SKILLS
Does your business have the skills to weather a recession?
By Corrina Hembury (pictured), managing director of Access Training
“When the tide goes out, you discover who has been swimming naked." American business tycoon Warren Buffett may have had poorly- performing investment portfolios in mind but his description is as relevant to businesses exposed to the impact of a recession. Businesses must react, quickly and decisively, like never before. Two of
the most immediate concerns are a drop in new business and its impact on cashflow. Investing in the intellectual assets of your business – in other words, increasing the resilience of your workforce by introducing new skills – is an obvious solution to weather the storm. Results from East Midlands Chamber’s Q3 2020 Quarterly Economic
Survey suggest that four in 10 employers across the region are looking to appoint new hires. Certainly, the £3,000 Government incentive to take on a young apprentice aged 16 to 18 before the end of January is compelling (£2,000 for those aged 19 to 24 and £1,500 for those over 25). But what if your desire to upskill your business is outweighed by caution
to recruit? Rather than recruiting a new member of staff, the answer may lie in
using an apprenticeship to upskill existing staff. Required employer contributions may be modest – ranging from £350
for customer services level two to £500 for business administration level three – but the impact to the business is anything but. Such practical, relevant learning can help ease the impact of recession on your business in THREE key areas:
1. LEADERSHIP Companies with poor-performing teams are compelled to take swift action. But what if your team’s performance is average? The coronavirus pandemic has re-cast the definition of “good enough” – even teams where nothing particularly needed fixing before now need to step up a gear. The difference between good and stellar team performance is very often strong leadership. Particularly in smaller businesses, even the most able of managers – who may well have learnt on the job how to drive team performance – may now find themselves in unfamiliar territory. Suddenly, there’s very real and rapid growth of what is expected of them
– leading their team through seismic change, managing a remote team or managing the redundancy process are all examples of where an individual might benefit from formal training.
2. COMMERCIALLY-FOCUSED CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT With fewer new business opportunities presenting themselves, it is imperative that businesses work harder and smarter to keep their existing customers. This includes having a clear commercial strategy. In other words, understanding that keeping customers happy is but one
element of customer service. Having a clear objective for each and every contact with a client, whether that be introducing new products or services, securing a case study that demonstrates tangible ROI and which can attract new customers, or indeed identifying and addressing any red flags before they lead to cancelled contracts.
3. STRONG BUSINESS PRACTICES AND PROCESSES Finally, setting up appropriate processes and protocols means staff can be their most productive. Consider how much time is wasted day to day across your organisation on resource-draining activity. In other words, those tasks that could and should be quickly undertaken
if only the right templates, data and intelligence were available. Consider too those tasks where a lack of documented protocols leads to mistakes in POs, billing and invoicing, which delay your ability to collect cash. A move to homeworking, which for many is likely to be permanent or at
least in place for some time, has also forced the pace in making “how to” resources even more accessible.
Expert entrepreneur to speak at university
One of the UK’s leading voices on ethnic minority entrepreneurship will speak at a Nottingham Trent University event this month. Professor Monder Ram OBE,
director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority at Aston Business School, will discuss how education can be adapted for developing the vocational skills required by businesses. He is the keynote speaker at the
session, titled Voices of diverse SMEs: Improving the labour market relevance of education and training systems, to be held online on Tuesday 17 November from 9am to 10.30am. It forms part of the NTU High Level Skills programme, which is
72 business network November 2020
part-funded by the European Social Fund and supports lifelong learning, as well as helping local SMEs to grow their skills and talent. The programme has invited local
education providers and strategic partners to the virtual event to hear key messages from both SMEs and data captured through university research. It aims to help attendees
consider which changes may be needed in their own curriculum development to further improve the labour market relevance of education and training systems in the East Midlands.
To reserve a free place, visit
bit.ly/2HKrDwY
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