Canadian HR Reporter

Darrell Bricker CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs Worldwide in Toronto The market research rm has 600 employees in Canada I n a way, the gig economy is inevitable, according to Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Aff airs Worldwide in Toronto. "I mean, when you've got so much technology out there and you're living in an age in which the entire content of human knowledge is available, it's inconceivable that anybody wouldn't think that people would use that type of information to challenge some of the conventions for how we make things and how we distribute them, and I think that that's what were seeing with the sharing economy," he says. "When you have the most educated population we've ever had in the world, in any way that you can measure it, all the way up from basic literacy to graduate degrees… and you have such access to information, it's inevitable that what they're going to do is challenge whatever con- ventional systems exist out there." While everybody talks about employer-employee loy- alty, nobody actually lives it, particularly those who are technology-enabled and younger, says Bricker, citing re- search that shows many people have to leave their place of employment to advance their careers. "Given an environment like that, is it any wonder that people are going to use technology and information and empower themselves to be able to make that choice?" he says. " e only way up is like playing checkers — there's no straight lines on any of this, it's just going sideways a lot of the time." And given that millennials will make up a huge share of the workforce in a very short period of time, "they and the way they look at solving problems are going to be a big part of how the world of employment is going to be handled," says Bricker. But the truth is people don't aspire to this idea of fl ex- ible, on-demand work — they deal with it, he says. "People want to have regular, stable work and they would like to work for one employer, so they learn to deal with this type of environment. But to present it as a preference, I think there are some people who prefer to work that way but I think, by and large… if you compare the two options, the vast majority of the people would prefer the single employer with a single paycheque," says Bricker. "(It's about) people who are motivated by something other than money, they're motivated by a desire to feel that they're still useful and motivated by a desire to stay busy." So, will a sharing economy eventually become the norm? " ere's ways of adding this up on a global basis that make it look like it's a big part of the economy but when you actually look at the amount of paid labour that the sharing economy is responsible for, I think that you'd be hard-pressed to show that it's more than a fraction of what traditional employment is," says Bricker. Eventually, every business is going to be a combination of the two things, he says. "You're going to have your stable workforce that you're prepared to invest in and prepared to grow with and then you're going to have fl ux." But employers should be concerned about how they treat these workers, says Bricker. "Absolutely, the way that Revenue Canada operates in terms of the tax system, you have to be extremely careful about how you use casual labour," he says. " e tax rules are a real problem with all of this.… if you're contractor, if you work for more than $30,000 a year, you've got to set up a GST number and start paying certain types of taxes. And if you are an employer, if you (have) a part-time person, in particular, and you employ them for more hours than what Revenue Canada deems is appropriate for their employment, they're no longer a contractor, they're an employee — whether the em- ployer and employee actually want a diff erent relationship doesn't mat- ter. So we still have… a tax system that works against it, particularly if you're a publicly traded company — it's not like you're going to do stuff under the table." As for the kind of people that will easily adapt to this new system, it's not necessarily the younger folks. "One group that the shared economy will work especially well for is actually not mil- lennials but for people at the other end of the employ- ment spectrum, and those are people who are looking for bridge employment op- portunities who are seniors," says Bricker. " ey're much healthier, much more with-it, much more capable than their parents were at that age, so they're going to be looking for opportunities to stay busy and to do interesting things, so I think the sharing econo- my for putting together those people with op- portunities, given that they have so much experience in the workplace, I think there's consider- able opportu- nity there for that." The gig economy — in which a contingent workforce is hired on a short-term, project basis — along with the sharing economy are expanding, as seen with the likes of Uber and AirBnB. But what does that mean for HR-related issues? We talked to five CEOs to find out. FEATURES Coming to grips CEOs TALK with the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs Worldwide in Toronto The market research rm has 600 employees in Canada "You're going to have your stable workforce that you're prepared to invest in and prepared to grow with and then you're going to have fl ux." But employers should be concerned about how they treat these workers, says Bricker. "Absolutely, the way that Revenue Canada operates in terms of the tax system, you have to be extremely careful about how you use casual labour," he says. " e tax rules are a real problem with all of this.… if you're contractor, if you work for more than if you're contractor, if you work for more than $30,000 a year, you've got to set up a GST number and start paying certain types of taxes. And if you are an employer, if you (have) a part-time person, in particular, and you employ them for more hours than what Revenue Canada deems is appropriate for their employment, they're no longer a contractor, they're an employee — whether the em- ployer and employee actually want a diff erent relationship doesn't mat- ter. So we still have… a tax system that works against it, particularly if you're a publicly traded company — it's not like you're going to do stuff under the table." As for the kind of people that will easily adapt to this new system, it's not necessarily the younger folks. "One group that the shared economy will work especially well for is actually not mil- lennials but for people at the other end of the employ- ment spectrum, and those are people who are looking for bridge employment op- portunities who are seniors," says Bricker. " ey're much healthier, much more with-it, much more capable than their parents were at that age, so they're going to be looking for opportunities to stay busy and to do interesting things, so I think the sharing econo- my for putting together those people with op- portunities, given that they have so much experience in the workplace, I think there's consider- able opportu- nity there for The gig economy — in which a contingent workforce is hired on a short-term, project basis — along with the sharing economy are expanding, as seen with the likes of Uber and AirBnB. But what does that mean for HR-related issues? We talked to five CEOs to find out.

• Cover