Feeling like COVID-19 has left your business with only one option……

 

There was much optimism surrounding the President of South Africa’s address to the public on 23 April 2020. While the President was exemplary, clearly showed his humanity and his clear, calm and considered approach to the pandemic in South Africa, many people had hoped that he would announce a wider relaxation of the lockdown measures with more industries going back to work from 1 May. 

 

Since COVID-19 became a global pandemic and governments launched their responses, many clients have been approaching us, sharing that their operations are either stood down or running on the sniff of an oil rag, stressing that revenue has virtually dried up but that certain ongoing operational costs (like salaries) have taken them past red and deep into infra-red territory.  Then, every single one of them shares some version of this message…..

 

“We are going to have to downsize to save costs now.” or “We are going to have to let some people go ASAP.” followed by “We simply have no choice.”

 

This language sets off alarm bells for me. Really?? The only option you have left is to lay off people to save costs? I think leaders are missing something. Something really big. 

 

Firstly, from a purely economic perspective, they are missing the significant opportunities that this crisis presents to businesses. (I hate to look for silver-linings at a time that this virus is causing so much pain, upheaval and death but humanity survives because adversity makes us stand up, find a way forward and move.) Many leaders said their business couldn’t work remotely – but most are operating remotely in some way today. Many said their clients need face-to-face attention – but most clients are still reaching out virtually. Most, if not all, previously said their operating models were outdated but it would be too difficult to change the status quo – but the status quo is now forever altered. Many said they needed time to build better strategies – but now most have much more time on their hands than before to do just that. 

 

If you don’t believe me about just how  much behaviours have already changed, have a look at how many people have signed offers to purchase on houses that have only been “shown” online. Are you kidding me? A house? Online? Never having seen it or been in it? Just by looking at pictures? Something you are going to being paying off over the next 20-30 years?

 

Secondly, from a social/humanity perspective, a large number of businesses cutting jobs as a knee-jerk response to cutting costs and under the admirable banner of “saving the business” will have long-term, drastic and far-reaching consequences in society and, therefore, back into the economy.  If we are honest, we do not have an amazing track record of making people redundant and the impact on the workforce who stays behind substantially impacts ongoing productivity. Never mind the fact that the world will return to a “new normal” level of demand that will most certainly require many of the people who were let go unceremoniously when times got tough. We are not ignoring that many businesses don’t have money to keep paying people and have to do something soon. But, while we are talking about money, please bear in mind that most restructuring/retrenchment processes take months to unfold and have significant cash outflows due to severances and other costs. We think that businesses can deliver better impact at the same or even lower cost.

 

I put forward that we have multitudes of arrows in our proverbial quiver with which to approach this pandemic.  Aside from the multitude of new government COVID-19 relief mechanisms that are available, there are additional mechanisms that were already in place before the virus ever appeared. In South Africa, we have mechanisms within the Skills Development Act, Income Tax Act, and BB-BEE Codes to name just a few. All of these pieces of legislation include incentives that help us as leaders address our people impact. In fact, most countries have similar programmes in place.

 

When we look past what Governments can do for our business towards what our people can do for our business, we have not even come close to tapping on the talent, knowledge and expertise of all of our people in dealing with this threat/opportunity. We have a chance to transform our business for the better, to change operating models and service delivery models in ways we would never have dreamed of PCV (“Pre-Corona Virus”).  We have a chance to give our people a voice and involve them in our process rather than make them pawns of a higher power’s decisions with little regard for their knowledge about how our business really works – behind the scenes, where the 50 page policy documents are not seen, where management controls have not been spoken about for years, and where daily, individual, micro-decisions make or break an organisation much more effectively than painstaking decisions taken over weeks and months by managers and leaders.

 

Let’s turn this discussion around – In response to the current economic and social environment, businesses have a unique opportunity to completely rethink their strategy, business models, and every aspect of their operating models (including their workforce and skills requirements) and to emerge from this crisis in a new form to survive in the “new normal”. We understand that changes to the workforce are inevitable and even perfectly executed transitions will result in job losses. However, we believe there is a better way to achieve to the outcome in a way that leaves the business future-fit, that has the right people with the right skills doing the right work and that creates opportunities for those people whose future lies outside of that business. 

 

There are really only two approaches to most problems: The legalistic way and the right way. My experience has taught me that these two approaches are often not the same way. Let me be clear – I am not saying that you must act illegally. My perspective is that the legal way is often the bare minimum requirement and that the right way includes better thinking, harder work and more pain AND we are prepared to do that because doing things the right way delivers sustainable results for all of us.

 

If you would like to have a discussion about how we have helped other businesses to move past simply letting people go to fundamentally repositioning their business for the future, please reach out to us for a very commercial, very frank and very human-centred discussion.