About the Author:

Kris Oldland has been working in Business to Business Publishing for almost a decade. As a journalist he has covered a diverse range of industries from Fire Juggling through to Terrorism Insurance. Prior to this he was a Quality Services Manager with a globally recognised hospitality brand. An intimate understanding of what is important when it comes to Service and a passion for emerging technology means that in Field Service he has found an industry that excites him everyday.

Is Covid-19 the Ultimate Disruptor and What Will Business Look Like When We Emerge?

Jun 03, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

In this highlight from the Field Service Podcast Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News and Kevin Green, former CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation discuss what the impact of Covid-19 will be in terms of market...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

Can we Look forward to a New Normal that is Better than before?

In the last few months we’ve seen such rapid changes in such a short amount of time. There is often talk about disrupters entering a market, but the truth is that perhaps the biggest disrupter our civilisation has ever seen is not a new emerging technology or organisation but the Covid-19 pandemic.

Across the conversation with Green on episode one series five of the Field Service Podcast we explored a number of different aspects to what breeds agility and adaptability into an organisation. We discussed the crucial role of leadership, strategy, people and processes reflecting back on the positives that have emerged as companies have been forced into action to survive the global lockdowns and the economic tsunami of recession, they look set to trigger.

Perhaps the simplest question, has the most complex answer. It is also the question on everybody’s lips. What comes next? What does the new-normal of tomorrow look like?

“When we look at the impact of disruption a classic example of this will be what happens at the end of this year,” Green states.

“If you take a cultural analogy, you know, the adaptive organisation will say ‘okay, what have we learned from this? How do we adapt what we do in light of that [learning]?’

The challenges we’ve all been through in recent months, surely it would be criminal to not seize the learnings from this time as Green suggests and build a better, brighter version of what we had before the lockdowns came?

“Actually, we found that we can have 90% people working from home and we can still deliver the product, we can do some amazing things, using technology as a tool so how do we structure our business going forward? Do we continue to have people working at home, perhaps we have half the people and we can get rid of some office space because we don't need it anymore?

"That's a demonstration of an organisation which is learning and developing and taking the experience of this crisis and trying to build on it and use it for good. What you will find though is that some other organisations will just revert the type. The lockdowns will eventually be lifted and everyone goes back to work and we carry on in the same way.

“That is a classic example of an adaptive learning organisation, versus one which isn't responsive to its environment because it won't see the opportunities that the crisis has created for it and won't learn from this and won't adapt. We'll see a lot of organisations, just go back to doing things it as they’ve always done them.

“However, I think there will be other organisations that saying ‘hang on a second, there is some real good stuff that we've learned here. We've used technology differently, our staff have operated in different ways and we've given them more autonomy. Why don't we build on that and use it as we go forward?”

The challenges we’ve all been through in recent months, surely it would be criminal to not seize the learnings from this time as Green suggests and build a better, brighter version of what we had before the lockdowns came?

Can Entrepreneurialism be Added to Corporate DNA? (podcast highlights)

Jun 01, 2020 • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, talks to author of best-selling book Competitive People Strategy and ex CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation Kevin Green about whether Entrepreneurial organisations have a secret...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

Outline the true purpose of your organisation

We have seen a number of companies adapt and pivot in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and an entrepreneurial streak has been evident in the vast majority of those companies that have been at the forefront in doing so.

As other companies who may not have such innovative flair embedded within their ranks look on from the sidelines the question many business leaders are now asking is whether such entrepreneurial leanings can be developed and nurtured or whether they are just essential characteristics and so should be ‘acquired’ for recruitment instead?

“It [entrepreneurialism] is quite often in organisations that are going to turn on a sixpence , they're going to respond very, very quickly,” Green suggests.

“Quite often it's about their purpose, he adds “I don't think Dyson talks about money, they talk about design at it’s principle. If there's a challenge the country has like building ventilators, then Dyson would automatically step up to the plate because of its purpose.

“I think organisations whose leadership has created that purpose, those who’ve created an agile culture, these are the ones likely to be able to respond quickly to these sorts of external events and challenges..."

“They think ‘actually there is a major challenge here, the country needs an organisation to help design and build new ventilators. We've got a lot of expertise that's right at the heart of what we do.’ So, they were able to step into that space to help. An organisation that's pretty agile and nimble can come forward and respond and I think they've certainly done that.”

