Two critical themes are emerging in post-pandemic workforce planning: agility and resilience. The sudden arrival of lockdown forced the hand of organisations to swiftly move their teams into remote working, to reduce their workforce capacity, slim costs or scale down their operations, and to refocus where they needed to transform fast.
The immediate ‘here and now’ focus that enabled organisations to move to leading and managing distributed teams has forced many to assess just how agile and resilient—or not—their businesses actually are in times of crisis.
With the Government forecasting high unemployment for some time to come, businesses are keen to see the economy accelerate out of the lockdown, however many are also recognising that resuming ‘business as it was’ is not necessarily the way forward and that a controlled return to a more normal mode of operation means making some substantial shifts which will include how they deliver projects.
As the future focus of business lands on resilience and agility as essential mainstays of sustainable organisations, at their ability to scale as the economy improves, or simply to develop the functional characteristics of being both agile and resilient, there is increasing recognition of the ability to bring in the right skill at the right time.
Consultants were, in many cases, the first to feel the immediate impact of cost reductions, however as organisations start to recalibrate their workforces for the return to work and re-opening of the economy, many project teams are starting to look less at role-based structures and more at skill-based resources to enable them to scale and build greater resilience into their operations.
