There’s no denying that the impact of COVID-19 has been felt across every business sector in the UK, significantly affecting our economy. It’s had significant impact on revenues, working practices and employee’s jobs and careers.
In December 2020, we wanted to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on the digital marketing, media and technology sectors, and as such, ran a short survey across our network.
In particular, we were interested in finding out:
- The impact on companies in these sectors when it came to their:
- revenue
- hiring and growth plans
- employees
- Their hiring plans for 2021
- How their practices and processes will likely be affected in 2021
Download the full report here
Businesses felt the impact
Companies in these sectors weren’t immune from the difficulties presented by of COVID-19 in 2020, with almost two-thirds stating their revenue decreased last year.
Company growth was equally affected as three-quarters of companies froze their hiring plans in 2020, and a third of employees were made redundant during the year.
Green shoots for company growth in 2021
Companies finished the year strongly and with an eye on company growth, as 40% of respondents reported their business was hiring in Q4. That figure rose to 75% of companies who said they had plans in place to hire again in 2021.
This indicates positive signs for the sectors, and only 5% of respondents said their company would definitely not be hiring staff this year.
Remote and flexible working looks set to stay
Almost all companies (92.5%) reported they would keep remote and flexible working practices once the ‘work from home’ instructions are no longer recommended.
As a result of employees continue to work from home, digital and phone meetings will continue in favour of face-to-face meetings with 70% indicating they’d prefer to conduct less.
Encouragingly, almost two-thirds of companies said that greater awareness of mental health was on the agenda for 2021, perhaps in response to the potential impact that comes with increasing demands on workload, working remotely and uncertainty around job security.