It is within this ethos of firmly understanding a companies purpose that Green believes the ability to adapt lies.

“I think organisations whose leadership has created that purpose, those who’ve created an agile culture, these are the ones likely to be able to respond quickly to these sorts of external events and challenges. Whereas if you're big and lumbering and you're, you're very mechanistic, it's much more difficult to be able to, you know, turn on that sixpence.

“In fact, [these companies are] more like an oil tanker, it takes a long time to change things if you’ve done things the same way for decades and decades and everything's quite hard wired,” Green adds.

“Leadership has a major role to play in organisational design and culture. If you are three quarters of the way, there already then it enables you to respond to these challenges which are thrown down whereas other organisations will find it much, much more difficult.”

5 Considerations for Building an Adaptive Culture (podcast highlights)

May 29, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

In this highlight from the Field Service Podcast Kevin Green, author of Competitive People Strategy and former CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation lists five key considerations that he believes can lead an organisation to...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

The Key Ingredients to an Adaptive Culture? People and Processes

In any kind of change management process there is a deep rooted need for establishing clear processes and outlining the reasons for change in a clear, concise and transparent manner at all levels. However, this is particularly crucial when trying to change something as firmly embedded within an organisation as its corporate culture. The culture of a company is as fundamental as it gets when it comes to the core ethos that exists across all areas of operation.

Tackling such a change requires significant understanding of both where you are and where you wish to be so you can effectively plot a path from one to the other. In episode one of season five of the Field Service Podcast, Green outlined five key considerations which he believes organisations looking to establish such change should be aware of.

“I think there are five things that most organisations, if they're going to build an adaptive culture need to know,” Green explained.

“The first of these is to create a clear, coherent purpose. Why are we here? What are we doing? What do we stand for? This should be something that stands the test of time so people can see it's not just about money, it's about something else, something more fundamental to why the business exists.

“Secondly, I think you've got to define, embed and live the values. You've got to really make sure that the values mean something, and that people understand them. You can’t just impose them, you must engage people in a conversation so that they feel they own them. They [the wider team within the business, must feel they] are part of the organisation that's created them.

The third consideration Green outlines revolves around who you hire within your leadership teams.

"You have to make sure you recruit talent and that you don't get obsessed with superstars..."

“You must hire and develop managers who are good people, managers who can coach and develop people,” Green adds.

You don’t want management who take the attitude of ‘I’m the boss I tell you what to do’ in a traditional instruction-driven manner Green explains, commenting “It's more about listening, engaging, developing, helping people learn."

The fourth consideration is again rooted in finding the right people that will thrive in the type of environment you are creating. “You have to make sure you recruit talent and that you don't get obsessed with superstars,” Green comments “Make sure that people fit the culture. [This way] you find managers and leaders and other talent that are going to thrive in the environment you're creating.”

The final consideration Green outlines is process orientated. “You really need to focus on how the work actually gets done,” he asserts.

“For example, is it lean or agile? There's lots of tools out there, which are all about empowering people to work locally to improve things. An environment of continuous improvement where people's views are listened to, where they can come up with solutions to the problems that customers and people are having with the product or service is hugely important.

“If you follow those five things, you're pretty well along on journey of moving from a mechanistic culture to one which is much more adaptive and responsive to customers wants and needs.”

Benefits of the Rapid Evolution We've All Endured (Podcast Highlights)

May 27, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

In this highlight form the Field Service Podcast, Kevin Green, former CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News focus on the potential upside of the crisis we've all faced together...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

The Galvanising Effect of Rapid Evolution at times of Crisis

There is no doubt the pressure of global lockdowns has forced organisations to change. There simply wasn’t adoption for most businesses to ‘stay calm and carry-on’ as the popular British meme suggests.

Business survival as the world went on temporary hiatus was more in line with dynamic Darwinian concepts than steadfast stoicism. It was not the largest organisations that found themselves at safe enough distance from harm, just look at the aviation sector for evidence that the pandemic has taken its toll among industry heavyweights and minnows alike, it is those who were able to adapt the fastest.

Yet, dare we say it in the light of such a wide reaching tragedy that has touched the lives of almost everyone on the planet in some way shape and form, but there is equally an opportunity presented here for organisations that have the innate ability to adapt enclosed within their corporate DNA.

In fact, it is perhaps the responsibility of those organisations capable of doing so to thrive now as we plot a path back towards whatever it is that will be our ‘new-normal’. We need them to do so for the sake of kick-starting floundering economies. We need them to do so because this whole saga is in desperate need for a silver lining.

