What’s so good about being a ‘Lockdown Leader’ when the world is unlocked?
Last December the Impact management team proudly accepted a silver award from an impressive list of 9 finalists for Lockdown Leader at the National SME business Awards at Wembley Stadium. While we had a wonderful night and are immensely proud of our achievement, as an external observer of our business, it may seem like an unusual accomplishment to shout about. I mean, what even is a ‘Lockdown Leader’ and what’s so special about ‘Lockdown Leader’ when the lockdowns are over (thank goodness!)?
As we got our award night team photo sent to us recently, I took a moment to reflect and remind myself of the reasons we should still be very much the proud winners – I mean, without wishing to tempt fate, no other company is going to get that award again for a start! I looked over the criteria for the award to see what we ‘ticked off’ and – it’s not about a one-off campaign that we smashed, or a good sales year – it’s what we do, and what we are about. Every. Single. Day.
Why did we win the award? What was the main impact of the Impact approach to Lockdown?
- We were able to prepare our ourselves, our clients and workers for constant changes
- We contributed to the success of our clients and their ability to deliver on their business goals
- Our retention and turnover stayed stable, and workers felt job security despite all the other changes and turmoil
- We won contracts for sole supply and recognition from clients about the quality of our services
- We could continue to put back into the community, when it needed it most
Challenges bring out the best in Impact Recruitment. Because of the groundwork we put in as part of our day-to-day business activities, when others had to shut their doors, we were not only able to survive, but thrive, and support others to do the same. So, while lockdown made everything feel more critical, the skills that ‘got us through it’ are really what our team is all about.
We look after people – We care for both our employees and temporary workers. While we may no longer need to do things like deliver covid tests or shopping for isolating temp workers, we are still going above and beyond to deliver a consistently great service and successful outcomes for all, whatever odds are stacked against them.
During lockdown, like many, we simply replaced employee perks with more feasible ones, adapting so we could continue the positive, fun side of business by celebrating promotions, new employees, anniversaries, and monthly budget success. We have always aimed to maintain a positive employee experience, supporting employees in gaining their REC qualifications, continuous training, and development etc. Lockdown didn’t stop us. We invested in technology to improve processes and maintain ‘people presence’ – always making ourselves reliably contactable and visible. Still doing that.
We continued our community outreach activities; attending virtual and in-person careers fairs, sending information packs to educators, assessing, coaching and interviewing business students on project work, and working with charities to help people from marginalised communities get into employment.
We are resilient and adaptive consultants, continually providing useful content to clients, offering more consulting solutions and supporting local businesses. Keeping up-to date with the ever-changing landscape, we aim to offer timely and precise knowledge to whoever needs it… Whether that be on the impact of Brexit, a pandemic, the economic effects of War and natural disasters, political unrest, recessions, landmark cases creating changes in employment laws…. Let’s face it, we still haven’t had a chance to take our foot off the pedal and go back to normal business. Can anyone even remember what normal was? Was there ever a business equilibrium?
We can learn from history and anticipate economic trends, but there are always going to be unexpected challenges along the way, forcing us to bravely step-up into unknown territory. In fact, the only real constant in life is change. Therefore, some of the most valuable skills in life, and business, must be resilience, proactivity and the ability to adapt. I’m proud to say that Lockdown or no lockdown, Impact is always striving to be a leader at that.
