It’s been a tough few years for Canadian promo firms looking to attract and retain talent.

New data from ASI Research indicates that Canadian distributors are uneasy once again about finding qualified employees to join their teams. Sixty-seven percent of distributors reported concerns about recruiting talent in 2026 – a swing back up from 55% in 2025 after hitting 68% in 2024.

Retention has also been a challenge – the percentage of distributors who said they’re concerned about keeping their best talent has remained elevated over the past two years, from 68% in 2024, to 63% in 2025, to 61% this year. Of note, levels of “extreme” concern surged from 2% in 2025 to 19% in 2026, leading many to increase compensation – 42% raised wages in 2025 to try to stem the tide, a 10-percentage-point increase over 2024.

“Part of the challenge is employer expectations,” said Mark Jackson, president of SwagDrop (asi/300621). “Companies naturally want to find the perfect customer service rep who’s already fully trained, has extensive industry experience and can contribute immediately. It would be great if those candidates regularly dropped into our laps, but that’s not always realistic. We need to be willing to hire people at different stages of their professional development and then train and develop them within our own organizations.”

Jackson added that detail orientation, communication and problem-solving are important attributes that can be found in other markets besides promo.

“We will need to keep adapting by recruiting from different industries locally, developing people internally, using offshore team members for appropriate roles and investing in systems that allow our teams to work more efficiently,” said Jackson. “Better use of technology helps distributors do more with less, even while they’re in growth mode.”

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