From a lack of engagement to out of practice employees and increased resignations, employers across the UK are facing several challenges following the pandemic and the increase in remote working, according to HR experts.

As an employer, it is important to guide a business through hardship to avoid unravelling under pressure, and the HR specialists at Breedon Consulting have highlighted five of the biggest challenges currently faced by business owners, with practical advice on how to overcome these hurdles.

Managing director of Breedon Consulting, Nicki Robson, said: “The pandemic has certainly highlighted and increased the frequency of challenges that business owners have to deal with, and although it can feel more comfortable to delay tackling initial challenges straight away in case issues get resolved with time, it can be risky delaying, as employees may leave because they’re not engaged or continue to underperform, leading to poor business performance.

“Leadership in a post lockdown world is set to be more focused on the people rather than the task, with a recognition that if staff feel engaged then they will perform well, but if an employee feels unhappy, then their performance will drop. Good communication will be even more important, together with better defined OKRs and KPIs with measurement mechanisms in place.

“Providing support to those in leadership positions is our bread and butter at Breedon Consulting and we offer a range of support options to help employers manage all aspects of the employee lifecycle – from managing options for hybrid working and flexible working requests, to performance improvement plans, re-onboarding plans, and employee engagement surveys with recommendations based on feedback.”

 

Here are the five challenges employers are currently facing in the workplace:

 

1. Lack of employee engagement

One of the biggest challenges employers are currently facing is a lack of motivation amongst employees. Many staff members have been left to their own devices and have become demotivated due to working solo for an extended period of time in unprecedented circumstances. Conducting an employee engagement survey can really provide insight into how the team is feeling and highlight any issues which need to be addressed.

 

2. Returning to the office

Employers may find that employees are struggling to adjust to returning to the office, following remote working. With no commute, staff have had extra time to spend at home or with their loved ones which they may have a hard time relinquishing. Employers should organise return to work meetings to provide support to those coming back to the office and be open to flexible working requests.

 

3. Poor performance

The difficulties of remote management while employees have been working from home has also created issues with monitoring and managing staff performance appropriately. Careful communication is vital when tackling this challenge, so it’s best to approach the topic sensitively if underperformance has not been addressed within the past year. Introduce regular 1-2-1 check-ins and two-way feedback systems within the business to address underperformance issues.

 

4. Employees looking to leave when asked to return to the workplace

The pandemic has caused a surge in the number of employees working from home and a lot of employees may not be willing to go back to the office and previous ways of working. Be flexible and recognise the world of work has changed and that implementing hybrid options can really benefit your business for the future. Striking a balance between remote working and office working can prevent staff from leaving for a fully remote role.

 

5. Employees falling out of practice

Due to the length of time spent either on furlough or working from home, employees may be struggling with certain aspects of their role. Patience is key when overcoming challenges, and it’s also advisable to explore learning and development options to remind employees of the processes and training they may have forgotten.

Breedon Consulting is offering free 15-minute consultations to talk about challenges that business owners may be facing at the current time.

 

 

New ISP challenger brand Lightspeed Broadband has chosen product studio Code Computerlove as its digital partner. Code will develop a full digital identity and suite of digital products for Lightspeed as the business embarks on an ambitious roll out of its full fibre gigabit broadband services.

Lightspeed Broadband, which burst on to the ISP scene in February 2021, has brought together a team of highly experienced professionals from the telecoms sector including management, network specialists, HR and marketing, and will be welcoming more to the team in the coming months.

Aiming to bring full fibre optic connections directly to 100,000 homes and businesses across the East of England by 2022, Lightspeed has already deployed over one hundred engineers to start building the network in ten towns across the region, with ambitions to expand and reach 1 million homes by 2025.

Code’s remit is to create a digital infrastructure and strategy for Lightspeed broadband with longevity that will evolve with the fast growth business. Code will develop the digital brand and marketing website, as well as create a customer portal design and interface. It will also work with Lightspeed Broadband’s internal and external stakeholders to devise a customer experience across SalesForce and other connected technologies to create a unified customer experience and provide ongoing technical and future direction strategy for the internet service provider.

Steve Haines, CEO of Lightspeed Broadband, said: “Our website and digital capabilities need to be as slick, fast and reliable as the broadband that we are delivering into people’s homes and businesses. We’re happy to be working with Code and are confident that they are the partner to make that happen.

“Their expertise, insight and understanding of what is required to create an unrivalled digital experience will help support our plans to reach 100,000 homes and businesses across the East of England by 2022.

“Collaborating with communities and local authorities, we started the roll out of our full fibre broadband to ten towns across South Lincolnshire and West Norfolk in April.”

