REPEAT-Annual BMO Labour Day Survey: How Are Canadian Businesses Retaining Talented Employees? / Flexible work hours, and education, training and development top the list - Retention-promoting strategies vary based on company size; large organization

TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 08/31/14 -- BMO Bank of Montreal today released its fourth annual Labour Day Survey that revealed the most common types of programs businesses use to retain employees.

The survey, conducted by Pollara, showed the percentage of businesses that offer particular strategies, including:

--  Flexible work hours: 76 per cent
--  Education, training and development: 66 per cent
--  Increased health and dental benefits: 36 per cent
--  Increase in paid vacation time: 29 per cent
--  Tuition assistance: 27 per cent
--  Telecommuting: 25 per cent

"Canadian business owners share a collective belief and understanding about the importance of hiring, training and maintaining a talented workforce," said Steve Murphy, Head, Canadian Commercial Banking, BMO Bank of Montreal. "Employees are the most prized and valuable asset an organization possesses. It's important for business owners to offer strong employee retention programs that can help drive the company's overall success."

Differences Across Company Size

The report also found that, beyond flex hours, large organizations are much more likely to offer various retention promoting strategies. For example:

--  Nearly all large businesses (96 per cent) offer their employees
    opportunities for education and special training, compared to 64 per
    cent of small businesses
--  Large businesses are twice as likely as small businesses to offer tele-
    commuting to their employees (50 per cent vs. 25 per cent, respectively)

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                                                         Large        Small
Retention-Promoting Strategy                        Businesses   Businesses
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Flex time                                                   78%          76%
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Opportunities for education                                 96%          64%
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Increased health and dental benefits                        83%          34%
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Telecommuting                                               50%          24%
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Tuition Assistance                                          49%          26%
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Regional Differences

--  Companies in British Columbia were most likely (82 per cent) to offer
    flex hours to their employees
--  Quebec business owners were the most likely to offer education and
    training opportunities for their staff (76 per cent), followed by those
    in Alberta (71 per cent)

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Retention Promoting
 Strategy                    Overall   ATL    QC    ON Prairies    AB  B.C.
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Flex hours                        76%   75%   78%   76%      54%   77%   82%
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Opportunities for education
 & training                       66%   66%   76%   58%      52%   71%   68%
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Increased paid vacation           29%   34%   28%   23%      44%   28%   35%
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Tele-commuting                    25%   16%   12%   31%      20%   34%   30%
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Health and dental benefits        36%   53%   30%   33%      44%   40%   38%
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Tuition Assistance                27%   42%   13%   29%      13%   31%   38%
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Results cited above come from a Pollara telephone survey with 502 Canadian business owners, conducted between March 7 and March 24, 2014. The margin of error for this survey is +/- 4.4 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Results have been weighted by region and business size, according to the most recent Census figures, to reflect Canadian businesses.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified financial services organization based in North America. The bank offers a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and services to more than 12 million customers. BMO Financial Group had total assets exceeding $586 billion and approximately 47,000 employees at July 31, 2014.

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