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#BTColumn – COVID-19 and the workforce

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Dennis De Peiza

Prior to COVID-19, countries across the world were recovering from the stress of the global economic recession. With the coming of the pandemic, the downturn in economies have become more apparent.

Big business through their corporate partnerships and strategic alliances have tended to survive the severity of the impact.

Unfortunately, micro, small and medium size businesses have been the casualty of the pressure exerted, as the rising tide of unemployment has reduced the demands for products and services.

The problem for micro, small and medium size business becomes more dire, considering that they have difficulty in securing funding from financial institutions.

Unemployment is now a global pandemic. For all intents and purposes, it seems rather unlikely that there will be a return to the employment status quo of pre COVID-19.

This is based on the conclusions reached by the United Nations, June 2020, that massive losses in working hours which are equivalent to 305 million full-time jobs are predicted for the 2nd quarter of 2020.” The observation was also made that some 1.25 billion workers are employed in high-risk sectors.

Going forward, the alarm is likely to be raised about the level of productivity that countries will realize, if the trend of displacing workers continues.

There is more reason for concern if the engaging of high level of technology is preferred over manual labour. It becomes more disconcerting if the current downsizing and closure of businesses continue unabated, and the possible growth of entrepreneurship becomes stifled.

It would appear that the development of the third sector, those who are categorized as self-employed, will encounter the challenge of sustainability. It is anticipated that this will the experience of some larger enterprises.

This seemingly presents a distress signal for the immediate and sustainable economic recovery of small island states. With a total disruption of the main activity of small island states whose economy is highly dependent on the delivery of services, and where there is a limited industrialized and manufacturing sector; then it would appear that the road to recovery will possibly be more sluggish.

Against the backdrop of many workers becoming marginalized, grouped as vulnerable workers, since they are paid low wages and exposed to working in a high-risk environment, this will do little to motive and drive the productivity of these workers.

The shift in the work pattern from engaging in the group dynamic in the traditional workplace to that of home working or contact work, can result in a break down in effective team work and overall productivity.

The change from full time employment to that of shorter working hours will not necessarily induce increase levels of productivity.

The fact that there are shorter hours of work may translate in deepening the state of poverty amongst categories of workers. The road to recovery cannot be accelerated if persons remain at home, unemployed or paid to work reduced hours.

The need for investment is a priority, just as much as it is to have an active working population where persons are utilizing their skills, expertise and experience, rather than being employed in mundane forms of employment.

It becomes a challenge where some customers are forced to endure poor service delivery, as businesses attempt to enforce COVID-19 Protocols.

Then there are those businesses who are moving to eliminate face to face business transactions, with seemingly little thought to the fact that the changes being made are totally disadvantageous to the customers and the public.

It would appear that the introduction of technology is touted as the answer to propelling the recovery of the world economy. For industrialized countries of the world that have the luxury of populations ranging from millions to billions of people, technology may be a viable option.

In small economies that are driven by services and a tourism industry, the answer to recovery lies in revitalization and energizing of businesses, securing new business investments and the reemployment of the many displaced members of the workforce.

With digitization and other forms of technologies being prominently featured in the transformation of the operation of business enterprises in the future, the world is seemingly being put on notice that employers will be recruiting and hiring a new class of workers. This means that workers have to be retained for the digital age.

As the world moves to engage smart technologies, it is quite obvious that workers must become smart by ensuring that they are multi skilled and have the requisite training that will enable them to be employable.

Based on the move to create efficiencies, the possibility looms that there will be fewer jobs available to meet the employment demands.

Hopefully, there will be answers forthcoming as to where the jobs are coming from.

This is important if any investment in training for future jobs is to make sense.   

Dennis De Peiza is a Labour & Employee Relations Consultantat Regional Management Services Inc. website: www.regionalmanagement services.com

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