job – Ven India

Industry trends during COVID and Post-COVID

According to Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy 27 million youth in the age group of 20-30 years lost their jobs in April 2020 following a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Further, 33 million men and women in their 30s lost jobs in April, out of which 86% of the job losses were among men, it said.

In addition to the job losses, pay-cuts, and furloughs, the other trends Industries are adapting are:

Deferring any incentives, appraisals to employees.
Laying off roles where there are repetitive jobs.
Performance-based layoffs due to skill or will issues.
Layoffs due to the non-adaptability of employees to post- COVID scenario.
Layoffs considering resources on the bench even for 15 days as a burden for the organization and shedding overheads.
Decrease of numbers in Support functions.
Laying Off Senior People in Senior positions in the age group of 50+ yrs addressing cost and as perceived by the Industry – limitation in the utilization of such resources due to mobility, multitasking, adaptability, rigidity, etc.,
Promoting Junior resources to Senior roles due to resource availability at a lesser cost, maximum utilization, flexibility, more accommodative, etc..,
Hiring resources across geographies due to Work from home model.
Doubling the expectations in terms of deliverable’s and accountability.
Transferring Permanent resources to contractual employment – this will reduce the overhead cost for the Companies and retrenchment cost based on future Industry uncertainties that can be well accommodated at lesser cost and no brand defamation.
Out-placement of retrenched employees.
Engaging skilled white – collared resources on assignment/ day/ month basis is the new trend.
Hiring experienced resources at the cost of an entry-level resource.
Deferring all Campus hiring offers to infinity.
Expanding the job description of new and existing employees.
Measuring performance only on results delivered and not on the engagement time.
Work from home, not limiting working hours to 9, 10, 11, or 12 hours.
Major Companies adopting to Work from home trend due to the cost saved on infrastructure.
Expecting Industry ready resources minimizing training time and training cost.
Human Resource engaging more in virtual employee engagement platforms.
Adopting Project-based engagement through contractual hiring.
Building effective virtual platforms of communication to make the Work from home model better.
Reducing trial time and adaptability time of any new resource joining the organization.
Transfer of employees to the most challenging locations or work area.
Bidding with extremely Competitive rates to gain business and sustain.
Keeping only the primary and lean benefits to the employees active.
Emphasizing on survival than growth.

Every aspect of the industry has undergone substantial modifications. Should it be called New -Normal or New World? But change always is initiated, implemented, adapted, and better successful in chaos.

Impact of COVID on Industries and Job Market. Equip yourself to survive, sustain, and progress.

Job Market and Employment trends have undergone multiple transformations with time due to Recession, Globalization, Automation, and Digitalization. Currently, Industry is going through a tough phase due to pandemic, which has appeared nearly after 100 years.
The whole of the Industry is making assumptions and anticipations based on ever data possible. But unfortunately, most of them are not in alignment with the facts to date.

The changing scenario of the COVID census in different states, mortality rate, key people in politics, Govt or Essential services – tested positive, their duration of recovery, disturbance in the functionality of essential services … all have added to more confusion.

There were predictions made that, the second quarter of 2020-21 will see a considerable recovery. Whereas the job loss has increased, and pay cuts have prolonged till next quarter. Few of the Companies have announced pay cuts till March 2021. Appraisals, Bonus, and Variable Pay, have deferred until infinity.

Sectors most affected like Hospitality, Airlines, Automotive, Aerospace, Retail are struggling for survival. The Recovery Rate of Industries impacted due to COVID is very slow. The cascading effect is creating an enormous blow to the other Industries in the supply chain. Employees with higher Salaries, Senior people with monitoring roles, Support departments, Jobs that can be replaced by digitalization, Business Development roles are on the Target for retrenchments. Campus recruitments stopped for a year.

The positive side of the situation is, Junior level, capable and efficient people are elevated with higher responsibilities and opportunities to perform and acquire more senior roles once the market stabilizes. Most of the jobs are using virtual platforms to interact, reducing cost and time for both organizations and employees. The Industry will further explore and innovate newer means to perform and sustain.

Work from home will, in the future, give opportunities to more people in 2- tier, 3- tier cities, villages to work for MNC’s from their homes. Geographies won’t limit people to smaller or lesser opportunities. Educated Men and Women in small towns or villages will not have restrictions in career growth or opportunities. Lifestyle and exposure will improve in small cities.

Sectors like Pharma, Retail like Grocers, Vegetable vendors, Automation, Digitalization, few Mfgg units, Telecom, Networking, Computer Hardware, Infrastructure have seen the demand. Today’s job market belongs to only those people who can commit and deliver results in the least turn around time with utmost quality, integrity, and accountability. The changing demands and the situation of the Industry will force Companies to expect more from the employees. And Darwin’s theory of ‘Survival of fittest’ and ‘Natural Selection’ will force employees to thrive on competition. New Normal will come with many demands from the employers, better gauging criteria for performances and deliverables

Change is inevitable. One who adapts sooner will succeed, be it an Organization or an Individual. Equip yourself to survive, sustain, and progress.