The recent Global Workmonitor survey on employees’ expectations, conducted by Randstad, reveals a climate of confidence among Canadian employees. Hanna Vineberg, Vice President of Central Ontario at Randstad Canada, believes that this confidence will encourage them to invest more for themselves and their company. The numbers nonetheless show a contrast between employees and reality…
Economic situation: Canadian employees optimistic
The Randstad survey, conducted among 400 respondents in 32 different countries, indicates that 62% of Canadians believe that the economic situation of the country is good. 65% of them also think that the situation will improve this year.
This is a trend that does not apply everywhere in the world. Indeed, 61% of respondents think that the economic situation of their country is unfavourable with especially disturbing scores in Greece (98%), Spain (96%), Hungary (94%) and Italy (94%). Countries where the economic situation is considered good are also located in Europe and include Norway (94%), Switzerland (74%) and Sweden (74%).
Globally, 47% of those interviewed are expecting progress in their country in 2013, led by Hong Kong (88%), India (83%) and Brazil (76), and trailed by Greece (12%), Hungary (13%) and the Czech Republic (14%).
Employers considered to be doing well financially
80% of Canadian employees say their company is performing well, and 74% think it will do even better this year.
Internationally, employer performance is considered to be positive by 71.5% of respondents. Among these, as in Canada, two thirds expect improvements for 2013, especially in India (92%) and Brazil (86%), while the weakest expectations are in Greece (32%), Luxembourg (38%) and Japan (39%).
Increases in pay and bonus: expectations unfulfilled
Regarding compensation, 65% of Canadian employees say they had a pay raise in 2012 and 74% expect a raise this year. The work they did in 2012 deserves a financial bonus, according to 64% of them. The only downside: only 35% of them say that they will receive such compensation this year.
In the rest of the world, the same discrepancy is felt: two thirds of employees would like to benefit from financial compensation for the work done in the previous year compared to the half which expect to actually receive it. The gap is most pronounced in Hungary and Greece.
Greater and greater workloads
At a time when Canadian employees want better balance between their private and professional lives (75%), workloads are becoming more and more pressing. Indeed, 69% of respondents noted an increase in their responsibilities in 2012.
73% of respondents worldwide noted an increase in workload, especially in India (87%), Hong Kong (87%) and Malaysia (83%). And 80% of them hope for a better balance between personal and professional lives, especially in Chile (96%), Hong Kong (96%) and Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Denmark (64%), the Netherlands (66%) and Belgium (67%).