Employee expectations about flexibility at work are here to stay, and it will continue to be a critical component in talent strategies to drive employee attraction, retention, and engagement. Mercer conducted the Flexible Working Policies and Practices survey with more than 200 Canadian employers participating. At the same time, we gathered the preferences of more than 2,000 Canadian workers with our Inside Employees' Mind study. So we have both the employer and employee perspectives on flexibility.
When it comes to remote work, we are seeing a mismatch, particularly when it comes to on-site work and full-time remote work. Right now, only 10% of employees want to work full-time on site, but employers are requiring on average nearly 22% of the workforce to be full-time on site. Currently, 37% of employees say they want to work full-time remote, while on average, employers report that only 23% of employees will be eligible for full-time remote work.
LinkedIn has reported that half of applications on their platform are people applying to fully remote roles, even though fully remote jobs represent only 15% of job postings to their sites. So organizations need to consider how the work arrangement will impact their candidate pool as they recruit, particularly for critical roles or roles with limited talent availability. Not all jobs can be done remotely. A lot of the focus on flexibility right now is on knowledge workers, such as those in tech or finance.
But what about retail, health care, or manufacturers? From our survey, we saw that only 2 in 10 Canadian employers say that expanding flexibility to these employees is a priority, even though it's these hourly workers that continue to fuel the Great Resignation. More lower-income and hourly workers are considering leaving their employer compared to higher-income earners. And these workers also say flexibility is critical towards attracting them to a new employer.
So it's important to consider all five dimensions of flexibility to create a talent advantage in a tight labor market for hourly and frontline talent. Let's take a look at some actions to add flexibility for shift or on-site workers. For each job, it's important to consider the level of flexibility possible.
First, there are the operational requirements that must be met. For example, stores have to have the same hours as the mall that they're in. You'll also need to consider the health and safety requirements of a job, like the number of 12-hour shifts in a row, night shifts, the speed of rotation, et cetera.
Then, within the scope of operational requirements and what's possible from a health and safety standpoint, you need to consider your workforce preferences. What do your employees actually want? So that takes us to flexible shift design. What are the shift hours that need to be covered? What are opportunities around shifts start and end times?
Can you offer a four-, six-, or eight-hour shift? Do employees want longer or shorter shifts? Do your employees want more weekends off or more consecutive days off? And what about giving employees the opportunity to swap shifts amongst colleagues?
Finally, beyond the mismatch between what employers offer and what employees want, most organizations have blind spots. Let's look at what the blind spots are and how to address them. Managers play a critical role in flexibility.
Organizations report that managers have significant latitude and discretion around establishing flexible working arrangements and schedules for their teams, yet only 1 in 3 organizations say that they've invested in resources to increase manager effectiveness. People managers today may have a team where some employees are fully remote that they've never even met, some employees on-site a few days a week, and a few employees on-site every single day.
So how does a manager effectively do performance management, coaching, career development, promotion, et cetera, across a variety of diverse types of flexible workforces? There's an opportunity for most organizations to invest resources into people manager training. Now let's talk about organizational risks such as cyber risks and tax and compliance laws.
Only half of Canadian employers say they restrict where remote workers can work and maintain their residency. If your Canadian-based employees are working in a different country, that opens up your organization to significant tax risks as well as cybersecurity risks. Another concern relates to our efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DE&I.
In Canada, we are seeing that visible minorities have a higher preference for remote work and are more likely to be currently in remote working arrangements. But some leaders and people managers continue to have a bias toward in-person face time. This means that visible minorities and other flexible workers may face further barriers to advancement in performance and promotion decisions.
Lastly, many organizations report that flexibility has a positive impact on productivity, but only 1 in 3 have developed the metrics and analytics to prove it. Properly measuring the impact of flexibility is critical to allaying leaders' concerns about the value of flexible work. How will your organization incorporate flexibility into your employee value proposition?
Is your organization well-positioned to compete in the future of flexible working? Connect with a Mercer consultant to learn more.