Following our poll conducted on LinkedIn in February (mid-lockdown #3) – we wanted to publish a quick summary of the results and our thoughts, as we asked:
What is your current situation regarding ‘workload’ as an employee or business owner?
This CCO Group poll had a reasonable response with 153 votes over a few days, and the results showed that things are picking up! I think many of us are feeling it now – and perhaps as there are less journeys to meetings and gaps in the diary…
61% of us consider it to be busier than pre-Covid-19
While this may be more prevalent in our markets of property and construction, with the foot being briefly taken off the pedal during the pandemic, it certainly shows hope, and that the economic incline is speeding up, and indeed, hopefully here to stay. Unsurprisingly, with certain markets, such as retail and commercial, hit particularly badly, many finding they are less busy are likely to be in this part of the market – with this hopefully picking up soon as the UK navigates itself back out to “normal” life again… with…
17% of respondents finding it to be less busy or at similar levels to pre-Covid-19
Grouping the “furloughed” and those “redundant/actively searching” together (as many on furlough are indeed actively searching!), our poll shows that…
22% of the market is on the hunt for their new role.
While this number is large, this is to be assumed to be made up of some unfortunately without roles or fearing for their position, and those who did not job-hunt in 2020 (for obvious reasons!). This volume has had many effects on the recruitment process with hiring managers being inundated with responses (particularly in popular markets/roles or for graduate roles), individuals receiving no or little feedback, and the search seeming much more challenging than normal.
From our perspective, day-by-day this is evolving, many people are taking up roles directly and through agencies, and the market is shifting slowly back from being a buyers’ market, while people start 2021 in a settled role, but time will tell this year, how long that process will take.