Lack of career development opportunities: main concerns of Canadian employees

Image of ADP Canada: Wikipedia


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There was a growing concern among the Canadians that they lacked career development opportunities in their work place as over the years career development support by the employers had become increasingly sparse according to a new survey, media reports said.

Four out of 10 employees either did not receive any such support or received it infrequently, said ADP Canada, a human resource company.

“What surprised me the most I think is that paradox between all of these people who are looking for career development and the fact that so many employers don’t seem to be providing it,” said Sooky Lee, general manager of human resources business process outsourcing at ADP Canada, Global News reports said.

Canadian employees were wiling to see a cut in their pay as an alternative to getting better career development opportunities, survey said.

Atlantic Canadians reported maximum issues with lack of access to career development (49 percent) followed by Quebecers and Ontarians at 41 percent.

Canadians across the country were willing to have their pay slashed from five percent to 10 percent in exchange for the missing professional support.

43 percent of Ontarians and 42 percent of British Columbians followed by 41 percent of Atlantic Canadians were more willing to have lesser pay as an alternative for better career development opportunities,  the survey said.

Lee stressed that this was because Canadian workers were aware of the changing workforce especially around technology and employees preferred to work for different employers in different companies and needed to acquire most current skill sets from their present employers to stay competitive.

The reasons for the lack of this professional support were varied including employers telling they did not offer this kind support to their employees, sometimes employees felt they lacked the seniority and did not ask for support, and still others said that employers lacked the time to provide this support.

ADP Canada had tweeted that 40 percent of Canadian workforce faced a growth gap.

The present growth gap in the company can lead to more expenses when employees move to other companies that offer more fulfilling jobs than if employers offered expertise and support to the existing employees, said Lee.

Another tweet by ADP Canada stated that employee – employer gap was growing and Canadians were not happy.

Lee said cost-effective solutions of providing professional support is by online training which sometimes is free, and other is directly approaching the employers or by getting outside courses.

The statistics showing that four out of 10 workers would take a pay cut in exchange for better career development support shows that Canadians desired fulfilling and rewarding career than just a reliable paycheque.

Sheryl Boswell, director of marketing at Monster.ca. was not surprised by the result of the survey.
Boswell said employers should understand why people are migrating to other companies.

Boswell also said there were many opportunities available for employees to grow professionally including taking courses outside of regular work hours, expand their networking opportunities by attending relevant events and doing more research about the industry they work in.

ADP Canada’s tweeted that the employees should know more about state of the art in Workforce Management practices.
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(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

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