{"id":7566,"date":"2021-05-18T02:12:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T06:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/?p=7566"},"modified":"2026-01-16T04:40:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T09:40:51","slug":"new-report-canadian-business-leaders-to-put-employees-first-in-post-pandemic-recovery-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/new-report-canadian-business-leaders-to-put-employees-first-in-post-pandemic-recovery-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"New Report: Canadian business leaders to put employees first in post pandemic recovery plans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMoney Matters<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNew Report: Canadian business leaders to put employees first in post pandemic recovery plans\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tOwen Sweeney<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sage recently conducted a survey of more than 800 finance leaders across Canadian small and midsize businesses, the findings of which have been released in a new report from Sage: Forward Together 2021 <\/a>. The report indicates that Canadian businesses are united in their belief that employee welfare will be key to post-pandemic recovery strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employee Well-being<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When asked what they are most concerned about related to their employees for the remaining 2021, business leaders identified the following challenges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • Burnout (47%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Employees feeling safe when returning to the physical workplace (43%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Adjusting to a hybrid work-from-home\/work from office model (23%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Low productivity (22%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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    New Report: Forward Together 2021<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDownload the free report<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Woman\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

    From an industry perspective, not surprisingly, the public sector (including healthcare) and not-for-profit sector show significantly higher concerns about burnout (60%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Remote work may also have made some business leaders\u2019 concerns more acute. 55% of business leaders in organizations with employees working at 81\u2013100% remotely are concerned about employee burnout, higher<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    than the 47% average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Business leaders are responding to these various issues differently. Of those concerned about employees feeling safe to return to the workplace, 51% are already taking action. In contrast, of those concerned about employee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    burnout, only 32% have taken action, with no significant differences among industry sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Of those concerned about a hybrid work model, only 37% have addressed the issue, but the consumer industries are significantly more prepared, with 67% saying they have taken action to address the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    From the workers\u2019 perspective, one in three (32%) employees are concerned about burnout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    23% are concerned about feeling safe when returning to the physical workplace. Only 14% of workers express concern about adjusting to a hybrid work-model, with more workers in the knowledge and professional services (22%) expressing such concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Arrangements for the Future Workplace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    From the business leaders\u2019 perspective, remote work is here to stay. Among businesses that currently have remote employees, a majority (76%) will continue to allow employees to work from home in various degrees within a hybrid<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    model. The level of flexibility is partly dictated by the nature of the industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    • Knowledge and professional services (85%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Industrial sector and natural resources (73%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Public sector and not-for-profit (72%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Consumer industries (66%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The tenure of the business also shows some variance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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      • Under 5 years (86%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 6\u201310 years (89%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • 10 years or more (74%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        Business leaders in Ontario (80%) and Quebec (81%) are most readily embracing this hybrid work arrangement trend, relative to British Columbia (70%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Business leaders are also demonstrating confidence that the hybrid work arrangement is working and also necessary. 42% cited increasing productivity and 41% cited attracting and retaining talent as the main factors for allowing employees to work from home while 34% said mitigating burnout is a factor. Workers employed at companies allowing remote work are somewhat aligned to these business leaders\u2019 expectations, but they agree on the three priorities to a lesser degree:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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        • Attract and retain talent (31%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Increase productivity (27%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Mitigate burnout (26%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          The three identified factors resonate most within the knowledge and professional services industries among leaders and workers alike, but diverge most in the public sector and not-for-profit.<\/p>\n\n\n

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          Subscribe to the Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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          Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Sage recently conducted a survey of more than 800 finance leaders across Canadian small and midsize businesses, the findings of which have been released in a new report from Sage: Forward Together 2021 . The report indicates that Canadian businesses are united in their belief that employee welfare will be key to post-pandemic recovery strategies. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":737,"featured_media":127,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"business_type":[99],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[],"imagine_tag":[],"coauthors":[310],"class_list":["post-7566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-money-matters","business_type-medium-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-ca","author_name":"Owen Sweeney","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2019\/01\/GettyImages-536907925_super.jpg","imagine_tags":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice Canada English","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/737"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=7566"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-ca\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}