Green certainly sees that there are opportunities to establish more dynamic cultures within our organisations and that those who do so will flourish. However, those who fail to do so may face a future of extinction rather than evolution.

“The way most organisations change is when they're in crisis,” he explains.

"One of the great things about change is that if your backs are against the wall, it's easier to make big calls than if you're trying to change in an organisation in a more evolutionary, type of way, in a more incremental manner...”

“As we've seen in the recent health crisis, lots of organisations have made very quick decisions and changed at pace because they've had to, there was absolutely no choice, but what you find is most organisations don't change. When I was at the Royal Mail as HR director, we were losing a million and a half pounds a day. So we had to change, we had to change at pace. That galvanises people and they make choices that would have never been choices and decisions that wouldn't have been made in normal circumstances.

So, one of the great things about change is that if your backs are against the wall, it's easier to make big calls than if you're trying to change in an organisation in a more evolutionary, type of way, in a more incremental manner,” Green adds.

However, while the onset of Covid-19 has forced rapid change within many organisations, for those companies with a more rigid leadership structure, Green warns that evolving into a more dynamic organisation can take time, something some companies may find scarce.

“If you're a new leadership team and you've inherited an organisation which is very, very mechanistic and top down, then it [establishing a culture change] takes time. It is not an easy thing to change your culture. It is about involving people. It's about engaging people. It's about trying to manage people, but in a different way.

“It's about creating, but also some of it will be about dismantling systems and processes. You need to take apart ways of working, that have been in place for many years. Changing a culture is something that has to be deliberate, thoughtful, and well executed. It's not something you can just swap overnight and expect everyone to behave differently. In fact, if you do that, you’ll end up in chaos.”

What is certain though is even if your organisation leadership is based in a top-down, mechanistic style of approach – there has never been a more pressing time to address this and begin introducing more modern, dynamic approaches to leadership within you organisation then right now.

The Field Service Sector Must Empower Gig Workers (Podcast Highlights)

May 26, 2020 • Features • Gig Economy • Knowledge Management • Digital Transformation • Field Service Podcast • m-ize

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Ashok Khartham, CEO M-ize about why the challenges we are all facing in the fallout could see a drive towards field service companies embracing the gig-economy and how that could work

Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Two 'Season Five, Episode Two: Ashok Khartham on Connected Customers Being the Missing Link to Fully Connected Field Service'

Treat Gig workers like You do Your own field service engineers

There is one topic which is dominating all conversation at the moment. That is, of course, the current COVID-19 pandemic and how we plot our path back to full recovery.

One of the suggestions that has been forward in a number of conversations around this topic is how the gig economy could play a pivotal role in that road to recovery.

At Field Service News, we have been talking a lot about the potential of the gig economy for some time before the pandemic took hold but now with many, many field service companies seeking to re-establish control and catch up on the thousands of lost service hours the tapping into the gig economy is becoming a very real prospect as to the only way many companies will be able to get through the sheer volume of capacity requirements they face.

However, the big challenge is if you're tapping into that gig economy market and other forms of third party labour you are putting your customers in the hands of a workforce that will likely have a broad knowledge base now have a broad skill set.

This can be fine for a large majority of jobs, but what happens if the gig worker comes up against an issue that is more specific to your organisations assets that they simply couldn't be expected to resolve first-time out?

"As we all know, the gig economy and independent contractor usage is growing..."

A second service call means increasing costs at a time when cash-flow is stretched to a breaking point already.

This potential increase in the use of the gig-worker in the field service workforce and the need for easy transmission of data and information that can assist in fault diagnosis and steps to resolution has really amplified the need for solutions that can deliver knowledge where and when it is needed.

"As we all know, the gig economy and independent contractor usage is growing," commented Ahsok Khartam, CEO, M-ize on a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast describing a recent case study they had just published with Electrolux.

"Initially, when they started deploying our knowledge management solution, they started with their authorised service technicians. However, one of the things they quickly found is they needed similar knowledge access for all their independent technicians that they are starting to use.

"Having that knowledge access has helped Electrolux as even though gig workers may not care as much about the productivity [of the parent company], providing knowledge management systems has still led to a better customer experience. If that product with their brand name is fixed faster than they are providing better customer experience and enabling third parties where they don't have access to they won't technicians offers a better availability of service an reduces the time it takes to resolve the issue."

