London Inc. Summer 2022 - 18

Upfront Human Resources
PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN
For London businesses locked in a battle for talent,
now is the time to reimagine how work gets done
THE WORKPLACES OF the world have a $7.8-trillion
problem on their hands: employees who have grown
disengaged with their work, their productivity waning, their
anxiety and stress levels rising.
Those conclusions come courtesy of Gallup's latest State
of the Global Workplace report, which may come as a stern
wake-up call to the corporate world that all is not well, and
that emerging from the pandemic demands new strategies
of leadership and management.
And though by other metrics we're doing alright - 70 per
cent believe there's a lot of jobs available - local management
and leadership experts still want Canadian leaders to wake
up and pay attention to a slow-roiling problem.
" I would say the state of the employee right now is
completely gong-show, " states Terry Gillis, CEO of Londonbased
Ahria Consulting and author of Desuckify Work:
Doesn't Everyone Deserve a Great Place to Work?
At a basic level, Gillis says, there are too few employees
to meet the needs of a lot of
businesses, many of which seemed
completely blindsided when employees
quit in search of higher pay or
better conditions amid the so-called
Great Resignation of 2021. Years of
post-2008 slack in the labour market
vanished, and many employers lacked
answers to employees demanding
more compensation or improved
work-life balance.
" The pandemic took the veil off, " he
says. " The demographic pressures that
people have been screaming about for
years reared its ugly head. "
Now it's mid-2022 and " people are
stressed, but people are stressed for
different reasons, " Gillis continues.
" We've got inflation going out of control,
and the wheels are going to come
off the housing market. "
These are the type of stresses that
inevitably trickle into the workplace
and labour relationships, Gillis warns.
" We're overwhelming a system that's
teetering already. "
London is no stranger to these
Terry Gillis of Ahria Consulting
Globally, workplace engagement stands at a torpid 21 per
cent, Gallup's study found - a slumping figure that, by their
calculations, exacts a nearly $8-billion toll on economic
output, " roughly equal to 11 per cent of global GDP. "
Here in Canada, the trends are not quite as dire as the
global average - but are nonetheless worrying. Only 33 per
cent report feeling engaged at work, and an even half say
their days are mostly spent dealing with stress and worry.
18 | londonincmagazine.ca | SUMMER 2022
trends; Gillis says that everything the
world is dealing with is present here in
the 519. " I don't think there's anything
uniquely remarkable about London - it has the typical problems
we're seeing throughout the western world, " says Gillis.
" We definitely have seen an increase in employees
bringing up issues of stress, " adds James Norris, franchisee
and sales manager at the Express Employment London
office. " It seems to be something that has increased, and
dramatically so. "
What, then, will it take to break the logjam? For Gillis, the
http://www.londonincmagazine.ca
London Inc. Summer 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of London Inc. Summer 2022
