Building confidence when the plastic curtain falls?
Returning to work after the pandemic, whether it is a front facing role or not, the employee and Manager face a lot of anxiety.
All of the government guidelines have been followed, sanitising stations and social distancing signage have been placed at strategic locations. Masks are worn, enforced even during the most mundane of tasks.
If you work at an office or in front of customers it is scary coming back to work, the fear derived from any rise in cases can make you hypersensitive.
Whilst this is unnerving for the team who you work with, every workplace will do its upmost to keep everyone safe. However, there are going to be some legacy issues from Covid that will affect business in the long term.
It is dependent on forming new habits. It is said that it will take 66 days for a new behaviour to become a habit and lock down has been far longer, so it could be late Summer or early Autumn until this get back to normal.
Staff
According to the job board website Monster in 2020 the average staff turnover was 15%. It is also measured at a 33% of a roles salary to recruit and train so it is very costly to lose staff. You could even put a figure to it which is a P&L cost line that you do not want to increase.
In 2021, a team member needs to feel safe in the workplace. It is currently a workers’ market, so it would not take companies long to realise that this is selling point when advertising new roles.
However, as things change so does the environment you work in, such as social distancing and hot desking. The latter not allowed under the current guidelines and can see them being is to prevent illness spreading in the later months of the year.
A case study that does spring to mind is the one of Bank Cashiers, who has screens removed to make themselves more accessible. This was pioneered by Barclays and Metro bank where you now see a high level of service. Although, the change with the Barclays staff was very well managed and is difficult to find any source of negativity.
There are certainly parallels with the covid sneeze guards so learning from them will be crucial in getting your business back to normal.
Customers
The habit of online ordering will be hard to break with some customers who now are used to the system. Customers are more often than not employees, so they must also be confident of the safety measures that are made available to them when they do interface with a physical location.
However, there is now more of an expectation when they do visit, especially with regards to food service. No longer will they tolerate a restaurant that is crammed full of table with no walkways. There is an expectation of less tables, full table service and longer visits.
Most sectors will have to make adjustments which will have an impact versus the traditional experience.
Leaders
This is going to play havoc with regards to turning over tables also with the double whammy of there also being less. Sales targets will need to be adjusted realistically for this new world.
Whilst every business differs then you must look at additional ways to drive revenue, whether it is margins or offers of an entry or premium levels of experience/product.
Although margin is a pure way to manage a profitable business, you cannot bank a margin.
Obtaining feedback is also of importance and the quicker the better. I would expect companies to use modelling such as Net Promoter Score (NPS) or industry review sites to measure satisfaction. Using both will give you a snapshot of the live feedback and also a metric to benchmark against.
To truly build confidence with staff, customers and your leaders you must be agile and prepared to change. Taking a long-term view would be pointless unless you steered everyone through the most critical of trading periods.
Off Course model
There is a process that you could use called the ‘Off Course model’, this is the agile approach when it comes to getting things right and building confidence.
If you do need business support then GJC advisory can assist with the gaps to bring the goal closer. The plastic curtain will certainly be going soon and if you need assistance with any aspect of your business then please contact us.