Here Khartam makes an excellent point. Form an outside-in perspective we must remember the customer cares little if the engineer that turns up to resolve their problem is a third-party employee or part of your internal workforce. All they will remember is how quickly you were able to resolve their problem.

Investing in the right tools to empower the gig-workers to do just that could be a very wise move right now.

The Importance of Consistent Values In Leadership (Podcast Highlights)

May 22, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

In this highlight form the Field Service Podcast, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Kevin Green, former HR Director of the Royal Mail and author of the best selling book Competitive People Strategy about how we identify the...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

Leadership Values should be lived not put up on a wall

One of the things that has been evident amongst many organisations who have adapted best to the challenging operating conditions of the last few months is that there has been a genuine in the trenches approach to how we're all getting through this together.

One of the things that has really come to the fore in terms of good leadership has been a leadership method that has strengthened this message. The common mantra of many a leadership communication at this time is that so we're all pulling together, we're all moving in the same direction together and to achieve recovery we must embrace a very collegial approach.

As Green outlined in Season Five, Episode One of The Field Service Podcast the ability to not only convey such a message, but to actively live it, is something that is embedded in strong leadership.

“We talk a lot about behaviours and values within organisations,” he begins as we touch on the topic. “When organisations are tested, they're put under pressure, then it's how you behave that your people will remember. They won’t remember what's written down on a piece of paper or the value stuff up on a wall. They remember when there are tough decisions to be made, how our leaders made those decisions - did they live by their values?

“The obvious one is has the organisation tried to keep as many people employed as possible and get as many people to the other side?” He adds.

"When recovery comes and people have a choice about who they work for, will people will want to stay and work for your organisation?"

This consideration is something that has been echoed across much of the content here on Field Service News and beyond. The way an organisation acts towards their staff during crisis could have a significant impact on their ability to retain skilled field workers when the economies begin to reopen. Remember, many field service organisations will be seeking to catch up on capacity lost during the crisis and as such the field service engineer is likely to be a role very much in demand.

Green touched in this in the wider business context as he continued; “Staff don't forget, there's a long corporate memory within most organisations,” he explains.

“So leaders have got to think about the decisions they're making with a lens as to how does this play out to my people now, but as you mentioned, when recovery comes and people have a choice about who they work for, will people will want to stay and work for your organisation? A lot of that will be dependent on how the leadership behaved when the organisation was under huge pressure, and whether they did the right thing by the people.

“Now, that isn't to say that organisations don't make to make need to cut costs and make some people redundant because I think in this environment, some have had to do that. But it's also about how you communicate that and how do you engage your people?

“One Chief Executive I was talking to recently phoned every single member of staff that was made redundant, and had an individual conversation with them, and then said at the end of that conversation to every single one, and there were about 60 or 70 people, ‘this isn't your fault, and when we get back, then I'm going to prioritise and re employing you people. I really don't want to do this, but I had no choice’ and he explained the circumstances on a personal one to one level.

“Now, that is leadership. [He] still made the tough decision, but actually [he] implemented it in a way which means those people most probably will go back and work for him when the roles do become available again.”

Identifying Organisational Culture in Business (Podcast Highlights)

May 22, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News and Kevin Green, former HR Director of Royal Mail and the best selling author of Competitive People Strategy discuss what culture is within an organisation and how to identify whether a corporate...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

Does your leadership team understand the Value of Nurturing culture within the business?

In the few short months since the Covid-19 pandemic spread around the world and we went into a global lockdown everything has changed.

As Kevin Green explained in Season Five, Epsiode, One of the Field Service Podcast, it is as if a meteorite has hit us and the world of industry went into temporary shutdown operating at minimum capacity. There is talk that in terms of economics, we could potentially bounce back as sharply as we fell, although the majority of analysts are now predicting a longer more sustained road to recovery

However, the truth remains that we are collectively waking up into a different world than that which existed pre-pandemic and that will be the case no matter how quickly we get to the recovery.

There are fundamental things that will have changed, particularly in some of the service industries which have been hardest hit such as the hospitality sector. Yet similarly we have seen a massive boost to the digital transformation projects that were dots on the horizon for many companies just a few months earlier which have become mission-critical necessities today.

Equally we have seen businesses become adaptive, with those leading the way pivoting in some of the most remarkable way to help battle the pandemic but also to keep their teams in work and the revenue flowing even in these most challenging of years.

