The workforce that we see today has completely transformed, and is very different than the traditional style that previous generations knew. Baby boomers were used to the 9 to 5 office job, which relatively lacks diversity and flexibility. With the introduction of the Internet and the globalization of markets, the workplace has developed into a more productive and flexible place, which promotes diversity. This concept of the digital workforce has been widely adopted by companies. As stated on Vision Tree Ventures, a Forbes article on telecommuting indicated that virtual employees now make up 30-45 percent of an organization’s workforce.
Canada celebrates a ‘mosaic’ culture, and opens its borders to immigrants and refugees. Of course, the addition of an entire sector of foreign workers affects the market. These are skilled workers coming in from another country, who, a lot of the time, are willing to work for less. It may be because the typical salaries they are used to are substantially lower than the standard in Canada’s workforce, or they are more desperate for work because of our high cost of living. This creates high competition for jobs, and allows for more diversity in the workplace as companies are incentivized to hire employees at lower salaries.
Another very common example of this in modern day businesses is outsourcing. Companies now outsource certain sections of their workforce internationally. They can outsource traditional, mundane jobs to other countries at a much lower cost. A huge example of this is call centers. Typically, employees in call centers operate phones and handle any complaints or questions in relation to the company. Having a call center in India, for example, allows a company to decrease costs because of lower compensation levels. They’re able to set lower pay-levels because of external equity. The competition of the organization’s pay relative to industry standard in that country would not be high. Living costs are much lower in the countries that call centers are located. Furthermore, as Shauna Geraghty mentions on her post on Talkdesk, the organization is more capable of having 24/7 services for customers because of the cheaper cost.
Sources:
https://www.talkdesk.com/blog/the-pros-and-cons-of-call-center-offshore-outsourcing-2/