Invest in people for a post COVID world

With the jobs market in flux, Tom Abbitt, Reed Banking expert, believes now is a time of opportunity for those in banking and finance to both attract new talent and support the potential of their employees in order to best position themselves as the economy looks to bounce back. 

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the businesses that help drive the UK economy cannot be underestimated. Lockdown restrictions, remote working, falling demand and general health concerns, have combined to apply commercial pressures to companies that were on sound financial footing of at the start of this year.

The health crisis has placed a huge financial burden on many organisations which were caught out by the seismic challenges our society has faced since early March.  The economic hit to the UK so far has been estimated at £192 billion by the Office for Budget Responsibility, with the figure escalating globally to over £7 trillion according to the Asian Development Bank.

As a result, the current downturn that has followed is no surprise, and bleak predictions of up to five million job losses have been made by our own chairman James Reed, painting a job loss scenario on par with that last witnessed in the 1930s.

The government has stepped in to help where it can with business support and has recently announced the new Jobs Support Scheme designed to continue underpinning the jobs market once the furlough scheme ends at the end of October.

Under these terms qualifying workers will now receive up to 77% of their normal salary level until next March with the aim of keeping people employed. The chancellor says that employees will have to work for at least a third of their normal hours to qualify for the new scheme and that the government and the employer will then cover part of their salary for the remaining hours not worked.

Further company assistance such as the extension of payback timeframes from six to ten years for business loans taken out during the pandemic, as well deferring this year’s VAT payments – a move that will help 500,000 businesses –  will also help alleviate the mounting pressures being felt by both SMEs and larger corporations who have seen turnover fall in recent months.

The present circumstances are forcing business leaders to relook at what they need as they turn away from monitoring public health and begin to focus once more on the longer-term status and recovery of their companies.

Key to that longer-term recovery will be the people within, and people welcomed to, an organisation. But those in the banking and finance sector will not only be central to the recovery of their own companies, but to the recovery of all businesses and individuals in the UK. The talent in the banking and finance sector has the potential to shape the future landscape of the UK – and this is a privileged position, but it has other sides too.

Banking and Finance employees under stress

The position of those in the sector is not only a privileged position, but a stressful one. As such, a company’s relationship with its workforce, and how it cares for them, will be directly linked to how it seeks to build future talent pools and therefore critical to any recovery.

The general praise heaped on workers who have adapted to working productively from remote locations during the pandemic, is a telling and timely reminder that without its people a company is essentially nothing. And in the coming months the UK will be asking them to do the same, or continue to do the same, again.

Piling on more of this pressure is giving some in the banking and finance sector the will to move. And while this is troublesome for those companies they are leaving, it presents a moment of opportunity for companies who wish to plan for a post-COVID future.

Taking advantage to recruit out of recession

Research has shown that in previous recessions it has been the companies that have resisted the urge to cut budgets that have rebounded far more quickly, when compared to those that actively retrenched across the board.

With power in the jobs marketplace moving from the candidate (who has benefitted in recent years from high employment levels) towards active recruiters, organisations are strongly placed to be able to add the best talent available to their existing workforces. And this shows in our Keep Britain Working Job Index as applications in banking roles reached 6% higher in August, with the jobs listed in the sector 15% lower, making competition fierce.

There is an opportunity here to get onto the recruitment front foot in the current employment environment. And it could pay dividends over the short, medium, and long-term.

To do this successfully, companies must not become complacent, we know that they will have to demonstrate that in this time of extreme stress, they can be the best place to work.

Attracting talent by promoting mental health

Those in the banking and finance sector should still work hard to present themselves in the best possible light and seek to attract and retain staff thanks to a holistic approach to employees.

A strategy that focusses on critical areas such as demonstrating proven career progression, providing opportunity for individual development, fair and competitive remuneration and a commitment to staff wellbeing, is essential to stand out from the crowd.

In recent research from Westfield Health, a third of employees said that they want to see long term changes to the way they work and 29% of workers stressed the need for enhanced mental health support in the workplace. The companies which can demonstrate they are proactively planning to ease the pressure on their teams will be the ones better placed to succeed in the race to secure the best talent.

Ultimately, it is people that create great places to work and help build the type of company we all admire. That is why it is so important in the present circumstances not to lose sight of the value of the human capital organisations have at their disposal.

Working alongside trusted recruitment organisations who can help connect available talent with company need, must remain a top priority as businesses navigate through current difficulties aiming to be ahead of the pack when the bounce back takes off.

Like investment in other areas of a business, investing in the people and the talent that will support the rebound and future commercial success of a firm in our sector should not just be an aspiration, it should be a central focus going forward.