Our latest research has found that over the coming 12 months less smaller businesses – those with a turnover of under £250K – are expecting to make staff redundant compared to those with a higher turnover of over £1M.
The research, which was carried out across the UK in conjunction with the UK200Group, revealed that only 18% of smaller businesses are expecting to reduce headcount over the next year. In contrast, almost half (46%) of companies turning over £1M, and 57% of those turning over more than £5M, believe they will be making staff redundant.
On average, a third (32%) of businesses expect to make further redundancies over the coming 12 months. This is fuelled by the fact that 61% of businesses are expecting their revenue to drop over the next 12 months.
Respondents were also asked their top 3 priorities for their business over the next 12 months, the top 3 are:
- Looking after existing clients
- Finding new clients
- Survival
Just 12.3% were looking to develop / invest in their people and even fewer were looking to increase use of technology at 8.3%.
Graham Purvis MD at Robson Laidler commented: “Many businesses are understandably pre-occupied with seeing themselves survive over the next 12 months. Unfortunately, few will come through this period unscathed and if survival means having to reduce headcount, then this may be one of the few options available to them. It’s interesting, however, that smaller companies in the survey appear more resilient and may be an indication that they already run a leaner business than larger businesses.
“To specifically help businesses that have been affected from coronavirus disruption Robson Laidler has a range of Restart and Recover services including health checks, cashflow forecasting, financial projections and strategies, and business intelligence dashboards.”
You can see a full copy of the poll results together with Robson Laidler’s observations and practical actions you can take in SME Tracker Report Here:
UK200 – SME Outlook Tracker findings Sept 2020
If you’d like to learn more about Robson Laidler’s restart and recovery services, contact the team directly on ba@robson-laidler.co.uk to arrange a call to discuss what areas of your business needs attention and action.