The impact of COVID is far and wide and long term and the job market is no exception.

The initial impact at the end of Q1 2020 was clear, the job market and recruitment came to a very sharp halt.

Organisations had to very quickly re-evaluate strategies and respond to the crisis. This meant projects and whole portfolios were put on hold and budgets were reconfigured to survive the impact of COVID across every industry and sector.

The contractor market collapsed and a lot of people were out of a role or put on Furlough. It is the single fastest and largest global job market change in our lifetimes and it happened overnight.

We saw a lot of job mobility during this time, my golf pro friend started cooking for a takeaway company, a taxi driver we know started to help a friend at his garden centre and a cameraman started driving take away for a local business.

New ventures during COVID

There have also been an unprecedented number of new businesses formed in the last 12 months period, 13,257 new companies registered in the UK in 2020. 15% more than 2019. And that trend has continued into 2021. People in lock down suddenly had a once in a lifetime chance to take stock and kick off that venture they had on the back burner. There was nothing to lose and with social media it is possible now to market relatively cheaply to a wide audience and deliver products and services remotely.

But, as we know not all of these ventures will survive. For many reasons 20% of start ups fail within the first year, 30% by the end of year 2 and 50% within 5 years. By the 10 year mark, 70% of those businesses will have packed up and moved on to other things.

What will the market be like post COVID?

So what does this mean for the job market? This means that mobility in the job market will continue for many years to come. Those who moved sectors and even skills may return to what they know, or they may even continue to upskill and explore other options. Entrepreneurs who have started something new may return to the mainstream job market. And all of this mobility will need support from many in the industry including recruitment professionals.

Added to that, new post COVID business strategies are now emerging with new budgets and new directions. With a focus on accelerating digital transformation portfolios are going to be ambitious and fast paced. If COVID taught us one thing, it is that we need to have our products and services online and digital to survive in a crisis. And if our competitors are able to digitise faster, they will win, pandemic or no pandemic. Remote working seems to be here to stay, and digital is the only way.

And with over 2million people still on Furlough, we are going to see more activity when they finally rejoin the workforce.

How will recruitment help in rebuilding the economy?

People have learned how transferable their skills really are. Businesses have changed direction drastically and need professionals to help. Recruiters will need to understand skills sets and client strategies more than ever before to be able to help in a meaningful and efficient way.

Some organisations are going back into a start-up feel as they shake things up and will need people who can help to shape their future rather than people who can sit squarely in a role. Finding people who can work more strategically even at staff levels will be key to navigating the amount of change ahead.

We may even start to see CVs and recruitment discussions begin to focus more on skills and attributes such as emotional intelligence and cultural fit. Real transformation will focus on target operating model design and commercial reinvention. And we say we are product-focused, but how many organisations are actually in constant contact with customers understanding their needs? It is now time to actually put into operational practice a product-led approach.

The new market

Programmes are going to be less about implementing one system and more about modernising the whole stack using up to date Saas products, creating more flexibility and real-time data analytics. And operationalising strategy faster and more efficiently will be at the heart of everyone’s agenda.

Traditional recruitment may need to adapt and understand in more detail the skills sets that can understand this changing environment and client objectives deeply to be able to help effectively. Effective managers post covid will need to be proficient in 4 skills areas:

• Ability to operate at pace in a fully digital environment
• Cognitive skills for redesign and innovation
• Social and emotional skills to ensure effective collaboration, management, and self-expression
• Emotional adaptability and resilience to thrive during COVID-19 aftershocks and beyond

Here are Portare Solutions. We have over 20 years of experience in change delivery and recruitment and we know what you are up against. We are here to help in this time of opportunity and change.

It is going to be an exciting time for businesses, the job market and for change programmes and portfolios as a whole. There will be winners and losers and it will also be a time for careers to be made or broken. It will not be for the faint-hearted.

Let’s get started.