Pandemic Is Causing New Roles to Emerge in Canadian Organizations
By: CBoC Team
Companies aren’t upgrading technology and remain vulnerable to cyber threats
Ottawa, May 11, 2021 — The global pandemic has fundamentally changed the nature of work in Canada, with a shift to remote operations posing new technological challenges to businesses large and small.
The Conference Board of Canada surveyed 97 risk and emergency management leaders and practitioners across the Canada to find out what challenges they’re grappling with and how they are responding.
“A year into the pandemic, and Canadian organizations are still adapting to a remote workforce and operations,” says Michael Burt, Vice-President at The Conference Board of Canada. “Companies in all sectors of the economy have had to adapt their risk mitigation and emergency management strategies—and the accompanying shifts in technology. It continues to be a challenging environment.”
Key findings from The Conference Board survey include the following:
- Half of the workers (50%) at surveyed companies continue to mostly or fully work remotely.
- A total of 89% of organizations foresee new strategic roles emerging within their organization to deal with the changing nature of their business, i.e. virtual workforce management or online service delivery, etc.
- A large majority of organizations (81%) feel more resilient because of their pandemic experiences and feel better prepared to respond to future crises.
- Employee engagement is cited as the biggest operational pressure that organizations are facing during the pandemic and the move to remote work.
- Only 38 per cent of organizations have adopted new technologies they consider vital to risk and emergency management.
“The survey showed that most organizations aren’t taking advantage of technologies that could help with their risk and emergency management programs,” says Darren Gresch, Senior Research Associate, Innovation & Technology, at The Conference Board of Canada. “And some of those taking advantage could be ill-equipped to deal with cyber threats.”
About the report: The report is available to media for editorial purposes and our team of economists are accessible for comment and interviews; please email media@conferenceboard.ca for inquiries and to access the report.
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