Just as the pandemic is fraying much of the economy, it also appears to be fraying the nerves of British Columbians in the workplace.
Survey results from Hays plc reveal nearly half of B.C. workers are tired of their current jobs and wish to move on.
The global recruiting firm found 41 per cent of B.C. employees are ready to leave — the fourth largest proportion of workers after Quebec (54 per cent), Ontario (52 per cent) and Alberta (48 per cent).
The survey was conducted from July 29 to Aug. 5, ahead of the recent cooler months and restrictions on bars and restaurants that have kept more British Columbians at home amid the pandemic.
Despite large of swaths of B.C. workers ready to permanently punch in their timecard, employers on the West Coast a far more optimistic.
The Hays survey finds 74 per cent of them have a positive employment outlook for B.C. compared with 77 per cent in top-rated Ontario and Quebec.
That optimism doesn’t look to be translating into salary bumps, though.
Only 23 per cent of B.C. employers say they plan on offering raises compared with 46 per cent in Alberta and 33 per cent in Quebec.
“Canadian employers are navigating difficult headwinds but the growing number of employees who want to leave their role, even in the face of a tentative job market, is a big problem,” Hays Canada president Travis O’Rourke said in a statement.
“COVID-19 has left everyone exhausted and while many businesses are improving, staff are waving a white flag. Employees expect a company to have their best interests at heart and we’re now seeing evidence that unsupported teams look for better opportunities. Once we turn a corner on the pandemic or see more signs of job market strength, those employees are gone.”
Meanwhile, top concerns for employees across Canada remain lack of social interaction (45 per cent), isolation (27 per cent) and increased workload (25 per cent).
“Whether it’s the isolation, the social stress or other tensions based on your home situation, spending seven months at your dinner table is starting to take a toll,” Brent Cameron, managing partner for executive search firm Boyden in Vancouver, told Glacier Media earlier this month.
“It didn’t show earlier on, but now we are hearing more people urgently trying to break out of that remoteness.”
Cameron said almost every business he has spoken to has acknowledged concerns about the pandemic’s effect on employee mental health in the last month. The concern is twofold: the mental stress is damaging team members’ health and hurting overall team productivity.
- with files from Chuck Chiang, Business In Vancouver
