The Impact of the Pandemic: Working Practices

The Impact of the Pandemic. Do working practices need to change? Is there the expectation that they will? How’s it been for people? The results of our recent survey provide some answers.

Thanks to everyone who completed the BLT ‘How Are You?’ Survey that we ran in December 2020 amongst the Indirect Tax community – fascinating results. Here are the headline conclusions of the questionnaire.

Personal life vs. Professional life? What’s caused individuals the most concern during the Covid crisis? Read More

BLT Management Consultancy Quarterly – January 2021

Welcome to 2021. Well, we tried, we hoped and through the force of sheer will-power we’ve almost convinced ourselves….but it’s official, changing the last numeral in the date doesn’t actually change anything in real life. Wherever you are in the world you’re probably in some form of lockdown, and your own work situation has most likely been immeasurably transformed over the last 9 months or so. However, we shouldn’t dismiss the impact will-power or positive thinking can have. If nothing else, we can view the start of a new year as an excuse to start afresh, to tackle new challenges and make this next day, week, month or quarter a positive one. We’re here to help with that. The content below reflects what’s been on our minds and, unsurprisingly, much of it revolves around remote working, technology and interviewing in these strange times – but hopefully not any less interesting. We do genuinely believe that 2021 will be a fantastic year and we look forward to working with you in the months ahead.

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Company Culture – Has it been missed?

How do you assess company culture and make sure it’s properly communicated? Especially now when interviewees don’t even have the opportunity to chat to a few other people between interviews while in the office or have a look around the lay out and general atmosphere.

Two thirds of employees surveyed by Career Builder felt they’d taken jobs that were a bad fit and over 50% left those jobs within 6 months. Given the time, money and effort expended on new employees in this period this is something companies can ill afford at this time. It’s a crucial aspect of remote interviews that can often be overlooked and the onus is on both parties to bring it up. Read More

Face Time not FaceTime: do we need to ‘Check the Tech’​?

Ever the optimist, I’ve tried to look on the bright side of strife as much as possible recently. It’s not always easy, but the question I keep coming back to is where we would be if this pandemic had happened, say, 20 years ago? Or even 10?

Purely in the context of what technology makes possible, we’re lucky this has happened when it has. Without today’s technology I dare say we’d either all still have to be commuting on packed trains and politely passing Covid along to the next colleague in the office each week, or we’d literally all be sitting at home doing nothing and with probably no company to return to anyway. Read More

A blended approach to office and home working seems the most likely outcome as 2021 continues….

Looking toward our next period of post-lockdown, hopefully one that will last, I think this article in the Harvard Business makes some good points around the value in face-to-face interactions. It seems unlikely the majority of us will return to permanent office based working with a blended approach the most likely outcome. Read More