What is your key strategy to retain current staff and attract new talent to your organization?

What concerns you most about 2019?

What does this all mean?

We had 70% participation in this years’ Beer Poll.

We ask two questions with the goal of providing insight into what your peers in the hi-tech community are facing and their strategies.  We welcome new ideas regarding questions and topics we should be focusing on.

What is your key strategy to retain current staff and attract new talent to your organization?

• Nearly 20 percent of all respondents are deploying multiple strategies regarding employee retention and hiring. This is usually comprised of improving the work environment coupled with increasing compensation packages or equity/ESOP.

• Organizations focusing on improving their work environment and employee benefits remains the number one strategy and overall percentages are identical to last year.

• There was a slight decrease in the number of organizations increasing salaries and/or raising bonuses but almost a doubling in the number of companies addressing the equity/ESOP issue. We continue to see, on average, a 20% increase in compensation packages across the board over the last 3+ years.

• Some multi-nationals have expanded their local talent pool to include product management.

• The number of companies using equity and ESOP to attract talent has doubled in the last year. Nearly every candidate we interview, whether an executive, senior manager, or key individual contributor, asks if there is an exit strategy and an opportunity to earn equity or participate in an ESOP.

• “Current strategies are working, no changes planned” remained relatively static at 12%.

• “Other” responses dropped by 50%. There were two themes: improving the internal cultural; and, focusing on employee self improvement, training, and career path. Our workforce continues to get younger: personal development and culture are extremely important issues to this demographic.

What concerns you most about 2019?

Changes were made to this years’ responses, with three removed and two added.  We did not believe bringing forward data from the previous four years would provide value.

• Execution, at 35%, was the biggest concern. This typically signals there is concern the right people/roles are in place to get the product/solution to market or scale effectively; or, there may be insufficient resources in place to address ongoing operational issues that can appear when scaling.

• Talent is an ongoing concern with a 23% response. We do not see this challenge abating in the foreseeable future. Over the last year we have seen more focus on senior management and key individual contributors and less on ‘C’ level executives.

• There are 20% who find access to capital a major concern. We see capital continuing to flow into our province.

• At 12%, Product is your lowest area of concern. The number of organizations hiring product managers over the last five years has increased and is reflective in the above stats.