Rob Jones, Managing Director at Code Computerlove said: “High speed, reliable broadband has become even more important to our lives over the past year or so as we appreciate the importance of connectivity – this is only set to grow further. Lightspeed is focused on making a difference in communities that are currently being underserved by the existing infrastructure and have investment and a hugely experienced senior team to help them reach their ambitious targets.

“We are excited to play a role in this journey. As a new to the market challenger brand, there is huge potential to create a cut-through digital experience that will rival, and exceed, that of the existing big players.

”For Lightspeed, we will be implementing a full suite of services – from design and UX through to technical strategy. We will be creating a unified customer experience which will include a customer portal and interface design.”

 

Despite a stormy ride pre pandemic, Multi Asset strategies could offer investors attractive returns and diversification as the world moves beyond Covid-19. CAMRADATA’s latest whitepaper, Redefining Multi Asset Solutions considers if these strategies can meet their objectives as the global economy rebuilds and what steps will reinforce their appeal to fund managers.

The whitepaper includes insight from guests, who attended a virtual roundtable hosted by CAMRADATA in April, from firms including QMA Wadhwani LLP, Waverton Investment Management, Aon, bfinance, Cardano, Cartwright and Spence.

The report highlights that despite huge monetary and fiscal interventions from Governments and centrals banks to preserve investor confidence and nurture business recovery; investors are still faced with equity volatility, near-zero interest rates and low yields on government bonds.

The big question is how investors will manage their asset allocation and fund selection in a post-Covid economy. Multi-asset funds could be a solution, as they aim to deliver attractive returns across a wide range of market conditions, employing an asset mix that protects against a sharp rise in correlation under stress conditions.

Sean Thompson, Managing Director, CAMRADATA said, “An attraction of multi-asset investing is that it enables timely rebalancing of allocations between asset classes, while providing integrated risk oversight that spans the full multi-asset portfolio.

“The aim is to deliver portfolio diversification, while offering flexibility to tailor investment outcomes to the needs of the investor, whether this is growth, income, risk minimisation or absolute return. But, multi-asset strategies had a difficult three or four years prior to the pandemic which may influence decisions.

“Data however from the CAMRADATA universe of multi-asset funds for the period prior to the Covid-19 shock indicates that many of them were broadly delivering to their mandate. Our panel considers if the timing is right for multi-asset strategies and how fund managers adapt them to thrive in a post-Covid environment.”

The CAMRADATA roundtable began by exploring which organisations had felt the need to redefine or re-categorise multi-asset, with panellists outlining their approach. The discussion moved on to strategies that bridge the gap between beta and alpha.

The panel’s fund selectors were then asked whether they look at multi-asset strategies at the fund level or lower down at the individual funds’ stock exposures, to get a sense of the evaluation process of correlations and beta.

The conversation turned next to the argument for a traditional 60/40 equity/bond allocation, and protective strategies, before finishing on the issues of timing, alpha creation and varying beta exposure.

Key takeaway points were:

·         One panellist began by saying that they had split multi-asset into two sub-sectors, Market-Driven and Dynamic. The rationale for the division is that many pension schemes have significant exposure to multi-asset – typically in the form of Diversified Growth Funds (DGF).

• A pension scheme fiduciary manager said that are two main components, market beta and alpha generation, to the solutions they provide. Alpha generation includes, but are not limited to, hedge funds, absolute return, credit and long-only equities.

• An institutional investor said that multi-asset was mostly long-only or at least directional. It could be active or passive but they made a distinction from Absolute Return strategies and hedge funds.

• Fund selectors responded to whether they look at multi-asset strategies at fund level or stock exposure. One said if you look through to line-by-line exposures, and then change your allocations to the funds you hold, you can end up chasing your tail.

• In their view, consultants should focus on advising on the selection of a combination of funds and leave the security-level decision-making to the managers.

• Another said the evaluation process evolved as managers produced new styles, and they spend lots of time assessing whether there is something that differentiates the portfolio manager from the rest of the market – irrespective of the type of multi-asset.

• The issue was raised of whether there was a role for lower reliance on market betas over the cycle, with one saying in 2009 they would argue ‘no’ because of the sharp pull to value. All things were righting themselves. But now, in mid-2021, they were not so sure.

• Looking at the traditional 60/40 equity/bond allocation, one panellist said it has produced extraordinary performance over the last thirty years, but the question is whether it will and can continue? Mathematically, it is very unlikely for bonds.

·         In terms of timings and cycles, one said it was hard to look past the coming months. Another noted that cycles are not regular anyway, adding 2020 appeared to be a whole cycle in a year.

·         The final comment from one panellist was that, to the extent you are asking managers to do anything dynamic, you should not be timing the strategy or the manager itself. What you want upfront is a robustly diversified portfolio.

