Coronavirus:A virus so deadly which has made people wash their hands literally and also from their jobs. Millions of people are facing the wrath of unemployment just because the pandemic demands us to stay home. Under this situation, many of us are wondering will jobs opportunities be waiting for us with open arms when Covid-19 is history?
Mr Parin Chheda, who has 9+ years of work experience in Corporate HR, CxO Hiring and Leadership Consulting and is also one of the mentors at GoCrackIt has a view that the industries heavily impacted due to the lockdown would continue to suffer till the lockdown is not lifted. However, post phased removal of lockdown it could take 6-8 months for industries to begin recovering. However, the question is, does recovery mean hiring will pick up again?
Impact on jobs in various industries
According to Mr Chheda, Healthcare, Insurance, and financial services will experience a surge in their activity, and with a rise in demand, new jobs will be created. For example, there will be a spike in people wanting to buy health cover looking at the present circumstances.
Apart from industries like healthcare and pharma, which are already seeing a demand for manpower, industries providing essential items and fuelling consumption including retail, FMCG will bounce back to their normal levels but slowly and steadily.
With multi-nationals opting to shift their manufacturing base out of China, India stands to benefit from a boost in foreign investments, thus creating job opportunities. Dependence of many economies on Chinese end products as well as intermediates is expected to go down, presenting an opportunity for India to become a preferred export partner for many countries.
In addition to this, since the first wave of lockdown, the e-commerce and digital sector are seeing a surge in the market, and this is expected to reflect in job creation in these sectors. Additionally, organizations are realizing that many jobs can be done ‘from home’ thus saving costs (for example commercial real estate, electricity, etc.) and at the same time providing greater flexibility to employees to operate as per their convenience.
Reorganization of the labour market
Industries like travel and tourism, hospitality, aviation which are heavily impacted by the pandemic will continue to be muted for short to medium term during the recovery period. This is because individuals would continue to be cautious after the lockdown and avoid business as well as leisure travel wherever possible. Naturally, consolidation will happen in these sectors, and it will do best for employees to look at adjacent service sectors for jobs. In this scenario, sector agnostic jobs, especially at junior levels, will have the advantage to shift industries.
Post-Pandemic Skill Sets
Being well-versed with the use of Digital and IT platforms and generally being tech-savvy, which was a good-to-have skill, over and above the required functional skillsets for a job, is slowly but steadily becoming a necessary skill set that employers seek out in potential employees.
The ability to learn and unlearn, adaptability and the ability to deal with ambiguity are important competencies that employers will naturally look for in their people in a dynamic and ever-changing business scenario. Self-starters who show initiative on the job, take ownership and go above and beyond their defined job role will be preferred. For middle management and senior leaders in important roles, the ability to see critical projects through to completion and prudence with the allocation of budgets and usage of funds will be a necessary skill set as we head towards an uncertain economic scenario for the next few years.
Effect on Salaries
Salary growth will be muted in most sectors, though there will be exceptions. Organizations will have to take tough decisions around rationalizing operations, conserving cash and ensuring liquidity and health of the business. These are measures to ensure that business is sustainable over the longer term. Many organizations will be forced to re-think and re-align their Human Capital strategy in the new normal. On the brighter side, many organizations are re-evaluating their employee well-being policies; for example, how they can better cover employees and their families with more holistic healthcare/insurance schemes. Few organizations have started extending Mediclaim benefits to cover parents of employees which was not the norm before.
Post Covid-19 Challenges for some Industries
Owing to weaker demand for their products/services, organizations may resort to cost-cutting measures for short to medium term. The focus will be on core business and cutting down flab. There will be a renewed emphasis on innovation. Service sector companies will drive a sharp focus on becoming more and more customer-centric and getting rid of unnecessary layers.
Article by – Rajasi Gawande
Linkedin Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajasi-gawande-9637ba190/
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