A brief encounter with a fox
As I walked my spaniel Finnlay down the woodland path alongside my house at 6am this morning I came across a fox. It had a beautiful russet coat and long lustrous tail. It paused its walk briefly to look at Finnlay and I and in an instant was on its way across the field. It was a breath-taking moment and I felt that there was an understanding that passed between us in that moment that I was passing through their world and they through mine.
I have been reflecting this week on this new world we are living in, with the pandemic causing a shift in the way we now live our lives. Underpinning everything we do is the need to keep people, ourselves, our families safe. Conscious of the need to accommodate our needs with the needs of those around us, respecting social distancing and wearing face coverings are likely to be with us for quite some time.
In our work lives we have found that we can work more flexibly, from our homes, from adapted offices. In addition, we are very aware of the shifting needs of our clients, our candidates and contractors. As businesses adapt to navigate this new world, how we respond to our clients’ new way of working will be critical to how we, and they, thrive.
The demand for technology skills has been a constant throughout this pandemic - around the world we see that this demand continues to rise as businesses create new digital services to reach their clients. Many organisations are reinventing themselves as they shift more of their operations online, and as a result they have created an increase in the need for technical skills. We are well placed to meet these demands.
Our mix of services across our locations enables us to develop a whole new workforce with these highly valued new skills. For instance, in Belgium our ‘Junior Class’ offering - where we take talented people from outside the tech sector, cross-train them in technology skills and then place them into clients - has been highly successful and we are looking to adapt this for other countries.
Our contracting business offers clients the flexibility to scale up resources to meet their immediate needs, such as changing their operating models, and then scale back as this work concludes. For our contractors, they get the opportunity to work on digital transformation projects which are both interesting and rewarding.
But it’s not just about technology. Across the globe, leaders are being required to step up as they take their people on a journey in response to the pandemic. As organisations evolve and transform, many are turning to our Leadership Services offering to help them help build and strengthen the skills in their leadership team, using our unique assessment and development services.
The demand for new solutions to meet the challenges and opportunities of this new world have been growing steadily, and Harvey Nash Group is fantastically, maybe even uniquely, placed to help.
Our focus is on understanding these changing needs and meeting them head on. We have long lasting and valued client relationships, a contractor base which is large and highly skilled, and strong relationships with those seeking permanent roles. In any changing world there is opportunity, and each day I am reading about the many ways we are following these up with solutions that deliver our clients value and enable them to thrive again.
These next few weeks will be about setting the tone and pace for this second half of the year. As we finish up the drafting of our three year strategy, which I am looking forward to us sharing in early October, we have a lot to be excited and confident about.
In the UK we have a final bank holiday weekend for the year, the final rally of summer before we change seasons into autumn. Whatever you are doing this weekend, keep safe and well.