“We have seen a very busy January and expect this to continue for many reasons"
- Local need. There are businesses who have had to let staff go in 2020 and they will be looking to take a risk averse approach to growth as the economy bounces back in the UK. This will mean growth in schedules of work which are specific and time boxed.
- Global change. There is a move to remote and independent working that has been rising consistently for a number of years. This is marked as Industry 4.0 or the Future of Work. We have seen this exacerbated by 2020 proving that a number of jobs can be undertaken without sitting in offices.
- Lifestyle. In conjunction with the above we have missed out on socialising but have enjoyed the no commute freedom. This will and has started a catalyst of people considering what sort of a life they wish to have. The archetypal 35 year career is completely over though only a percentage of us have moved to task based work/ self-employment. We think that the pandemic will force people to think hard about how they wish to spend their working life.
- Cost. The obvious benefits of platforms like ours is that they are able to be leveraged to save time and money for both client and supplier. This means the shift to nomad working is in fact also a benefit for businesses with squeezed budgets.
- Fees. Many of the new joiners to 6prog are starting on higher fee expectations than they were 3 years ago. Whether this confidence is borne out remains to be seen but it is certainly interesting to see the figures that small businesses are quoting as a starting rate.
- Skills. Businesses are reliant more and more on just in time and on demand. There is a lower expectation and lower funding for internal training so not the time to wait for internal staff to become competent in a new technology. As we have seen with all CAPEX [capital expenditure] (both in personal and in businesses life) the direction for 2021 will be ‘don’t buy when you can rent’. It gives less risk and often less cost and definitely raises flexibility. AND the suppliers prefer it!”
