Interactions and expectations - Are you clear on what your clients need from you moving forward?

Below are results from the 1st survey in the eg.1's Pulse series examining the impact of Covid-19 on the professional services industry. Link to full results here.

In our previous article, we discussed the types of skillsets professional services firms need in a post-Covid world and how to source them. We saw that while 22% of respondents believe that they need to prioritise reviewing the type of skillsets required post Covid-19, only 3% believe that they need to change their talent sourcing methods. Will we utilise the same methods to find potentially new skills?

Unsurprisingly, we also found that almost a third of respondents believe that Covid-19 has accelerated the need to utilise technology to build long-lasting relationships. Video calls on Zoom/ Teams are becoming increasingly common but how do you maintain existing relationships and importantly, build new ones? Do you know what your clients are expecting from you in terms of interaction and outputs? Have you asked them these questions?

Furthermore with remote working, what would this mean for corporate culture and for the training and integration of new employees/ graduates? 

Short term vs long term:

While most responses reflect the immediate, short term initiatives that need to be undertaken, it is important to start thinking about 2021 as we move into H2 2020. If skills, locations, and the way you interact and serve clients change, then companies may need to rethink their performance frameworks as well as coaching and training programmes. 

• We cannot continue using legacy frameworks that measure the same inputs as before when ways of working have evolved.
• We cannot continue using the same KPIs that measure the same outputs as before when we are investing in nurturing new skills.
• We most definitely cannot continue applying the same mentoring, guidance and support programmes as before when the world has fundamentally changed.

As we explored in the previous article, investing in new skills is a startup cost but research over the years have repeatedly shown that career variety and skills development is one of the key retention enablers in any professional services firm. The demand for new skills mean that a lot of people may now have the opportunity to cross-skill and/ or up-skill, gaining new and exciting expertise that in turn will speed up the evolution of any firm.

We will continue to discuss the results in following posts, focusing on diversity and sustainability.