Does your business have the skills to weather a recession?
1st November 2020
“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 Quarterly Economic Survey suggest that four in ten employers across the region are looking to appoint new hires. Certainly the £3k Government incentive to take on a young apprentice aged 16-18 before the end of January is compelling (£2k for those aged 19-24 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 2 to £500 for Business Administration Level 3 – 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:
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 in 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.
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.
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.
For support on a training plan to weather the recession, please contact us through our Contact form.
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 Quarterly Economic Survey suggest that four in ten employers across the region are looking to appoint new hires. Certainly the £3k Government incentive to take on a young apprentice aged 16-18 before the end of January is compelling (£2k for those aged 19-24 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 2 to £500 for Business Administration Level 3 – 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:
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 in 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.
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.
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.
For support on a training plan to weather the recession, please contact us through our Contact form.
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