There’s only 30 days now until the furlough scheme finally comes to an end. Whilst its support has been invaluable to over 11 million employees in the UK, what happens now?
Since it began back in March 2020, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, more commonly referred to as the Furlough Scheme has enabled employers to keep staff on the payroll during lockdowns and when restrictions have meant they can’t open their doors to the public.
The substantial losses that businesses have faced during the pandemic means they may struggle when the financial support from the Government is removed.
The amount of people on furlough has gone up and down depending on when lockdowns have been put in place or restrictions have eased as you can see below. By 14th June 2021, the Government had spent 69.5 billion pounds on the scheme so far.
The sectors that had the highest proportion of furloughed employees were Accommodation and Food Services, followed by Arts, Recreation and Entertainment, and in third place is ‘Other Service Activities’.
The scheme has already started to wind down, with the initial 80% of each wage provided reducing to 70% back in July. Further reductions in August and September will see that go down to 60%, with the employer topping up the remaining 20% minimum.
As well as employers finding it difficult to manage without the support from the Government, there is also the fact that during furlough, employees have had time to take stock and think about what they really want from their careers. According to a survey by Aviva three in five people are looking to change career because of Covid.
If you’re a business owner or HR Director faced with the prospect of inevitable job losses, or an employee that has no idea what to do next, outplacement is definitely worth considering. Outplacement is about supporting people to move forward in their job search and career transition, whether faced with redundancy, or for people who want a change in direction but aren’t sure how to go about it.
We’ve worked with people in all sectors, some of our clients include….
Mind
MKS
SMT
Simpson Miller
Aliaxis
If you’d like to find out more about Next Steps bespoke outplacement services and what our client’s have said about us you can do so below.
Right now we’re also offering 30 days free access to our online outplacement resources for 30 days!