“As a small and agile company, we were able to implement the necessary changes quickly”
“As a small and agile company”
Mazars: Mazars: The past few months have turned all our lives upside down. The world of work in particular - and thereby companies as well - face great challenges. How is the crisis created by the COVID pandemic perceived in your company and how do your employees feel?
Gunnar Belden: As surprisingly as the pandemic hit our company and upended our familiar ways of doing things, so did the accompanying restrictions also have a drastic effect on our company. Workplaces and working time models became obsolete from one day to the next and familiar processes had to be adapted with lightning speed. As a small and therefore quite agile company, we were able to implement the necessary changes quickly and take advantage of the procedural and cultural opportunities that the lockdown brought.
Mazars: What creative solutions were you able to offer your workers to cope with the crisis which of these will become permanent after the pandemic?
Gunnar Belden: Even before the pandemic hit, our business processes were already quite digital; there were only "a few bad habits" that kept us from reaching our goal of a “paperless office." In the state of emergency created by the lockdown, we were able to free ourselves of these to foster better communication within the team and our entire workflow is now digital, which enhanced knowledge management within the company. Another step has had a very positive effect on employee satisfaction: almost complete independence from the traditional workplace.
The lockdown prohibited us from managing through in-person control or being physically present in the office, and our experience with this newly-gained freedom has been consistently positive. By the way, this applies to the entire industry: during the first and second wave of the pandemic, as a BDU member (Federal Association of German Management Consultants), we conducted various surveys within the HR consulting industry and received consistently positive feedback on working models that involved working from home and were based on trust. So, the new mindset is: control was good, but trust is better.
Mazars: What do you think are the most important cornerstones for the future of work in your industry?
Gunnar Belden: Having a successful, progressive business operation will depend on personal responsibility. The new working time models require employees who are mature and willing to take responsibility. There should be a bit of entrepreneurial spirit in every professional. Everyone should ask themselves: "What opportunities do I have to create value for my company, and how do I organise the tasks and responsibilities entrusted to me in such a way that there is a good cost-benefit balance for myself and my employer?” Of course, this is easier if you can identify with your company and your role in the company, and both companies and employees can help ensure this. Life is too short to spend working at a bad job. If there is personal responsibility, the following building blocks of success are almost automatically present: trust, confidence, appreciation, collegiality, and the most important "modern success factor": a readiness to change or adapt.
As Charles Darwin so prophetically said:
"It is not the strongest species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change." This is even more true today.
Mazars: In the past few years, which were characterised by a strong economy, companies focused almost exclusively on growth. Fewer measures were taken to cope with a possible crisis. What lessons did you learn from the crisis that will always guide your actions in the future, even in good years, to serve as a safety net for your company and especially your employees?
Gunnar Belden: The executive search industry has already experienced two significant crises in the past 20 years (2001 and 2009). In both crises, the slumps in industry turnover were comparable to the slump in 2020. Our industry is therefore quite experienced in dealing with short-term declines in turnover, and this is especially true in the case of this COVID crisis, whose origins were not directly linked to the economy (unlike the 9/11 crisis and the banking crisis). There are two things we have learned from the last two crises:
First, things pick up again quite quickly. Second, a race for the fastest growth then begins, as coveted market shares are up for redistribution.
The best safety net for our employees consists of resilient customer relationships and top-notch service/products. Both are addressed by our original business purpose, and there is no need for additional safeguards.
Mazars: What are you planning for your company and the employees in the near future in response to the expected loosening of the restrictions?
Gunnar Belden: We are currently experiencing a noticeable "Spring awakening" of our target industry. The upcoming loosening of the restrictions and the foreseeable end of the "the psychological COVID crisis" – which, of course, hits us hard as HR consultants – means that any personnel decision involves a great degree of uncertainty for both the client and the candidate, but will boost orders. Therefore, we are preparing for many exciting mandates in the near future and hope to continue helping our clients and candidates make smart decisions.
Author:
Gunnar Belden
Geschäftsführer
maturias Personalberatung GmbH
Mozarthaus | Am Bassin 10
14467 Potsdam
About Gunnar Belden
Gunnar Belden is managing partner of maturias Personalberatung und Akademie, which specializes in supporting companies in the HR consulting industry. His clients include the who's who of the personnel and HR consulting industry, in whose companies maturias, as "the personnel consultant for personnel consultants", fills important key functions and also conducts coaching, training as well as audits and aptitude diagnostics for personnel consultants.
Mr. Belden entered personnel consulting industry immediately after his law studies and has remained loyal to it for almost 20 years. For almost four years, he has also been a member of the board of the BDU (Bundesverband Deutscher Unternehmensberater e. V. - Federal Association of German Management Consultants).
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This is a post from our newsletter "People in Business" 1-2021. The entire newsletter can be found here. You can also subscribe to this newsletter and receive the current issue directly on the release date.