Rapid change is once again disrupting the operating environment and bringing opportunities. By Nick Woodward, founder of ETZ Payments
A changed world
My how the world has changed in a couple of months. Yes, that’s how long since the Wuhan virus outbreak in China first appeared on the radar for the majority of us.
If you are resident in the UK, everything has been turned on its head in just 5 days. Over the week from Monday 16 March, we have gone from being warned against all but essential going out, to seeing supermarket shelves stripped, slashed interest rates, record-breaking stock market dives and half-hearted rallying, and something approaching a blank cheque rescue of private companies and individuals by the government.
Following the announcement of school closures, the children of key workers would continue to be taught and cared for in schools.
Coronavirus COVID-19 key workers
The key worker groups identified by this include:
- Frontline healthcare professionals and workers such as doctors and nurses
- Some teachers and social workers and specialist education professionals who must remain active during the COVID-19 response
- Workers in key public services including those essential to the justice system, religious staff, frontline charity workers, funeral workers attending to the deceased and public service journalists
- Local and national government workers deemed crucial to delivering essential public services for the effective delivery of the COVID-19 response
- Workers involved in the production, processing, distribution, sale and delivery of food other key goods such as those for hygienic, medical and veterinary purposes
- Public safety and national security workers including police, MoD Defence civil staff, armed forces personnel, fire and rescue, NCA and prison staff
- Transport workers for running air, water, road and rail passenger and freight transport Essential to keeping supply chains moving
- Utilities, communication and financial services staff, including oil, gas, electricity and water services, IT and data infrastructure (Internet services) postal workers and waste disposal workers to support the COVID-19 response
There are skills shortages in a number of these groups and there are some opportunities for recruiters in supplying key workers to meet the increased demand.
Speed is of the essence
For jobs where the skills are not so specialised, such as order picking, warehousing and driving, there is likely to be a abundance of applicants that may have seen the collapse of income from their usual sources of work.
However, many of these jobs are highly skilled and require appropriate experience. Training people for high skills roles takes time, often measured in months or even years. However, it is likely that whatever the skill level attached to these roles, they need to be filled rapidly.
The strategy being pursued by the NHS is to recall people with skills that are no longer than 3 years old. This has led to appeals going out to around 65,000 ex-NHS workers that are in scope.
For other industries where there are similar skills shortfalls, similar programs might be appropriate. Recruiters could try to attract those that have the key skills, but which are not currently employed in companies or jobs classed as key to supporting the COVID-19 response.
Retirees or career changers
Establish a dialogue with those that have the requisite capabilities but that have retired or changed career recently.
Current practitioners not currently in key worker roles
Active workers whose current roles are not deemed as key are also an appropriate group to target.
Nick Woodward is the founder of ETZ Payments.
