues, while 20% are spending 5+ hours distracted by their financial situation. That means, beyond just paying for time that’s not spent working to achieve your organization’s goals, you’ve got a major problem with employee engagement on your hands.
Ultimately, financial stress has a tangible impact on your bottom line. If your employees are stressed out about money, you have a vested interest in helping them resolve it!
For employers that already struggle with high employee turnover rates, be warned. The pandemic has forced many people to take stock of their professional lives. Some, of course, are re-considering their careers in industries like hospitality, food service/restaurants and retail due to the challenges they’ve already faced and may continue to face post-pandemic. But, a report by Benefits Canada suggests that 18% of Canadians now have a less favourable opinion of their employer since the start of the pandemic due to the way they’ve handled it. This could be for a variety of reasons, such as neglecting to prioritize public health and safety. However, you can be sure that employers that are not providing their team with some form of extra support in such a time of crisis will not fare well over the next few years.
It’s estimated that 69% of employees would be more loyal to their current employer if they offered a wider range of benefits. So, if you’re worried your business is going to suffer when it comes to your turnover rate, this could be a game changer for you.
This is one of the most troubling stats of 2020. The pandemic threatens to reverse decades of progress in regards to Canadian women’s place in the workforce. Though men and women lost their jobs in relatively equal amounts when the pandemic first hit, men are re-joining the labour force and getting re-hired in higher numbers than women. This points to long-standing gender disparities when it comes to dividing household responsibilities between men and women; this is particularly important when it comes to which parent takes care of the children most often. Countless Canadian moms had to make the choice to leave their jobs to care for their children when schools closed in the spring, and not all of them have been able to return to the workforce.
Female employees need extra support from their employers more than ever in order to stay employed over the next few years. Of course, one of the best ways to do so is to offer some kind of tangible, monetary benefits package (financial wellness, health benefits, and so on). However, if that’s not something you can afford at the moment, offer your female staff members as much flexibility as they need when it comes to their working arrangements if you can. Particularly if you know they have children, it’ll go a long way with them.
Research shows that people who are financially stable and able to meet their short-term financial needs effectively are going to be much stronger team members than people who are distracted by their finances. In contrast to the stats on disengaged employees mentioned above, an engaged workforce is a critical element of any successful business. If your staff genuinely cares about getting their job done to the best of their abilities, that energy will shine through your organization and push you to the next level of success. You can’t do everything alone, meaning you need a strong team if you really want to achieve your long-term business objectives.
Though $2,452 is not a massive amount of money, research from the AARP suggests that if a household can keep this amount of money saved, it will drastically reduce the likelihood that a sudden financial shock will have a long-lasting, negative impact on that household’s financial health.
If anything, this stat should highlight of the importance of saving money and maintaining a well-tended savings account. As an employer, offering your employees financial wellness benefits, such as a match-based saving plan, financial wellness education or access to a financial advisor, can help them achieve a secure level of savings they may not be able to reach on their own.
Beyond all the changes created by COVID, we also undoubtedly saw a year of sweeping change when it came to social justice issues. Research from the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation shows that more than half of Canadians want businesses to be forced to consider the social, environmental and economic impacts of their choices (not just their own bottom lines).
People are fed up with organizations that shrug off their responsibilities to the larger world around them. So, if your business hasn’t considered the true impact of your operations on your local community, the environment, your employees and more, it’s time to do so before you get left behind.
2020 was undoubtedly a financial wake-up call for millions of Canadians. Of course, it’s prudent to assume that economic conditions won’t always be favourable; the economy will always go through ups and downs, and people should be prepared for when things take a dip. But, few could have predicted how intense and sudden the economic contraction created by COVID-19 would be. The drastic rise in saving shows that many Canadians are ready to take their personal financial habits more seriously, prioritizing saving and skipping non-essential purchases wherever possible. Of course, long-term goals like retirement are still extremely important, but right now, most Canadians are focused on meeting their short-term financial needs effectively.
Finally, it should be clear to employers why this stat is important. Just like you wouldn’t hesitate to provide your customers with what they want if 80% of them agreed on something, you should be listening to your employees if they want access to financial wellness resources.
Particularly considering all the information mentioned above, there is a real need for financial wellness benefits in our country right now. Even people who were diligent savers pre-pandemic are struggling; we’re almost a year in, and with no defined end date in sight (even with vaccines rolling out around the world), Canadian employees need help. Financial wellness benefits provide a clear solution to the financial problems faced by many, while also providing clear benefits in return for your business.
We hope taking in these stats together paints a clear picture of why financial wellness benefits are not only forward-thinking, but extremely important in our country right now. There are clear links between financial wellness, employee engagement and retention, workplace productivity and strong workplace culture, and this is something that all Canadian employers should be taking note of right now. It’s been a crazy year, and most of us are looking to 2021 with hopeful (though perhaps cautious) optimism. Utlimately, by providing your employees with financial wellness benefits, you can take a concrete step forward in making it a better year than 2020 for both your business and your team.
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If you’re a Canadian employer interested in adopting an innovative, impactful benefits package to retain your employees, reduce the effects of financial stress in the workplace and set yourself apart from your competitors, match-based saving benefits may be right for your business! QUBER is an industry leader in Canadian match-based savings and can offer employers a customized experience using the QUBER platform to facilitate match-based savings with their employees. If you’re interested in seeing a demo of how QUBER can help strengthen your relationship with your employees, send us an email at contactus@quber.ca or visit our Employers page and send us a message using the contact form found at the bottom of the page.
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