Collage HR Trends for Q4 2024

We support and talk to a lot of Canadian HR professionals. We are often asked what we are seeing and hearing from HR leaders. We are excited to launch a quarterly trends report to highlight just that!

Today, we talk about three topics that are top of mind for HR leaders.

1. RTO - time to call it the “office policy”

We’ve been talking about RTO (return-to-office) for almost five years. It is time for companies to take a position and call it their office policy.

Some certainly are taking a position, with Amazon enforcing a five day per week office policy. Some are referring to it as a backdoor layoff, in an attempt to force people to resign. Amazon is claiming that this will benefit culture.

Shopify went “digital by default” back in 2020. The company continues to maintain office space that is focused on collaboration. Shopify has treated this approach as a competitive advantage in competing for talent and accessing global talent. Spotify took a similar stance recently, mentioning that their employees are not “children”.

Those are two very different approaches by very successful companies. The Canadian federal government tried to find a middle ground with a three day weekly mandate and faced some backlash. 

Our recommendation: There isn’t an approach or stance that will make everybody in your organization happy. Confusion and changes can make everybody unhappy. What we are seeing work is companies taking a position, explaining it, enforcing it, and moving on. This is great for clarity and for attracting the talent that aligns with your office policy.

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2. Employee engagement - hitting refresh for 2025

Employee engagement has gone through cycles since 2020. In 2022 there was quiet quitting. Then there was quiet vacationing. The Canadian job market has been cooling.

Employee engagement initiatives were a key focus in 2020 and 2021. Over the last 12 months, budgets have been tightening. This has been impacting employee engagement and DEI budgets in a lot of companies, with the US seeing more publicity on the topic.

Some employees are asking for more in-person engagement. Others are asking for flexibility to spend time with family. Companies are in search of the items that work for everybody. There are no such things.

Our recommendation: Treat 2025 as the year you start fresh. Survey your team for what energizes them. Don’t listen to the loudest voice in the room. Do what makes sense for your team. Make your employee engagement efforts align with your office policy efforts.

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3. Artificial intelligence - time for internal guidelines

Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere. 25% of Google’s code is now generated by AI. Salesforce is betting big on its AI product, hiring 1,000 salespeople. According to OpenAI, 92% of Fortune 500 companies are using its products. Many of us use AI on a weekly (maybe daily) basis. AI is the new elephant in the room.

Are our developers allowed to use ChatGPT for work? Can Marketing? Can HR?

These are not HR decisions. These are business decisions that require guidance and input from HR, along with other leaders, and which may be implemented by HR.

Our recommendation: Align your leadership team on how teams can use AI today for work purposes. Be reasonable and do not discourage usage, where possible, given the potential upside. Decide on the future plans to assess broader applications, if there are any. Communicate how employees can use AI today and what the future plans may be. Your teams want to know.