Recession, inflation, pandemic, these are all words that cause business leaders to react. But how they react seems to be dependent on where they live and work.
A new international survey of 3,700 business owners and executives found a varying degree of confidence depending on their country when it comes to their business’s ability to weather potential financial storms if they were to hit.
Paddy Srinivasan, Chief Executive Officer at GoTo said, “For European nations surveyed only two in three German (68%) and French (66%) business owners feel confident they can weather a crisis. In the UK, a mere 43% felt confident.
“Commissioned by GoTo and conducted by OnePoll, this news comes in as 69% of respondents globally believe a recession is likely to occur within the next six months although EMEA countries, the UK, Germany and France (40%, 59%, 59% respectively) seem to be less nervous whereas the US (71%) and APAC countries Australia (70%), India (89%) Malaysia (76%), Philippines (72%) and Singapore (76%) strongly or somewhat agree they are nervous about the state of their business in a recession.
“These data points align with responses as to how worried businesses are with economic downturns on the horizon with about 50% of EMEA countries surveyed (UK, France, Germany) actively preparing for one.
“Regardless of the varying degree of uncertainty businesses are facing, there are some globally common themes about how to best prepare to weather a storm.”
TOP WAYS TO KEEP BUSINESSES RESILIENT
- Understand how to access economic relief – 39%
- Consolidate technology or evaluate technology needs – 37%
- Make plans of action for potential disasters – 36%
- Ensure three months’ worth of “cash in bank” – 35%
- Diversify the business’ cash flow – 32%
- Improve digital security measures – 32%
- Explore outsourcing certain processes – 29%
- Do internal risk assessments – 31%
- Hire contractors – 12%
- Prepare to reduce staff headcount if required -11%
Srinivasan added, “Despite countries like Australia and India feeling the most nervous about a potential recession, of those regions surveyed, they also believe that their employee morale is higher than at this time last year with Australia coming in at 2 in 3 saying the morale was much or somewhat higher and India responding with an astounding 93% higher morale.
“This is in contrast to the UK where only 40% of companies believe morale is higher than 2021.
“Whatever their differences, globally survey respondents believed the below top five actions needed to be taken to ‘recession-proof’ their business and maintain a productive workforce.”
- Maintaining work equipment (computers, office equipment etc.) on a regular basis- 49%
- Having a product that is cost-effective to produce- 44%
- Equipping employees with the technology they need- 42%
- Creating a company-wide emergency fund- 41%
- High employee morale- 41%
Whether you believe there is a full-blown recession coming, or just a quick passing storm, it’s clear that change is in the air and businesses need to act now to keep employees supported, their business protected, and ultimately take steps to remain resilient for whatever is ahead.
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