TORONTO, June 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Business
leaders across North America are
expecting a protracted recovery and foresee a changing landscape
for the future, according to surveys of several hundred North
American executives conducted by retained executive search firm
Caldwell.
Caldwell has been hosting weekly virtual roundtables with
several hundred executives across Canada and the
United States since the beginning of the COVID-19
pandemic.
"These calls started 15 weeks ago as a weekly opportunity for
Canadian chief human resources officers to share experiences and
discern best practices in the face of unprecedented and rapidly
changing circumstances," said Les
Gombik, a managing partner at Caldwell and the leader of the
calls. "They have evolved into a weekly leadership forum attended
by board directors, chief executive officers and C-suite executives
across North America, addressing
topics that range from how to plan for the future with uncertain
timelines, how boards can support management teams in challenging
times such as this, the ways in which work as we know it is
evolving, the economics of the recovery, preserving wealth in a
downturn, and more recently the events unfolding around the globe
with regard to the racial divide and the growing push for equality
and inclusion."
Gombik continued: "Additionally, we've started asking polling
questions in the last few calls about expectations for a return to
pre-COVID levels, remote working arrangements, diversity and
inclusion, the future of business travel, organizational strategy
and board compensation. It's been fascinating to get this real-time
insight from hundreds of executives representing more than 2
million employees across North
America."
For more information on the call series and how to join, please
visit www.caldwellpartners.com.
Survey results
Business operations
The pandemic has spurred changes across every industry, and 91
percent of the executives polled responded that they are modifying
their business strategy to some degree – from slight modifications
to complete reinventions. Most executives are preparing for a
recovery marathon - when asked how long before they expect their
revenues to return to pre-COVID levels, more than half said 12
months or more.
Board concerns
More than half of the respondents felt
that their board is not too involved in the day to day tactical
issues of the business. Roughly half of the respondents did not
expect the pandemic to lead to board compensation changes. Roughly
half felt their board's diversity and inclusion program is good, a
third felt their diversity and inclusion program is not acceptable,
but the board is working on strengthening it, and 12% responded
that their program is not acceptable and there are no plans to
improve it.
Talent
In terms of talent, 63 percent said their organization is not yet
expanding the team – whether through bringing back previously
furloughed employees or hiring new ones. Nearly three quarters felt
they have the talent needed to help transform the business to the
new post-COVID reality.
Remote work
Looking ahead to the return and recovery, most expect big changes
ahead for the future of the workplace. Over three quarters felt
their teams were equally if not more productive since the move to
remote work. 91 percent of polled executives expect to continue
allowing employees to work from home to some degree, and nearly
three quarters said that given the choice, their employees would
prefer to work at home at least 50 percent of the time.
Travel and gatherings
We can also expect big changes
in terms of business travel and events, with 91 percent forecasting
varying degrees of reductions in business travel, and over a third
responding that they will only be comfortable attending large
gatherings when there's a vaccine for the virus.
About Caldwell
At Caldwell we believe Talent
Transforms. As a leading provider of executive talent, we
enable our clients to thrive and succeed by helping them identify,
recruit and retain their best people. Our reputation–50 years in
the making–has been built on transformative searches across
functions and geographies at the very highest levels of management
and operations. We leverage our skills and networks to also provide
agile talent in the form of flexible and on-demand advisory
solutions for companies looking for support in strategy and
operations. With offices and partners across North America, Europe and Asia
Pacific, we take pride in delivering an unmatched level of
service and expertise to our clients.
Caldwell's Common shares are listed on The Toronto Stock
Exchange (TSX: CWL). Please visit our website at
www.caldwellpartners.com for further information. For further
information, please contact:
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SOURCE The Caldwell Partners International Inc.