Employer Value and Security Proposition Good people have always been difficult to find, and this will not change when the new normal becomes reality. Candidates with the right balance of today’s skills matrix; vision, change and transformation management, technology op- timisation, emotional intelligence, stakeholder engagement, risk and business continuity, remain in demand and have options. To engage with these candidates, employer value propositions will need to be stand out. (We talk more about today’s most relevant skillset for senior managers at the end of the document). During the transition period from post lockdown to normal operations resuming, (we estimate this lasting from September 2020 to March 2021) in-demand candidates will be nervous about moving and if inclined to do so, more intense scrutiny will be applied to career moves. Employers will need to improve their employment value proposition and company career culture more than ever before, to convince candidates to take the leap to join. Post March 2021, some changes will be a part of the new fabric of working life. We believe a big change, long term, will be around flexible working expectations. Flexible working or WFH (Working from Home) options have always been a draw for senior candidates. The burden of travel and long days being offset by dynamic working practices has given some employers an added attraction factor. This has not always been the case for employees across all sen- iority levels.
Only 30% of UK employees worked from home during 2019, according to the latest research by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The pandemic has levelled the playing field in this respect, as flexible working will be more of an expected feature now that so many employers have demonstrated their ability to support it. Employees have demonstrated their ability to adapt to a WFH environment, with some able to boost productivity and create a more harmonious work-life balance for themselves. Two different surveys both found that around two-thirds of employees say they are more productive when working from home.¹ As the new normal, employers who do not embrace this flexibility may risk looking dated, mistrusting of their key players and out of touch. The average daily commute in the UK is 59 minutes, the equivalent of 221 hours a year or just over 9 days, according to new research by the TUC. That amounts to a lot of potentially wasted time; stuck on tubes, trains at a standstill, gridlocked traffic. Commuters in the South East have seen the biggest rise, travelling an extra 31 hours a year, followed by the North West (up 26 hours) and the West Midlands (up 24 hours).²
¹ https://www.finder.com/uk/working-from-home-statistics ² https://www.tuc.org.uk/news/annual-commuting-time-21-hours-compared-decade-ago-finds-tuc
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