'People are becoming more angry and more frustrated'
Quiet quitting is getting loud.
That’s the headline in a recent report from Hays Canada looking at salary and hiring trends for 2024.
And the numbers back it up, with 71 per cent of employees saying they’re keen to leave their jobs in the next 12 months.
That’s well above the 2022 rate of 61 per cent, found the survey, which also provides insights for HR on employee dissatisfaction, benefit preferences, stressed-out employees, top motivators and trends in learning and development.
“What's happening now is people are becoming more angry and more frustrated,” says Travis O’Rourke, president of Hays Canada.
And as the economy improves, there's more confidence coming from employees.
“Previously, people just wanted to keep their head down and do their job: ‘I don't want to be captured as part of these layoffs, I'm just going to do my work and I'll deal with that thing later,’ he says.
“We're at that spot now where people are sensing, ‘OK, my company has done OK, we've gone through layoffs, I'm slowly starting to see projects come off the shelf... And it's now time that I should start speaking my mind a little bit more.’”
Uncertainty among the workforce
The sole reason a lot of people are looking to move is because they’ve seen their department go from four to two, and they’re not rehiring, says Taylor Housdon, senior director at Hays Canada.
“I'm speaking to candidates at junior levels with three years who show so much promise, up to executive level with 20 years, who are just like, ‘I am so burnt out and stressed and I can't do my job effectively anymore.’ So that is a really big one.”
The challenge is that many employees don’t trust corporations and their leadership, says O’Rourke.
“If you are not crystal clear with providing the plans for the business, they just assume ‘That was wave one, and I'm next,’ so you already have a productivity issue that goes down,” he says.
“For me, [it’s about] talking to people about the future, and at an individual level… If you don't give your teams, your business units or your employees something down the road, people rarely fill that void with good news. They’re just like, ‘That's it, I'm done.’”
Focus on employee retention
Employee recruitment and retention are still the top two challenges for many in HR, according to Ron Gauthier, CEO at CPHR Manitoba.
“Flexibility is still a big issue, and compensation has been a big issue.”
There’s also the addition of hybrid work to the equation, which can be a challenge, he says.
“Leaders have to think about how they are going to clarify what their expectations are of people and focus on results instead of the ‘how.’ And then, on the flip side, accountability is an issue. I mean, when you talk about flexibility, it's a two-way street.”
One employer in Manitoba, for example, said if people returned to the office three days per week, they would have their own office; but if they only came back two days per week, it would be a hotel office, says Gauthier.
“Apparently, almost 90 per cent of the staff decided to work three days a week because they didn't want to share an office with someone.”
Salary a top reason for employee dissatisfaction
Some of the reasons why employees could be quietly quitting – or even leaving – could be their job, their employer, their compensation or benefits, finds Hays.
The biggest reason for dissatisfaction? Salary, according to 39 per cent of the respondents, followed by benefits at 34 per cent and wellbeing at 26 per cent.
For a lot of people, there’s resentment, depending on the timing of their last increase, says O’Rourke.
“Let's say it’s the end of 2022 and you got a big raise then; you're probably feeling OK. But if that wasn't your cycle and you missed all those opportunities — while everyone else was resigning and getting more money all over — and then 2023 was your year, you're thinking, ‘I didn't get anything except a higher bill at every store that I went to.’
“So money's not going far, companies don't have the money, the majority, to meet up with what wage growth claims to be. And some people just missed the proverbial boat when the big money was being thrown around all over the place.”
Many people don’t feel like they’re being paid for their value — and that’s true even for people in human resources, says Housdon.
“I think employers are being conservative. Salaries haven't changed too much in HR in the last while — maybe a slight bit with the base — but it's not just about that, it's about the whole package, whatever you’re offering with benefits and vacation and flexibility and bonuses and all of that.”
There’s a lot of hesitancy by businesses, she says, “especially when we’re considering that they're downsizing these teams, and technically putting a workload of two on one person.”
Employee benefits not satisfying employees
The Hays survey also showed that just 36 per cent of Canadian employees are happy with their benefits, while 35 per cent are indifferent and 34 per cent are not happy.
A lot of that comes down to money, again, says O’Rourke.
“If your benefits don't cover 100 per cent of your dental, health prescription, that's coming out of your own pocket — people just don't have the money.”
Many people are looking for customization now when it comes to benefits, says Gauthier.
“[But] it's tougher for a big employer to try to be as flexible and customize things as they can, within reason, because there has to be some sort of normal or standards as well.”
