Employee Perspectives
Helping HR leaders align their employee value proposition with what matters most to their employees.
The Employee Perspectives research series is the first in Canada to offer a comprehensive, data-driven view of employee preferences regarding all aspects of total rewards and the employee experience, and to examine how those preferences vary across different demographic groups, such as age, gender, and occupation.
Page updated: November 20, 2025
Make data-driven HR decisions
Whether you’re optimizing your compensation strategy, rethinking your benefit offerings, or designing hybrid work policies, the Employee Perspectives research series provides the Canadian data and insights you need to make informed decisions and lead with confidence.
Employees Perspectives: Salary
Salary is the cornerstone of any total rewards package. It can offer employees financial security, enabling them to meet basic needs such as housing, food, and clothing. Across all groups, our survey results show that salary remains the most important component of total rewards for Canadian employees.
November 20, 2025 • Data briefing • 12-min read
What Total Rewards Matter Most to Employees
This interactive dashboard visualizes what employees value most across the total rewards spectrum, from compensation and benefits to flexibility, vacation time, and career growth. Explore real employee sentiment, slice results by workforce segment, and uncover insights that can help you design rewards strategies that attract and retain top talent.
July 15, 2025 • Online experience • 6-min read
Employee Preferences for Workplace Flexibility
The survey, conducted in January 2025, asked 2,508 Canadian labour force participants for their views on total rewards, compensation, benefit offerings, flexible work preferences, and turnover motivations. This briefing focuses on preferences for remote and flexible work.
June 23, 2025 • Data briefing • 6-min read
About the Series
While salary and benefits remain important, today’s employees are placing greater value on other elements, such as workplace flexibility, career development opportunities, and organizational culture. The Employee Perspectives series is a strategic resource for HR professionals seeking to align their employee value proposition with employee preferences and to future-proof their retention and attraction strategies by understanding what truly matters to the Canadian workforce.
This series includes:
Online experience (interactive dashboard)
A self-serve tool that allows employers to explore the data by occupation, gender, age group, and more.
Reports
Detailed analyses of the survey data, plus specialized reports focusing on key themes, with useful insights to help you enhance your EVP.
Case study
A real-world example of an organization that successfully adapted its EVP to improve its retention and attraction efforts, with measurable results.
Executive summary
A concise overview of key findings from the research paired with practical recommendations to improve your HR strategy.
The Employee Perspectives series has been produced since June 2025.
Methodology
Signal49 Research conducted an employee survey to gather data on which aspects of total rewards, work environment, benefits, and flexible work preferences employees value most.
The online survey was administered to a nationally representative sample of people in the Canadian labour force, including employed and unemployed individuals. All participants were asked standard demographic questions (e.g., gender, age, province, occupation). Quotas were established based on a segmentation of occupational groups defined by Statistics Canada’s National Occupational Classifications. The panel research company Leger collected the sample. A researcher on Signal49 Research’s Human Capital team worked with Leger to determine validation and cleaning steps.
All data was analyzed using IBM SPSS and R.
Become a Survey Participant
Sign-up to be notified when the Employee Perspective survey is available for participation next year. Participation allows you to receive Employee Perspectives for free.
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Questions?
If you have any questions about the Employee Perspectives series, or about becoming a subscriber, please contact us.