Canadian business leaders holding steady on hiring
Over 60% of respondents to an online survey conducted by Zoho said they are more productive working remotely. The report also found that 74% of respondents are feeling optimistic about the future of their businesses.
The survey canvassed 1,271 Canadian business leaders about business performance, staffing, the economy, and tech usage in November 2023. It builds on four previous surveys in March 2023, October, 2022, May, 2022, and October, 2021.
"Canadian SMBs continue to be confident about business growth, which shows resilience despite operating in a challenging economy," said Chandrashekar Lalapet Srinivas Prasanna (LSP), Managing Director of Zoho Canada. "It's encouraging that the majority of SMB leaders are reaping the benefits of their staffing, technology and operational plans."
Remote, hybrid or in-person: it’s a case-by-case decision
While a majority of respondents did report more productivity while working remotely, that does not mean that productivity is the only measure of success, said LSP.
“We think there's a lot of learning that happens through osmosis, and especially as a company that's growing, that set foot on Canadian soil two years ago, I think the amount of collaboration that we need to understand each other and build a company, it's pretty critical that we do it in person,” he said.
“How often do you see a salesperson interacting with a marketing person? Because you're reporting to the VP of Sales or the Director of Sales, and your conversation is pretty uni-dimensional because you're just reporting or talking to your chain of command, and it doesn't go outside of that.”
Business leaders report optimistic outlook
The most striking result of the survey, LSP said, is the increase in optimism in SMB leaders, with 74.1% of respondents stating they expect their businesses to grow between 1% and 20% in the next six months.
That number has grown from 66% in the last survey, he said.
“What we do see as a trend, right from 2021 … their ability to survive has made them very optimistic,” LSP said. “They have been making changes within their business, they have been able to address the various challenges that they have seen, and they have survived, and then that mode of being in survival has made them more and more optimistic over time.”
Over 76% of business leaders said that they implemented measures last year to retain staff, including raises, increased benefits, vacation time and hybrid work. More than half of respondents (64%) said they are sticking to plan with their hiring projections, with no changes to hiring or layoffs anticipated.
