Supporting your employees through the current crisis

There is no doubt that the winter of 2022/23 is going to be a very bumpy ride, energy price caps rising exponentially meaning essentials such as food and other goods will rise. Petrol and Diesel still at highly inflated prices and other services undoubtedly increasing over the next six months.

This is going to put immense pressure on your employees and their households, the likes that haven’t been seen for many a decade and is going to mean employers must take care of the staff to ensure retention.

The cost of losing an employee that you have paid to be trained to the skill level needed in the automotive world, could potentially put your business at risk if you have to repeat the process with a new team, since Covid we have seen employee loyalty rising, but this could soon quickly evaporate if they are let down during the next few months.

Currently the industry is at a cross over from ICE vehicles to EV, and the cost of training is on the rise as a consequence of this, so to lose the mechanics that are trained on todays vehicles, means your training costs for new employees could be double over the coming few years, a cost that for many, will be hard to swallow, if not impossible.

Pay increases will be a major factor, but not the only consideration for the businesses to take on board, also to be considered will be flexibility, many people will be forced to take on second jobs or even start their own part-time business just to cover their personal costs, this may means working times will need to perhaps be flexi time, if you can’t afford to pay the wages needed to somebody, then you will need to talk them through the options and be open-minded. Failure to do so will mean losing staff, remember families will do what ever it takes to survive.

Also, staff could soon be seen to change jobs very quickly handing in the minimum notice period required, this could leave workshops and service centres short staffed very quickly, especially if it is more than one person leaving. This would be devastating for many businesses and mean a dramatic drop of income for the company, and with business finance and support expected to be harder to obtain, this could mean the business is effectively insolvent and banks could pull the plug immediately.

With many predictions being that the UK will enter recession by the final quarter of 2022 and inflation to rise dramatically, it is vital that businesses take steps to protect themselves and their staff now, because many experts are already saying this could be a very sharp decline in the economy, a decline that many can’t afford, especially after the last couple of years during the Covid pandemic.

Alasdair Hobbs – Human Results Shropshire.