MANAGEMENT
W
hether you see Covid hastening the changes in the world of work, prompting a significant reset or a situation somewhere between the two, there is no doubt that the next few months will be no
holiday from our day to day worries. As a marker for the financial impact on businesses around the
world, GDP measures are experiencing the biggest falls in Q2 since records began and unemployment is predicted to spike with the end of job retention schemes globally. International managers, HR, global mobility and business
leaders are all therefore facing big questions around how to deploy people in these unprecedented times.
TIMES ARE CHANGING Delivering a keynote speech at the CIPD’s Festival of Work in June, London Business School professor of economics, Andrew Scott, an expert in the link between health, worklife and longevity, acknowledged the high levels of uncertainty in global economies and set out how employers can respond. Governments around the world have closed down their
economies to safeguard their populations’ wellbeing – itself a significant shift in public policy, said Professor Scott. The policy- induced recession has precipitated an opportunity for people to show care, be kind and support their communities and employees. “Covid is an accelerant and a stress test,” he said. “For the budget
projections you’ve all made, you are never going to get those back. This is a permanent loss and means we all have to adapt. Try to ignore the bad news about GDP because that is a lag indicator. Firms need to focus instead on what they should be doing.”
MOVING FORWARD FROM COVID-19 IN GLOBAL MOBILITY From an HR and people management perspective, “this is a challenge for leaders and all of us,” said CIPD CEO Peter Cheese in response. “How are we going to create sustainable organisations and treat our people?” Management consultants and professional services firm Mercer
has examined Covid-19’s impact on mobility through the lens of its regular cost of living benchmarking and in the context of globalisation. Its latest study shows how people on international assignments have been able to work from home or return home temporarily. The question is whether this is sustainable in the short term, bearing in mind Professor Scott’s assessments around budget
projections and the unpredictable nature of recovery, especially in mature economies, cited in IMF research. Ilya Bonic, head of Mercer Strategy, agrees this a moment to
take stock and reflect. “Rather than bet on a dramatic resurgence of mobility, organisations should prepare for the redeployment of their mobile workforces, leading with empathy and understanding that not all expatriates will be ready or willing to go abroad,” he said.
LENSES TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR COMPANY’S POST-COVID RESPONSE From this perspective, Professor Scott set out five areas he’d like organisations to focus on in the post-lockdown recovery and seek to support personal and organisational well-being for a sustainable response. 1. Stick to the mission, not the plan: economic shocks disrupt so plans need to be reconfigured in line with purpose.
2. Don’t sow seeds in winter: it’s easy to confuse hard work with productivity, but use your resources wisely.
3. Manage the bounce-back: GDP, supply and demand have fallen hugely, but when these come back on stream, be prepared.
4. Seek robust, not optimal, policies: focus on long-term, not reactive, projects.
5. Pitstop recessions: winners spend time not moving; while resources are idle right now, it’s an opportunity to reconfigure, fine-tune and put in play the areas where you have placed your bets.
“
...ORGANISATIONS SHOULD PREPARE FOR THE REDEPLOYMENT OF THEIR MOBILE WORKFORCES, LEADING WITH EMPATHY AND UNDERSTANDING...” ILYA BONIC, HEAD OF MERCER STRATEGY
COMPASSIONATE MANAGEMENT IN THE POST-COVID WORKPLACE Conversations like these at the CIPD Festival of Work and in other professional communities are beginning to flesh out how HR and global managers and employers more broadly can reduce the impact of redundancy, restructuring and curtailed investment on overseas expansion programmes on their workforces, and make changes in as positive a way as possible. “There is a bow wave ahead of us of redundancies after the end
of the job retention scheme,” said Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, talking at the Festival of Work session on trust. “How are we going to make unlockdown happen? All businesses are worried about this.” Reputational damage, social unrest of the nature experienced
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