But how do we create an adaptive culture? How we make sure that our team are able to continue evolving throughout the recovery processes, we move beyond into a post COVID-19 world?

"The issue for me is whether the organisation has really spent time thinking about it [the corporate culture] and understanding it and do the leaders get that developing, enhancing and reinforcing a culture is what gets great results?"

“Every organisation has a culture, whether it's a well-articulated and something that's been designed or created over a period of time, or whether it's just how people behave within the business,” explained Green.

“One of the good examples I always use when I talk about culture is how do people behave when the manager is not there? Do they still work incredibly hard and do they still give discretionary effort? Or actually when the manager is not around, they just muck around, and not work hard? That will describe your culture, how people feel about the organisation.

“The other great example is when you meet someone that works for an organisation in a social setting and you ask them, what's it like to work there? What do they say? That's when you can, that's a real articulation of your culture,” Green adds.

For Green though the value of culture within an organisation goes far, far beyond coping within crisis – it is where the inherent value of the business lies and is something that absolutely needs to be nurtured by the leadership team.

“The issue for me is whether the organisation has really spent time thinking about it [the corporate culture] and understanding it and do the leaders get that developing, enhancing and reinforcing a culture is what gets great results?

“My belief is that most value in today's economy comes from human beings. It used to be about access to capital and machinery. But now it's about you know, and if you look at the PwC survey of Chief Execs globally, the number one issue is talent. Have I got the talent? Have I got more talent than my competitors? Can I find it? And can I retain it?

“To do that, you've got to have a culture where people want to work, where they can turn up and do good work, you and that's the fundamental thing about having an adaptive culture, you must articulate your purpose. Why does the organisation exist?”

As we continue to grow into a post Covid world, it is likely that it is those companies that understand what it is to establish and adaptable culture that are likely to thrive in the ‘new-normal’.

Leadership in a Post-Pandemic World (Podcast Highlights)

May 20, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Kevin Green, former CEO Recruitment and Employment Confederation and the best selling author of Competitive People Strategy about what leadership looks like in the face of the Covid-19...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

The Importance of Trust Within leadership

The role of leadership has perhaps never been under the microscope more than it is today.

It is in times of crisis that we see strong leadership come to the fore but is there a different type of leadership required for managing an organisation through a crisis. Winston Churchill for example, regarded by many as one of the world’s great leaders was able to galvanise the British during the second world war to somehow bring to a halt the apparently unstoppable might of the Nazi war machine. Yet, in the first election of peacetime in 1945 he led the Conservatives to a shocking landslide defeat at the hands of Clement Attlee’s Labour Party.

As we read, listen and watch about the impact of Covid-19 the war-time analogies continue to flow, it is hard for us to draw any other parallels as none really exist within living memory.

So, are the leadership traits that we're seeing emerge now different to what will be required after the pandemic? Or is it just that there is a magnifying glass on good leadership at the moment and what we are paying attention to is best practice in terms of leadership?

“I think the businesses that have responded most positively and have been the most agile and responsive in in the face of something which is a pretty extreme and very rare event are the organisations who have very clear ideas about how organisations should be run,” Kevin Green, commented on The Field Service Podcast, Season Five, Epiosde One.

"The centre of the organisation is responsible for strategy, long term thinking and some guiding principles and then they devolve decision making to people to in the appropriate place in the organisation to respond to customers wants and needs."

One of the common areas that Green has identified amongst such organisations is that there is an understanding that trust must be embedded across the organisation rather than the absolute approach of a more authoritarian leadership style.

“It's not command and control from the top,” he explains “it's not everything rises to the top but [these companies are applying] very dissipated decision making. Here the centre of the organisation is responsible for strategy, long term thinking and some guiding principles and then they devolve decision making to people to in the appropriate place in the organisation to respond to customers wants and needs.

“Those organisations that have already got that type of leadership, mentality and culture are the ones that have responded most quickly and most effectively. If you’ve got a command and control structure it's very, very difficult for one group of people, that don't have all the facts, [who] aren't in control of everything ,to make decisions on every data point,” he adds.

However, it is not just an efficiency challenge that Green sees in a command and control approach. There is also the heavy weight of burden that this can carry on the leadership team and this can have a significant impact on their own performance as well if left unchecked.

