Survey finds 34% of employees in Canada willing to switch jobs in the next year

While pay remained the primary concern for employee respondents, 45 per cent of those who are traditionally based in an office setting said they prefer working fully remotely. By contrast, just a fifth of employers said they prefer fully remote working arrangements. However, when asked specifically about preferred days in the office, both employers (47 per cent) and employees (37 per cent) picked two or three days a week.

Read: Survey finds majority of employers say attraction, retention increasingly impacting total rewards decisions

“With inflation on the rise, it’s no surprise that higher pay is now the biggest motivation for changing jobs, particularly given that most Canadians are already working for companies that offer flexibility in some form,” said Darryl Wright, partner in people advisory services at EY Canada in a press release. “But while over a third of workers want to be fully remote, there’s still a large proportion of employers (56 per cent) that want their staff to be in the office two to three days per week — and that divide needs to be addressed with considerations around how businesses reshape the in-office experience.”

That said, half of employees said they’d prefer working no more than one day in the office per week and another 34 per cent said they’d like to be fully remote. Additionally, female respondents were more likely to prefer fully remote working (49 per cent) than male respondents (43 per cent).

Both employee and employer respondents were in agreement that employers have reclaimed some ground in the perceived balance of power, according to the survey. Employees showed moderately less confidence in their leverage in the labour market, with just 31 per cent saying labour market conditions are now in their favour — a decline from 37 per cent last year.

Read: Survey finds employees seeking more control over workday through flexible hours, remote working