And insurance companies are struggling because they pull everything together to determine their premiums, while people are looking for flexibility, he says.
“Insurance companies are saying, ‘Well, hey, that's not how we do it. I mean, we pool this.’ So it's pretty tough to allow customization when you've got thousands of employees in an organization.”
Do mental health benefits go far enough?
In addition, a lot of mental health benefits are not going far enough — particularly when stress levels are high, says O’Rourke.
“There's mental health, financial health, physical health these days, more and more and more, they're all kind of equal. And I look at an employer's responsibility is to take care of each of them in some way,”
That can include educational sessions by providers or HR, he says, on programs like RRSP matching.
“For me, financial wellness is, yes, pay people more, but also make sure that they understand; it can be an uncomfortable thing to go to somebody and say, ‘Can you please explain my pay stub to me? And how does this long-term disability thing work? Or what are you contributing to this?’” he says.
“So financial health, in terms of explaining to your staff the different mechanisms that you have internally, I believe it's 100 per cent on the employer, you need to do that.”
Gauging if your employees are OK
Over half (55 per cent) of Canadian employees say they are feeling more stress this year than the last, found Hays.
And 46 per cent are unmotivated, says Canada 2024 Salary Guide & Hiring Trends.
Workload can be a huge reason behind these concerning numbers, according to O’Rourke.
“Just the fact that you're now doing the workload of one-and-a-half or maybe two people, that can lead to an immense amount of stress. But when you're trying to repair the plane while you're flying it, something is going to suffer.”
Employers can gauge how their employees are doing by looking at productivity, checking if higher performers are still high performing, and communicating with their teams, says Housdon.
“It's really looking at: Are they productive, are they present, are they here? And making sure there's a foundation for people to be comfortable to have those conversations — and not when the problems become such a problem that there's no solution.”
Engagement surveys, and a low response, can also give an idea of engagement and motivation, says O’Rourke — along with an office that’s too quiet.
“Quiet is like the scariest thing in the world. People say silence is golden — I think it's absolutely toxic.”
There are, of course, tech tools that can check on people’s productivity, but other measures include vacation usage and sick days, he says, because if the former goes down while the latter goes up, that’s not a good sign.
“There's so many different data points that you can get, and it's never a surprise — it always just confirms what you already know; your own intuition, I think, is probably the most powerful, talking to people.”
Motivating employees without salary gains
Outside of salary, the three top motivators for Canadian workers are greater recognition (35 per cent), training and continuous education (29 per cent) and more responsibility and promotion (29 per cent), finds Hays.
Training and development is about investing in your staff, and making sure skills don’t become stagnant, says O’Rourke.
“Investing in people shows that you care about them,” he says, and illustrates that you’re looking to their future.
“[People might think] ‘Why would they train me if they're just going to get rid of me?’ So that's a great way to keep engagement.
“But then secondly, ideally, it helps your productivity. And, thirdly, you just owe your staff a service to make them better. They're making your company better every single day — you have an obligation as an employer to make them better as well.”
Many of the bigger organizations, such as Crown corporations, have created in-house management training programs for staff, says Gauthier, “to allow for that individual… to be able to move up within the organization.”
AI training as part of talent management
While Canadian employers might appreciate the potential and benefits of artificial intelligence, it’s still an unknown space for many.
Only 40 per cent of respondents to the Hays survey say they encourage the use of AI technologies or tools, while 57 per cent do not have established protocols for the use of AI.
It’s a hot topic that everybody is talking about, but it’s also a “big unknown,” says Gauthier.
“Is it going to make HR easier? Because there's a lot of transactional things that need to happen now. Is it going to affect workplaces?... Is there going to be less unionized employees and manufacturing because of AI?”
Last year, the CEO of SHRM mentioned the importance of HI or human intelligence working alongside AI, he says, “so you still need to have that fusion of both to make it happen.”
A big challenge is the AI space has become noisy and loud, with so many players, says O’Rourke, so it’s hard to know what’s good and what’s not good.
“Humans do not like the fear of the unknown, and HR does not like to back anything that they don't know, unless it's completely safe for their employees. So within this space, it is so noisy, it is so crowded, it is so unproven, that with the greatest will and the biggest budget, it's still a very difficult thing to do right now.”
Everyone is waiting to see what everybody else is doing, he says.
“‘Who's the government going to pick? Who is that big bank going to pick, that has way more resources than me to do the testing?’
“It's in this spot where we all know we need to get there, but we don't know how, and the talent who are experts in this space, the consultants are so expensive and so difficult to get in contact with, it's like a waiting game at this point.”
