The Current State of Play

Not wanting to be the harbinger of doom, life has its ups and downs. It is a natural cycle and for many of you that survived the ‘2008 Financial Crisis’ be aware things will get better, they always do.
So, what is the current state of play. According to the Office for National Statistics: –

The COVID Figures

UK population 66,796,800 million as at the mid-year estimate (2019)
Total number of deaths in England and Wales 1st Jan – 19 June                      326,600
That’s all illness, old age, and accidents.
Total number of deaths as at the 19/06/2020, as a result of COCID-19              49,371

That’s 15% of total death rate so far this year, due to COVID-19

At its height (w.e. Friday 17 April) we had a staggering 8,758 deaths a week, due to COVID-19, that’s approximately 1,251 a day.

As of the 19 June it has now fallen to 783 for the week but that is still 111 deaths a day across the whole of England and Wales.

There is a higher risk for the Black and Southern Asia population, plus men are at a higher risk than women. We have found out that it is not just droplets of the virus, but it can be airborne as well for extended periods.

DON’T BE A STATISTIC – KEEP YOUR DISTANCE, WEAR A FACE MASK, KEEP OUT OF CROWED AREAS, SELF ISOLATE IF YOU NEED TO, AND WORK FROM HOME, IF AT ALL POSSIBLE.

Government

The Government is trying to do the best they can, borrowing ‘War Bond Amounts of Money’ to keep the wheels on. But as per normal it will not make everyone happy. They have put schemes in place to help as many as possible (wish they would help me) but it’s not a catch all. VAT and Stamp Duty will hopefully help, prolonging furloughing with an employer reward.
But be aware, Brexit is still looming.

Recruiting

My view, at the moment is that many employers are looking long and hard at who they are. They are trying to decide what they need to do to survive long enough to stay in the game, or until they find their feet or get them under themselves again. Some are more advanced and already reshaping themselves, getting rid of staff, making swaths of people redundant. But like with every negative
wave in the past, eventually the positive wave comes in and companies will start to rehire the people that they need for the next phase of growth.

Little comfort for those being made redundant or at risk at the moment, but companies are a little like stocks, they will naturally go down, to then come up again. A good example of this in the ‘enterprise software’ arena is at the start of lockdown many companies got rid of their ‘Customer Success Managers’ (CXM’s, the farmers) who are typically cheaper than New Business Sales People (Hunters). However, we are already seeing these same ‘CXM’s’ finding new jobs, as companies realise that the CXM’s are looking after their existing clients and gaining renewals of existing subscriptions. This will buy them time and it’s certainly cheaper than finding new business at the moment.

Future

Many companies, if they are sensible will look carefully at the people they have, decide if they have the inherent behaviour they want in the business and if they have the emotional intelligence they need. Skills and experience can be learnt and gained. It’s more important for companies to hang-on to people that they want in the business, those they want to retain and provide them with the learning and development (L&D), ‘It’s a wise man that builds before he buys’. Smart companies are taking a different approach than they have in the past. Many are looking deeper at the people they have and deciding on who they want to retain, beyond just the skills and experience that they have. It’s so hard to find people with the right attitude, the right behaviour, and the emotional intelligence that you want in the company, so these are the people that they want to retain and the people that they will invest in, providing the L&D.

A good place to start is by conducting ‘Skill Maps’ on every role and evaluating at what level of skill competency the existing teams are at. Apply the L&D to them so everyone’s cylinders are firing at the same level. This also makes it far easier to then find others that better fit the target profile you are looking to create and will provide a wider pool of people. Remember skills and experience can be learnt and gained – attitude, behaviour and emotional intelligence takes far longer and sometimes simply cannot be changed.

People

During the ‘Financial Crisis of 2008’ lots of people felt the impact. Recruitment went to the floor along with many other industries; however, many people were totally unaffected. I believe that the same will be said of COVID -19. Many will be severely affected, and others will breeze through this current blip, totally unaffected.

There is no, one size fits all. At the moment every industry is being affected in different ways. Retail, Hospitality and the Travel industries will basically have to redesign themselves and will look very different at the end of this cycle.
People’s values, beliefs and attitudes are also changing, they are looking at what is important to them. COVID-19 is with us for a while yet, until they get a grip of it and that is not going to happen in weeks or months but will be years. It will naturally change people’s views, values, beliefs, and attitudes. The current generation and the current school and university leavers are likely to be most profoundly affected. It will shape their value structures and they will then shape our world in years to come. I wonder what that will be?

With the advances in AI, automation and machine learning that have firmly established themselves and come of age in 2020, it is also people’s attitude towards them that has changed. Its’ acceptance as a way to solve issues and not as something that will replace jobs. It’s an attitude that the mundane roles and tasks can be passed to AI, automation and machine learning which will free up people to have the more interesting positions, quicker and better.

‘The future is bright; the future is just different’