The uncertainty caused by the coronavirus is compounded by the subsequent economic damage from lockdown measures imposed to safeguard vulnerable communities from the worst of the pandemic. Companies of all sizes are in a race against time to adapt to a new, as-yet undefined normal.

The crisis is causing companies to accelerate their adoption of new workforce engagement models to ensure business continuity and productivity in a time of heightened disruption.

No industry spared from disruption

There are also distinct challenges unique to certain industries that are trying to adapt to difficult – in some cases impossible – trading conditions. The hospitality and tourism sector, possibly the hardest hit by the pandemic and resultant lockdown efforts, is on life support.

According to the International Air Travel Association, there was a 20% decline in international bookings and a 15% drop in domestic travel in Africa between March and April this year.

Global demand for commodities has shrunk, leading to a $420-million loss in revenue for sub-Saharan Africa exports to China. Supply chains have been disrupted and healthcare systems are under immense pressure from the increase in demand for treatment and screening for the virus.

The retail sector is under pressure to not only sustain services to consumers during lockdown but enhance employee safety measures and scale up e-commerce and delivery capabilities to meet a rise in demand.

New models of work

It is fair to assume that employers will look to leverage new models of work which enable a win-win for the business, its employees and other stakeholders. The external workforce – those workers who engage with the business on a contract or temporary basis – can help address short-term growth in demand without turning into a longer-term liability for the business when demand subsides.

According to a study conducted by Oxford Economics in 2018, 44% of organisational workforce spend is on the external workforce. It may be too soon to accurately assess how this figure has changed in recent months due to the pandemic; however, there will inevitably be significant shortcomings in how organisations mobilise and manage their remote workers.

Despite 65% of organisations claiming that external workers are critical to the organisation operating at full capacity and meeting market demands, three out of every four organisations lack a holistic view over their external workers. This can range from limited to no visibility about who their external workers are, what skills or experience they have, and what they are being paid.

Organisations preparing for the post-pandemic world of remote work need to focus on overcoming four distinct challenges, namely:

1. Managing unprecedented growth in certain industries – Employers need to enhance their ability to identify the right talent and reduce time-to-hire. This can be achieved partly through finding the best channels to source candidates and services, and partly through the use of digital tools that ease the process of managing external workers, suppliers and services.
2. Improving margins while working remotely – Margins will remain under pressure even with more widespread adoption of remote workers. Organisations need to leverage benchmark pricing to ensure they source talent at the right price. Benchmarks need to be both internal, based on a view of what the organisation has paid similar talent in previous years, and external, based on what other organisations within the same industry are paying.
3. Maintaining business continuity – Now, more than ever, organisations need full visibility over their total workforce. This allows for real-time planning and work reallocation that takes into account available resources and internal capacity.
4. Ensuring worker safety and health – Maintaining and managing a pool of healthcare resources is crucial during the pandemic. Organisations need to enhance their worker safety and health protocols to ensure the well-being of internal and external workers.

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But the truth is, there ·É¾±±ô±ôÌýbe a cut-off point and life will return to a new normal. As most have predicted, this normal will inevitably be very different to the normal of yesterday. Just as life and mindsets post-apartheid and post-9/11 changed, we can expect a new post-COVID normal. Perhaps hand sanitiser will continue to be a rare commodity, perhaps our medical staff will finally get the pay and respect they deserve, and perhaps companies with pending digital strategies will find that these very strategies have already rolled themselves out through dire necessity.

Whatever the next few weeks and months hold, there is a unanimous understanding that there will be some fundamental shifts in the interactions between employers and their employees. This is particularly pronounced in Africa where we bade farewell to 2019 having acknowledged a grave unemployment crisis. According to Statistic SA’s quarterly Labour Force Survey published in 2019, the narrow unemployment rate increased from 27.6% to 29.0%. The broad unemployment rate, which takes into account people who are no longer looking for work, increased from 38.0% to 38.5%.

Let that sink in for a moment: The number of unemployed individuals within South Africa who had given up on the possibility of finding work in 2019 was estimated to be over 10 million. One can only guess what this figure stands at in today’s bleak economic climate

On the side of employers, we are all very much aware that the operational disruption caused by COVID-19 alongside a 21-day lockdown ²¹²Ô»åÌýa downgrade to junk status, will inevitably affect the ability of businesses to recruit new hires even as normality returns. And yet, the optimistic amongst us predict that there will be a surge in demand in the latter part of the year and businesses will find new ways to address this demand whilst simultaneously managing costs.

My personal guess is that employers will look to leverage new models of work which enable a win-win situation for all parties. And a no-brainer at a time of strained cash flow and increased demand will be the use of contract or temporary workers – individuals who can address any growth in demand without ultimately becoming a liability on employers should the demand fizzle out after some time. However, managing temporary labour comes with a unique set of challenges which might not be so pronounced when you are dealing with permanent staff and standard new hire processes. For example, if you are bringing in workers for a 3-month period, how do you ensure that you are complying with the relevant health and safety legislation without investing in an extensive onboarding programme? Or if you are bringing in a specialised skill-set to complete a unique task, how do you know that the hourly rate you are paying is in line with market rates?

In 2018, 51·çÁ÷Fieldglass completed a study on temporary or external workforce amongst large corporations. According to this study, spend on temporary workforce for many large enterprises is over 40% and yet, many of these organisations have very little visibility on this category of their spend. Under-management of temporary workforce prevents organizations from unlocking the full potential of their employees, and exposes them to risks in security, compliance and more. Whilst this potential risk of under-management in 2018 was concerning, it is all the more concerning in 2020 as companies need to navigate a host of new risks with increased caution. 51·çÁ÷Fieldglass provides a holistic solution to help organizations find, engage, manage, pay, and unlock more value from a temporary workforce that is likely to grow.

What are your predictions for the new African normal post COVID-19? How will you be managing a changing employer-employee dynamic?

Kaunain Nurani is Director of Value Advisory, 51·çÁ÷Africa

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