The demand for flexible work continues to be a priority across Canada. Many organizations are currently focused on getting employees back into the office. But let's take a step back and discuss what a flexible working really means.
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' Minds study. So we have both the employer and employee perspectives on flexibility.
Flexibility has many benefits when it comes to an organization's talent strategy and their employee value proposition. Things like employee health and safety remain top of mind. But flexibility also has many other benefits. It's critical for attracting talent. For employees looking for a new job right now, the amount of flexibility offered by a prospective employer is second only in importance to the amount of compensation being offered.
We are also seeing employee engagement boosts with flexibility. Hybrid and remote workers are significantly more likely to say that they can maintain balance between their personal life and work life compared to on-site workers. As well, hybrid workers report higher satisfaction with compensation, benefits, and career goals, compared to both remote and on-site workers. Finally, flexibility is a low-cost solution. Flexibility does not require significant resource investments, and may even yield savings over time due to potential real estate savings-- an attractive feature in a softening economy.
On the flip side, many leaders are still skeptical about flexible working strategies, believing that there are risks around the learning, relationship development, and corporate culture. Executives also question how to get the most value out of hybrid work. 70% of Canadian executives worry that remote workers will become disenfranchised from the company, culture, and team.
This means that organizations approach to flexibility varies widely, based on whether it's perceived as a risk to be managed or as an opportunity to reach new talent, better serve customers, and maximize talent outcomes. On one hand, you have organizations who are doing the bare minimum to get by, focusing on flexibility as a risk to be managed. These organizations typically take a narrow definition of flexibility, and are heavily focused around compliance and mitigating risks around flex work.
Having employees working in a different province or even countries than their office location opens up data security and taxation risks for the employer. On the other hand are those organizations who embrace flexibility as a way to build a talent advantage. These organizations take a broad definition of flexibility where it's embedded in daily work practices. These organizations are focused on innovating how work is done to create a competitive advantage on flexibility.
When people think about flexible working, the first thing that comes to mind especially since the pandemic is remote or hybrid work. But flexibility is multidimensional. Most of the focus on flexibility right now is on the where. Our research shows that 95% of Canadian organizations offer some type of part-time remote working, while 64% offer full-time remote working. But not all jobs can flex on where dimension, such as retail or health care workers. This is why it's important to remember the other four dimensions.
When considers time-based work options. This is flexibility around start and stop times. The most prevalent version of this in Canadian organizations is Flextime. Other less common practices include variable shift lengths, shift sharing, and shift swapping.
The what of flexible working includes part-time work offered at 40% of organizations and the less common job sharing. With an aging population, we are seeing organizations start to think more about phased and/or flexible retirement. The how dimension covers how the work itself is done. This could mean employees working for days with 10-hour shifts or a fluctuating workweek.
Finally, the who in flexibility is around who's actually doing the work. This can include contract workers, freelancers, or an internal talent marketplace. All jobs can flex in some way. And it's a matter of identifying on what dimension there is capacity to flex in your organization. Contact us today. Together let's identify a flexible working approach that delivers long-term value for both your employees and your business.