A total of62% of small business owners will fight to keep staff levels the same for the rest of the year. The expectation to maintain staff levels comes despite the disruption many businesses are facing in the wake of the pandemic.
This statistic was unveiled by research carried out by PostcardMania, providers of innovative marketing solutions. The research involved surveying 126 small business owners on their responses to coronavirus.
Businesses Plan to Have More Staff than Pre-Pandemic Times
62% of employers that say they will have the same staff count at the end of 2020. Almost 20% plan to have more. The survey found that 19.05% of the small businesses interviewed plan to have more staff than before coronavirus came to town.
The Covid-19 and subsequent shutdown of markets has taken its toll on the business community. With lockdown restrictions being lifted, there is “light at the end of the tunnel” for many businesses. PostcardMania’s study highlights such positivity and that it’s not all doom and gloom. One of the most positive points raised by the survey is that a majority of small businesses are not planning redundancies.
Joy Gendusa, founder and CEO of PostcardMania, shared her excitement of the findings of the research in relation to retaining staff:
“I have to say, I was SO heartened when I saw the majority of our SMBs surveyed did not have to permanently lay off staff!” Gendusa wrote in a blog about the research.
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Tailoring Business Operations
Another key finding of the report was 58% of businesses say the pandemic has forced them to modify working models. One of the most common ways businesses have adapted has been substituting the office for working from home. Conducting operations remotely, businesses have been hosting remote meetings and offering online training.
Changing hours of operation was another common pivot small businesses have made in the wake of lockdown. Another key change has been the offering of delivery services to eliminate in-person contact.
Increasing Marketing Efforts
PostcardMania’s survey found 52% of businesses have continued marketing or even increased marketing efforts during the pandemic. 30% of the participants said they have continued marketing as normal. 20% say they have increased marketing campaigns to grab market share. This compares to just 31% who said they are still in scale-back mode.
As markets reopen following a 12-week-plus hiatus, small business owners can get some comfort from the positivity of this research. The report also underscores the need for small businesses to make changes and adapt to significantly altered business landscapes. By making changes such as ramping up marketing efforts, small businesses will be in a better position to thrive.
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Images: Postcard Mania
This matches what I’ve been seeing in the online advertising realm. About 20% are just killing it and everyone else is struggling. Glad that such a high percentage can keep their people employed.
This is good to hear, but I can only speak to my industry (which is home improvement). We haven’t slowed down at all. If anything our call volume has gone up. My take is that homeowners are spending more and more time at home and they are paying more attention to their living spaces. Our biggest challenge is finding good and reliable employees to accommodate the increase in customer requests. So I think this article is probably pretty accurate based on my recent experience.
Since the pandemic started, we’ve maintained our staff levels and have even started bringing on more sales staff to try to continue our growth trajectory. My business is IT and we really haven’t seen a drop in demand either. Good write-up.