Aviva Canada reveals top five risks facing Canadian businesses – report

Canadian businesses have identified five major risks to their operation – and these reflect how their risk assessments have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report by Aviva Canada has found.

Aviva Canada's Risk Insights Report is a new study conducted by the insurer, with 1,500 Canadian businesses of all types and sizes surveyed for the report. The insurer said that it is the first Canadian report of its kind, and it will kick off an ongoing series that "expands on Aviva's commitment to help businesses make sense of their specific risks, better manage those risks, and prepare for the future."

According to respondents, their top five business risks are:

1. Public health events
2. Cyber security and cyber incidents
3. The health and mental wellbeing of employees
4. Shortage of skilled workforce
5. Business interruption, including disruptions in supply chain

Other key findings of the report include:

• While 45% of respondents had indicated that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a negative long-term impact on their businesses, 47% said the impact is instead positive - it was noted that one of the undeniable trends in the wake of the pandemic was the acceleration of technological adoption.
• Realty (40%), business and professional services (36%), manufacturing (31%), and retail (31%) were the leading industries in terms of cyber security risk rating.
• Incidentally, realty (60%), business and professional services (51%), retail (49%), and manufacturing (45%) had the highest concern for employee and customer health/wellbeing over the pandemic.
• Both the hospitality and construction sectors are at considerable risk of skilled labour shortages; 31% of hospitality businesses had indicated in the survey that labour shortages were a "serious" risk.
• 27% of businesses see business interruption, such as supply chain disruption, as a major threat going forward.

One of Aviva Canada's main conclusions in the report is that Canadian businesses currently view risk "much differently" in the wake of the pandemic. It was observed that there is an increasing focus on risk management and business continuity planning (BCP); 58% of respondents indicated that their continuity and risk planning needs to be updated.

"We live in an unpredictable, fast-moving and increasingly risky world. Our report highlights that reality. We can't predict risk or remove it all together, it's a fact of business life," said Aviva Canada CEO Jason Storah. "As unforeseen as COVID-19-related risks were over the past two years, Canadian businesses already face new geo-political and inflationary risks that will impact everyone in 2022. We believe that gathering data is the first step to understanding the risks around us and helping Canadian businesses to become more resilient."