I’ve always thought that recruitment is a bellwether for the economy – if there are lots of jobs around, we’re doing well and of course the opposite is also true.  The media often talks about the number of job adverts indicating how we are doing as a country.

So when I say that Covid and being in lockdown meant Kinetic’s business revenue dropped by half, compared to last year, I expect many others would have experienced the same. 

My immediate reaction was not to wallow in questions and analysis, but to accept the situation, move on and change direction.  A quick reality check and take a step forward.

So straight away I asked my team to put on their entrepreneurial hats and we brainstormed opportunities in sectors that we hadn’t worked in before, but where we thought there would be business.

They were excited about the challenge and urgency of finding work – the approach was to focus on an urgent goal, instill teamwork despite everyone working remotely and talk constantly – there was a new vibe across the business nationally.

The first step was to make a list of all national food providers and start the process of introducing our services and offering assistance.  Our offer was to find temporary workers to help with a rapid increase in work as lockdown hit.  The food sector hadn’t been a market area for us before, but it certainly was now.

Tenacity was the name of the game and we were able to provide a large number of temps for day and night shifts seven days a week.  At the time, with so many redundancies it was no problem filling the assignments and we had a long list of opportunities and candidates ready and waiting.  Our job was to match the two together swiftly – our help was appreciated, and we’d gained experience and built relationships in a new business sector as a result.

After the first Covid lockdown we climbed back up to 80% plus of revenue and it was building nicely.  I put this down to research and then focusing on the higher performing sectors of the market.  It took guts for the team to start afresh in a new direction but they learnt important lessons such as being confident with the skills they have to match a need and serving, serving, serving. 

It was a huge effort alongside keeping in touch with all our existing clients many of whom were going through major change themselves and not looking at hiring.

In times like this, there is nothing worse in my view than a company calling a customer and asking or even expecting work.  It damages relationships when you only need to look at the market and see how volatile things are to realise there will be no work from some organisations.

The better approach is to offer support, assist wherever you can and work alongside as a partner.  You may be working harder and longer hours, and earning less, but this creates a far more solid and valuable relationship.  Business will come back if you take this approach.  Our recent experience at Kinetic shows this to be true.  

Having been through 2008’s recession, and being hit over the head with that, this time round I was far more experienced with what needed to be done. It’s a slow, considered road out.  There is always opportunity but you just have to work harder to find it and expect less back financially for a while. 

I would consider myself a resilient person and I’m actually pretty strong.  After 24 years of owning and running a business I’ve probably been through most situations, both good and not so good, but the volatility and constant rain and shine of the Covid era is new for everyone.

One thing I’ve learnt is that if you focus, listen to staff and the market, create new revenue streams, pivot and pivot fast, cut the hell out of all the excess operational costs so you run on an oily rag, work quickly and most importantly be open, honest and supportive of your staff – all will work out in the end.