Additional insight is offered in the whitepaper with two articles from the sponsors:

• QMA Wadhwani LLP: ‘The Importance of Agility in Navigating Unchartered Waters’

• Waverton Investment Management: ‘Redefining multi-asset as risks abound’

To download the ‘Redefining Multi Asset Solutions whitepaper click here

For more information on CAMRADATA visit www.camradata.com

Leading UK tour operator Blue Bay Travel, has recognised a significant 619% year on year (January to May ’21 vs January to May ‘20) uplift in bookings for the Maldives, with a YoY increase of 1,130% for luxurious beach / water villas, as members of the British public aspire for bucket-list breaks after lockdown.

The company reports that in addition to an influx of bookings to the Maldives, quotes obtained for the sought-after destination were up by 309% between January and May 2021 versus the previous year, and searches increased by 252% YoY (based on impressions).

Blue Bay Travel also noted that other popular long-haul destinations illustrated a large growth in bookings for the period of June 2020 to May 2021 versus comparable dates the previous year, with a highly-impressive increase of 497% for Thailand, 142% for Mauritius and 61% for Barbados.

Significantly, Blue Bay Travel has recognised a major hike in longer-lead bookings across a range of destinations, with customers seeking to benefit from the breadth of availability and plan their holidays far in advance. Throughout January to May 2021, 50% of bookings made are for travel in Winter 2021/22, 19% for Summer 2022 and 10% for Winter 2022/23 and Summer 2023. In May alone, bookings for Winter 2021/22 breaks accounted for 38%, 22% for Summer 2022 and 15% for Winter 2022/23.

Alistair Rowland, Group Chief Executive Officer at Blue Bay Travel, comments: “We have seen a significant surge in traffic to our website and subsequently bookings as people are looking for a more exclusive, luxurious long-haul holiday following an unprecedented period of time and series of lockdowns as a result of the pandemic. Looking at the booking data, it is evident that the British public is still mindful of the imposing restrictions, keeping abreast of the current legislations and planning far in advance, emphasising the importance and need for long-term availability.

“At Blue Bay Travel, we specialise in finding our subscribers the most exclusive deals in luxurious locations worldwide. Towards the end of May, we launched an unbeatable offer for the Furaveri Island Resort & Spa in the Maldives including a host of additional, complimentary benefits, prompting a surge in interest and bookings for this desirable destination for which we have seen a real appetite.”

Blue Bay Travel is a leading UK tour operator, with 100 awards under their belt and 4.6 rating on TrustPilot. They provide unbeatable holiday deals across their three brands: Caribbean Warehouse, Tropical Warehouse and Xclusivity – all of which provide financial protection, flexible holidays and a UK-based call centre open 7 days a week.

• New research highlights existing and emerging mismatches between the skills workers possess and those business need to succeed
• City & Guilds Group calls for a shift in mindset among individuals, businesses and Government, to rebalance the labour market
• Data shows significant spikes in demand for healthcare and digital skills over the last twelve months – while two-thirds of adults don’t think they have the skills they need

 

London, 09 June 2021: The pandemic has accelerated change in the UK’s labour market, leading to a shift in the type of jobs available and exacerbating the growing gap between the skills people have, and those sought by employers.

 

That’s according to the new Skills Index report from City & Guilds Group and Emsi, which analyses the present and future shift in demand for skills in the UK.

 

As a result, City & Guilds Group is calling for individuals, education organisations, businesses and Government to adopt amore jobs and skills-first focused mentality when it comes to education and training. This will better match skills supply with demand, and drive a stronger, faster economic recovery after the pandemic.

 

The report unveils some growing mismatches between the skills people have, and those sought by businesses today and in the future – suggesting that businesses’ productivity and ability to succeed is at stake. Analysing data collected by the British Chambers of Commerce, the research found that only just over half 54% – businesses state that their organisation can recruit the skilled individuals it needs, and over half (56%) face some kind of barrier to meeting their skills and talent needs – with 28% citing the mismatch between skills they need, and the skills people gain through education.

 

Meanwhile, the research found that three in five (61%) working age adults (equivalent to more than 22 million people^[1]) don’t feel they are equipped with all the skills they will need to unlock new opportunities over the next five years. This points to potential future barriers for individuals looking to progress their careers, access well paid roles – or simply remain employable.

 

Worryingly, 30% (equivalent to 11 million people) have not received formal workplace training in the last five years and, highlighting the pandemic’s impact on training budgets, nearly two thirds (64%) have not received any training in the past year. But this need to constantly retrain is not going away any time soon, with 41% of employers saying changing customer behaviours or expectations are the most likely factor to change the skills they need in the future.

