Randstad data shows 23 per cent of Canadian workers plan to change jobs in 2026 but Brent Dul argues deliberate human connection is what keeps them staying
Recent findings from Randstad Canada’s Employer Brand Research (REBR) report found that nearly a quarter of Canadian workers are planning to change jobs in 2026. Among Gen Z, that figure jumps to 42 per cent within a six-month window.
For plan sponsors and HR leaders who believe their current retention strategies are working, the numbers suggest otherwise – and point to a widening gap in human connection.
Brent Dul, executive vice president at Randstad Canada, suggests job switching among workers is becoming “much more normalized as a standard leverage rather than an individual taking a risk going from job to job,” he said.
“They’re seeing it as an opportunity to leverage their skills and to find better pay. Talent is moving because employers maybe over-index on perks while underperforming on the critical trio of pay, work-life balance, and growth,” he added.
Dul suggests the compounding effect is what should concern plan sponsors most: at current rates of intended turnover, organizations risk rebuilding large portions of their workforce within a few years.
Additional findings from Randstad’s REBR found reliable pay and benefits still anchor job security for 68 per cent of workers, and 82 per cent consider flexible work and leave essential. But what drives retention differs by generation. Younger employees respond to learning and career development opportunities, while Gen X and boomers place more weight on enhanced health benefits, leave policies, and retirement security.
Why human connection drives retention
One notable result from Randstad's data is that human connection remains a competitive advantage for most employers, particularly as 68 per cent of job seekers view human contact throughout the hiring process as non-negotiable, and 72 per cent want some form of human interaction as early as the application stage, according to REBR.
“Organizations that have a very strong talent attraction strategy are leveraging AI in certain aspects but haven't put AI secondary to the human connection piece," he said. “Companies should offer a recruitment journey that's still digital forward, but very much human validated. And if you do that well, you're more likely to be able to get that great talent in through your front door.”
While Dul argues human sustainability in hybrid workplaces only works when organizations are intentional about it, the biggest risk, he says, is mandating office time without a clear purpose. A poorly executed return-to-office policy doesn't just fail internally — it hands an advantage to competitors with a sharper strategy.
In-office mandates require intent to boost engagement
“You have to be deliberate on what you're trying to accomplish. If you don't nail that piece, organizations are going to fail. It's going to seem restrictive,” said Dul. “What do you do when you're in the office and how does that differ from when you're remote? That's always been the question that organizations have to ask. If you come in to sit in a cube and do virtual calls all day, you're probably not driving engagement. But if on the days when organizations mandate that individuals come into the office, what sort of workgroups are you creating? What sort of knowledge sharing are you creating?”
When employers get that right, Dul suggests it creates “a stickiness factor” that's hard for a competitor to replicate, because a prospective hire can't predict what the culture will feel like somewhere else.
The real opportunity, he suggests, lies in cross-departmental interaction: bringing together teams that don't normally overlap. Keeping employees siloed within their own work groups on in-office days, Dul contends, is a wasted investment. He believes the cost of getting it wrong cuts two ways. Without cross-functional relationships, employees leave more easily but they also perform worse while they're still there.
"There's a risk to turnover, but there's also a risk to productivity when individuals don't get to know other work functions and understand how the organization works holistically," he said.
"That's a tremendous, missed opportunity. If you have sales sitting over here and you have accounting over here, why not get those groups to sit together and find 30 minutes to share best practices or just share challenges that they're seeing? That's where you're going to build those partnerships. And when people start to trust each other, it's going to help drive engagement as well,” Dul added.
Examples of genuine in-office meetings
At Randstad, one approach that has worked is what Dul calls a "beach ball conversation,” where leadership identifies a real business challenge - something like sales productivity or a workflow bottleneck - and invites employees from across departments to weigh in.
The key is that participants are told the problem ahead of time and given space to prepare, rather than being put on the spot in the room. That matters, Dul said, because many employees are internal processors who contribute better when they've had time to think. Each person at the table is asked to share their perspective, and those who hesitate are drawn out rather than passed over.
He acknowledged the results have been striking. Not just for the solutions generated, but for the cross-departmental relationships that form between people who may never have interacted otherwise. Those connections, Dul argues, are the modern replacement for “water cooler conversations” that hybrid work has eroded, and they only happen when employers engineer the opportunity, he said.
In-office events work best
On cadence, Dul suggests quarterly events work well for broader initiatives, with monthly touchpoints where resources allow. One example he points to is a World Cultural Day, where employees bring in food tied to their cultural background and share what it means to them. He believes the format works because it gives people a reason to talk about themselves in a way that feels purposeful rather than forced. In increasingly diverse workplaces, those conversations build familiarity fast.
While wellness days built around walking meetings or group yoga also serve a similar function, Dul cautions that the activity itself is secondary to the intent behind it, emphasizing that without a clear plan, these efforts risk feeling hollow.
"If it's just ad hoc, like trying to figure out what to do in a given month for the sake of checking a box, I think it's likely to fall on its face and will seem like the company's trying to find a reason versus having a deliberate outcome that they're after," he said.