As Green explains; “You get swamped and the pressure becomes quite profound. [To avoid this] the centre of the organisation needs to create direction, clarity and communication for their people and then allow leaders at a local level to make decisions about how best to implement them.

“What this [Covid-19] has highlighted is that good leadership, where people trust their people and trust their managers to make the right decisions in 90% of circumstances and have got the benefit [of that approach] while those are perhaps a little bit more old fashioned [in their leadership structure] have struggled.”

A Challenge Greater Than Anything We've Known (Podcast Highlights)

May 18, 2020 • Features • Royal Mail • The Field Service Podcast • Covid-19 • Leadership and Strategy • Kevin Green

While the hope of a V-shaped dip in the economy is still a possibility, we cannot underestimate the sheer magnitude of the economic impact of the global lockdowns as Kevin Green explained in a episode of the Field Service Podcast...

Want to hear more head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode One 'Kevin Green on Leadership, Strategy and the Economic Impact of Lockdown' for the full episode...

Understanding the True Economic Impact of Covid-19

Talking to Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News during episode one of season five of the Field Service Podcast, Kevin Green outlined just why the challenge we face now is different from anything that has come before.

"I suppose the starting point, is recognising the difference from an economic perspective the Covid-19 health crisis has created in comparison to previous recessions," Green began.

Going on to draw on his own experience both as Chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Federation, as well as former HR Director for the UK's Royal Mail, Green continued "the recruitment industry always rises to the economic waves quite well. In that, it goes into recession early, but it also comes out early.

"I can remember in 2008, and that was a pretty unprecedented economic downturn, six quarters of contraction where our industry lost 30% of its revenue. However, in 2008 there was a period before we went into that recession. There was a debate going on, as to whether a recession was coming or not. So, most businesses had six to nine months to prepare for the downturn. The difference with COVID-19 is it happened within a week.

"The government first decided it was going to start asking people to self-isolate and close down parts of the economy. But actually, when we then entered lockdown, in reality with like an asteroid hit the planet, effectively we were switching off 70% of the economic activity of the country. What that has done to our economy is created a huge shock. We've not got any preparation. People weren't prepared at all, and we've just gone headlong into a recession, which will be pretty significant."

"Liquidity has become everything. It's not so much about profitability, or your P&L and your balance sheet. Now, it's more about how I got the cash to get the business and as many people as possible to the other side..."

The point Green makes is crucial for how we are to make the necessary adjustments as we prepare a road towards recovery. We cannot under-estimate the sheer magnitude of the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy and how that will have an ongoing effect on the business chains our organisations exist within.

As Green continues; "So [this recession] is clearly more severe than previous recessions and much faster. I suppose the obvious way to compare is if you think about unemployment. Within the first two weeks of the this crisis, we have had a million people [within the UK] register for Universal Credit. In the last recession, it took us nearly three years to get a million more people unemployed. So that gives you an indication of how rapid the changes be."

This is an eye-opening statistic. It does well to outline how the current scenario is not comparable to the global economic downturn in 2008, where we had a more generic, slower build into a recession. Something that allowed companies to make advance decisions around not hiring and cutting back on investment.

Green went on to describe the situation in 2020 as one where "businesses were, all of a sudden on a precipice, deciding whether they could survive. [They were] taking costs out having to make very draconian and hard decisions very, very quickly, just to survive.

"Liquidity has become everything. It's not so much about profitability, or your P&L and your balance sheet. Now, it's more about how I got the cash to get the business and as many people as possible to the other side."

It has been a period of testing times for all of us, and those in leadership roles have had hard, hard decisions to make. Green is closely connected to many involved in such conversations in his role as a serial entrepreneur.

"It's been a time of crisis, and it's been incredibly difficult for leaders and leadership teams," Green explains. "it's taken its toll in terms of stress, anxiety, and lots of sleepless nights as businesses have had to take really tough decisions."

Yet, despite being in the heat of 'battle' on many fronts and having a comprehensive viewpoint on how the challenges we face today are genuinely unprecedented, Green still sees a glimmer of optimism in the future.

"Hopefully there is some good news in that we can come out of recessions as quickly as we entered it. As soon as soon the government starts lifting some of the self-isolating and people having to work from home, then parts of the economy can and will switch back on again. I think what we all have to hope is that, while we've gone into recession very, very quickly, we will come out pretty fast on the other side as well."

AUTHOR ARCHIVES: Kris Oldland

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