Manitoba and Western Canada's HR Trends Reports cover latest industry issues and trends for HR

The 2020 Spring edition of the Manitoba HR Trends Report and Western Canada HR Trends Report  have just been released and cover trending workplace issues that HR professionals are facing in Manitoba and throughout Western Canada, human capital challenges, talent retention and the labour market.

The Spring 2020 study was conducted by Insights West on behalf of CPHR British Columbia & Yukon, CPHR Alberta, CPHR Saskatchewan and CPHR Manitoba. The survey was conducted from November 25 to December 16, 2019, so should be interpreted with caution as they reflect HR priorities prior to COVID-19.

This article summarizes a couple areas of the Manitoba and Western Canada HR Trends reports.

Human Resources Priorities:

• Improving employee engagement (46%) stands out as Manitoba organizations’ most common human resources priority for 2020, followed by succession planning (37%).
• Western Canadian organizations most commonly include improving employee engagement (40%) among their top human resources priorities for 2020, followed by improving ability to attract and retain employees with the right skills (33%).
• Looking toward the next three to five years, Manitoba organizations are most concerned about leadership capacity (38%), followed by capacity to respond to rapid change (28%).
• Western Canadian organizations are also most concerned about leadership capacity in the next few years (35%).

The fact that Manitobans indicated they are concerned by their capacity to respond to rapid change is notable given this survey was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Western Canada also ranked this as a concern but at a lesser percentage. It will be interesting to see research about how organizations feel about theirs and others’ response to the pandemic when it’s over.

Talent Retention:

• Just over half (54%) of Manitoba HR Professionals are worried about their ability to retain key talent over the next twelve months. This result is also seen in Western Canada (52%). Two-in-five Manitoba HR Professionals (42%) say they are not worried.

This statistic stood out because other research conducted in Manitoba (around the same time frame) showed the business community is very concerned with finding and retaining talent. According to the 2019 Manitoba Chambers of Commerce Business Outlook Survey, 66% of respondents indicated they do not anticipate hiring additional staff in the year ahead. Respondents overwhelmingly cited retaining good staff or hiring qualified, skilled staff as the top barrier to business growth in the coming year (41%). These numbers were all reported before the effects were seen to the economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so it will be interesting to see future research surrounding this topic.

For more information on both the Manitoba HR Trends Report and Western Canada HR Trends Report (Spring 2020 and past editions), visit https://www.cphrmb.ca/page/HRTrends.