There can be no downplaying the impact that the pandemic has had on businesses all over the globe. Companies of all shapes and sizes, from major corporations to limited companies set up by self-employed freelancers have been through an incredibly tough time since March 2020. Many people have been forced to make the kinds of tough decisions that they wouldn’t wish on their worst enemies. Many more have found themselves out of work.
But storms do pass, and things are starting to look a little brighter out there now. In large part that is due to the vaccines that have been reaching more and more people around the world. We are all feeling a bit more comfortable, a bit more reassured, and we are all benefiting from being able to see our friends and loved ones again.
But one of the main reasons for our confidence is because we have all learned how to adapt. We have learned how to stay light on our feet, to roll with the punches that have been raining down on us, and to see more of those challenges coming. For managers that have found themselves out of work, the situation has required a lot of resilience and creative thinking. Here are just a few of the ways that they have adapted to the competitive job market.
Developing new skills
One of the most eye-catching developments of the pandemic was the statistics surrounding job applications. We all saw the news about how many people were applying for entry level jobs. People with decades of experience in that specific role were tussling it out with recent graduates and people who were hoping that they could reframe their prior career to make them sound like the best choice. In the face of such fierce competition, one of the smartest choices was to find new ways to stand out.
Faced with a lot of unexpected down time and a job market that seemed to collapse in on itself overnight, a lot of managers understood that the chances of simply walking into the same position in the same industry were slim. So, rather than spend day after day hammering on doors, people went away and thought about which skills would give them a boost. Would a marketing course help to give them an edge? Was there something specifically in people management that could make them a more enticing prospect to employers? Whether it was accounting or social media, there were courses available online thanks to institutions realising that accessibility was now paramount.
Benefiting from smart planning
None of us hope for a rainy day, but the fact is that the people who plan for it tend to weather long periods of difficulty such as these better than those who don’t. Now, even the most pessimistic of people would have been hard pushed to get ready for a scenario like the one we have just been through unless they’re the type of person who has a doomsday bunker in their garden. But there are several smart, simple steps that everyone can take to ensure that they are as well-cushioned as possible in case of a sudden jolt.
The rainy-day fund is a classic example. It’s not always easy to put money aside every month for that just-in-case account, but it’s so important for a situation like an unexpected redundancy. However, there are several reasons why you’d want to leave a savings account untouched, and it is not always the most viable option.
One of the smartest steps that a lot of managers took was to look at Income Protection Insurance. What is income protection? It’s an insurance plan that is set up to give you a pay-out should you lose your job because of unemployment, sickness or an accident. The cost of income protection may vary but given the unstable times we live in; the benefits outweigh the premiums. Drewberry has an income risk calculator that can show you how much of your income is at risk in the event of the unexpected.
Embrace the new normal
We already mentioned that a lot of people out there have made the best of the situation by enrolling in online courses and developing new skills. A big part of that mindset comes from an acceptance that things are not going to go back to exactly the way they were any time soon.
We have seen a real divergence in mindsets across all levels of company structure when it comes to the rest of 2021 and beyond. Some businesses are dead set on getting everyone back into the office and so on. Others are cutting ties with brick-and-mortar structures and are putting their resources into digital. The pandemic hit fast forward on this evolution and managers who embrace these changes have made themselves much more enticing to businesses who understand that. SEO-driven content, social media strategy, digital marketing campaigns, advances in AI tech…staying up to date with new trends and new technologies has allowed out of work managers to find new roles without skipping a beat.