 

Kirstie Donnelly MBE, CEO of City & Guilds Group, commented: “Covid-19 has radically disrupted the labour market displacing almost a million people from their jobs, yet paradoxically employers are telling us that skills gaps remain a chronic issue for them. Meanwhile, with a majority of working age adults not confident they have the skills they need for the near future, and just a third not having taken part in any workplace training for at least five years, it’s clear that employers and employees may both struggle to keep pace with the rapid changes in skills needs being driven by factors such as AI and the move to net Zero.

 

“Solving this skills mismatch requires a shift in mindset from the individuals themselves as well as employers and the UK Government. It is no longer possible to leave full time education at 18 or 21 and never reskill again, we will require people and businesses to upskill and reskill throughout their working lives.”

 

Andy Durman, Managing Director at Emsi UK: “The Skills Index highlights the need to rethink skills from the perspectives of people, employers and education providers, and how we will have to join these three together in far more intentional ways than ever before if we are to get national and local economies back on track. Not only do we need to help people to understand the skills they possess and those they need to develop, but we also need to help employers understand the skills they need to succeed, and help education providers understand which skills they need to teach to prepare people for a changed labour market. Skills are the foundation blocks of our future, so it is time for us to rethink, reimagine and rebuild the labour market upon them.”

 

By examining the current supply of skills and employer demand, the research also pinpoints a number of areas where demand is set to outstrip supply within the next three years. Unable to recruit for these immediate skills needs from a talent pool restricted by Brexit and new tighter immigration policies, it may be up to employers to develop them in house either with existing staff, or people displaced from other industries.

 

Demonstrating this skills mismatch, half (53%) of employers say they will need industry or job specific skills in the next three years – however, just a quarter (24%) of working age adults are confident they have technical skills related to their role. Meanwhile, as digital transformation gathers pace, a fifth (22%) of employers say they will need advanced digital skills in the next three years, but only 9% of working age adults are confident they have these skills.

 

In analysing the shift in demand for skills in the UK from 2019 to 2020, the Skills Index additionally paints a clear picture of how the pandemic prompted demand for skills to soar in key areas such as health & social care and digital/tech roles.

 

Rising demand for health & social care skills

As healthcare, sanitation and hygiene came to the fore due to the pandemic, job postings in health and social care increased by a fifth (22%) from April 2020 to April 2021, with demand for Nurses (up 328%), Physician Assistants (up 275%) and Caregivers (up 246%) seeing the greatest growth.

 

Health & social care skills also dominated the overall list of top 10 technical skills in the Index, with the most in-demand skills including: nursing, mental health support, personal care (ability to support with personal and private hygiene and toileting), learning disabilities support and knowledge about using PPE.

 

A leap towards digital transformation

With the pandemic leaving businesses with little choice but to pivot operations online, demand for digital skills also surged. Job postings for digital and tech saw a 21% increase from April 2020 to April 2021, with the biggest growth in postings for Cybersecurity Technicians (up 19,222%), Full Stack Engineers (up 312%) and Cybersecurity Engineers (up 292%).

 

High level programming and software skills also featured among the most highly sought-after technical skills – including Python (programming language), Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure (cloud computing platforms).

 

Skills Index recommendations

The Skills Index outlines four key recommendations to help address the issue of skills shortages, these include:

• Five-decade careers mean we need a more radical approach to lifelong learning – incorporating more bite-sized learning and a Government campaign to convince people of the benefits of training throughout their lives
• Employers, individuals Government, all to play a part in funding lifelong in the future
• Better use of data to enable government, employers and individuals to plan for future skills needs and a commonly understood language of skills to be introduced
• Making the skills system more accessible to smaller businesses

 

To view the recommendations and report in full, download the full Skills Index report here:http://www.cityandguilds.com/skills-index

---

About City & Guilds Group

Our vision is for a world in which everyone has the skills and opportunities to succeed. We support over 4 million people each year to develop skills that help them into a job, develop in that job and to prepare for their next job.

 

As a charity, we’re proud that everything we do is focussed on achieving this purpose.

 

Through our assessment and credentialing, corporate learning and technical training offers, we partner with our customers to deliver work-based learning programmes that build competency to support better prospects for people, organisations and wider society. We create flexible learning pathways that support lifelong employability, because we believe that people deserve the opportunity to train and learn again and again – gaining new skills at every stage of life, regardless of where they start.

 

Our foundation activities amplify our purpose by helping to remove barriers to getting into a job, celebrating best practice on the job, and advocating for jobs of the future. www.cityandguildsgroup.com

 

About Emsi

Emsi’s goal is to help local, regional and national economies function more effectively through helping people and organisations make better decisions relating to the world of work. Through a unique integration of a variety of labour market data sources, we create a detailed and holistic understanding of workforce supply and demand down to the local level.

 

^[1] Working age population – GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures