We at Ardent Partners take the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic with the utmost seriousness. Accordingly, we have taken organizational precautions to minimize the risk of staff infection and the spread of the virus in our communities, including a 100% virtual work order and a ban on all work travel, including local, until further notice. We have no idea what the reach of this insidious virus is or will be – so, like you, we sit watching, waiting, and hoping. At the same time, we believe that our local communities and families are resilient… and we know that the supply management industry is resilient. We have faced and met large global challenges before and we will face and meet them again. So, we press on, continuing to offer our research digitally and virtually to our global community. We welcome all and any comments regarding our approach – submit them here – and, we wish you all safety, calm, and good fortune in these uncertain times.
Throughout the fall and winter of 2019, Ardent Partners collected a vast array of information on nearly 400 contingent workforce management (CWM) programs from across the globe. In just a few weeks, we plan to publish the 2020 edition of our annual State of Contingent Workforce Management research study, which harnesses this deep intelligence to provide procurement, HR, and talent acquisition professionals with the necessary insights, best practices, recommendations for action, technology impact, etc. to enhance programs and better prepare for the year ahead.
Given the nature of what is occurring in today’s personal and business climate due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CPO Rising would like to offer a sneak peek of the new research study; specifically, insights around the short-term (and possible long-term) impact of what’s happening today.
The Fallout From the COVID-19 Pandemic
As of March 2020, the business world faces uncharted waters. Organizations are temporarily shutting down or reducing the scope of their operations due to lockdown and quarantine orders. The COVID-19 pandemic is actively disrupting both families and businesses, forcing many indoors and disturbing the normal flow of enterprise operations from productivity and workforce perspectives. All of this will certainly affect both sides of the contingent workforce, including the businesses that regularly rely on this talent and the workers themselves.
What remains to be seen is how, exactly, the current coronavirus spread will dictate long-term business planning. In the short-term, businesses know that a drop in customers, shortened office hours, and across-the-board disruption will occur. However, the longer-term projections are not so clear. The following are possible scenarios of fallout from this pandemic:
- A “mini-crunch” not unlike a recession. Two straight quarters of negative economic growth is not out of the question at this point in 2020, signaling the early stages of a recession. Much like the downturn of the late aughts, this crunch could cause global businesses to lay off workers, re-imagine their 18-month plans, and convene around the idea of “doing more with less” to survive.
- Increased reliance on remote workers and freelance talent. The most recent economic downturn caused a “perfect storm” in which 1) businesses found incredible value in contingent labor beyond augmentative and tactical measures, and, 2) talented business professionals transformed their careers to match more flexible “work-style” environments. The COVID-19 pandemic may cause a short-term outage of traditional talent, forcing businesses to leverage more project-oriented work supported by non-employee workers.
- Unified communications become one of the most critical technological tools for global businesses. Industry trade shows have been canceled or postponed. Procurement and HR conferences have followed suit. The world relies on in-person activity, helping to foster relationships, drive new business, spark new ideas, and share best practices. Collaborative and virtual conferencing tools are more important now than ever before as businesses across the world seek to maintain a level of communication without the advantage of live, in-person connections.
- Businesses develop a stronger relationship with their internal talent pools. In times of need, businesses turn to their “known” talent to get work done. During the challenging moments of this pandemic, businesses will develop a stronger relationship with the key workers in their talent pools, including freelancers, contractors, retirees, etc. as a robust means of better aligning short-term needs with the best-fit, best-aligned talent available. The fact that these workers were curated based on skills, expertise, and trust translates into a reliable backstop for businesses that understand that “work still needs to get done.”
Final Thoughts
One of the more challenging aspects of business planning during the Coronavirus / COVID-19 outbreak is the pervasive uncertainty of the situation. We don’t know how long this will last, how bad it will get in the U.S. and across the globe, whether this will send global and national economies into recession (although that is more likely than not at this point), when the situation will improve, and what recovery will look like. Fortunately, we have seen shades of this before during the Great Recession of 2007-2009. Businesses leveraged a displaced labor market, innovated the way they staffed up, and became more agile in the process. Whatever happens these next few weeks and months, we expect businesses to improvise, adapt, and overcome the unique challenges that COVID-19 will throw in their way this year. Frankly, businesses have few alternatives if they want to persist.
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