4 minute read
Rebuilding Organisational capacity in a post-pandemic world
Most economies across the globe are at a turning point in their post-pandemic recovery process, although some are still fragile. Businesses in Australia and the APAC region are starting a new phase of adaptation to successfully operate in the new climate. To pivot, adapt, and thrive, professional services organisations are currently looking for ways to remain resilient. Whether it’s management consultancies, architecture and engineering firms, or any other countless industries offering human expertise as their main product, professional services have faced unique challenges over the past few years.
Every company has experienced the pandemic differently, but common themes emerge across the board. Client billing is down. Projects have been scaled back or cancelled, and even some of the largest service-based businesses are considering – or have already begun – reducing headcount. But focusing on resource constraints can have effects that are highly damaging in the long term. Both on the ability to deliver on existing projects and on the ability to win new business and rebound when conditions improve further.
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How can service-based businesses in the APAC region respond to ensure survival and success?
Talent Management
A service-based company’s most important asset is its people, and the current talent shortage has affected many people-centric organisations across the APAC region. Access to freelance or contractual workers for creative and professional work means businesses must embrace the hybrid workforce as a solution for addressing talent challenges.
Talent management systems allow data-driven workforce planning, so organisations have the tools to adapt quickly to change, leading to higher, more reliable productivity and a leaner, optimised workforce.
The ability to monitor engagement scores of different project teams helps to ensure the profitability of each project.
Compensation Planning
While uncertainty reigned over the last few years, organisations made drastic changes to employee pay and headcount as business dried up and people resigned in their droves as many reassessed what they wanted out of life. According to the 2022 Globalization Trends Survey, 82% of APAC CFOs are worried about ‘the great resignation’ and retaining current employees, and 31% say adjusting compensation will be part of their ongoing retention strategy. Service-based businesses now need to review their compensation strategy to see if it needs updating. Some will need to call out their commitment to pay equity, look at whether pay grades are too narrow or wide, and assess whether top talent is in the top pay tiers in each grade level.
Financial Planning and Analysis
As business ramps up, should companies be looking to recruit more staff? FP&A teams are now tasked with providing more insights and data at increasingly local levels to assist decision-making. Across the board, businesses should expect more automation and cloud computing which will need more FP&A resources to address various special projects, pushing finance chiefs to seek new ways to support current needs and begin exploring what new skills might be required and how to cultivate those skills.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Some companies will look to buy their way to growth and capacity. Whether companies want to weather the current uncertainty or create new opportunities, M&A frameworks can often help them achieve their goals. For these businesses, technology will be key in integrating new businesses.
How technology is helping
The emergence of new technologies and the necessity of deploying them to ensure survival creates a unique situation. Major opportunities now exist in creating a more holistic and dynamic professional services operating model that can cost less and with less talent loss while increasing margin and significant new business and growth opportunities have come within reach to offset recent revenue impacts.
Several key shifts in technology are emerging that service-based organisations across APAC must embrace to navigate the postpandemic world. We’ve already become intimately acquainted with the technology that facilitates remote working – but this is simply the beginning. New tech can be organised into three categories: that which supports the business and client delivery, that which supports the people, and that which supports the overall health and wellbeing of all professional services’ stakeholders.
The right ERP system can do the heavy lifting of data transfer and the accurate setup for projects and recording of transactions. There are now solutions that provide businesses with pre-built data flows between applications, data sources, and the industry ecosystem. By delivering business-critical dataflows out-of-the-box, these solutions will significantly reduce the cost burden and time-to-value of integration while also bringing richer and more consistent data sharing across the enterprise.
