Biggest Impacts

8. What topic has had the biggest impact during the past 12 months?

The survey question did not discriminate between positive and negative impacts, and while some of the responses might be open to interpretation, the number of negative impacts exceeded the number of positive impacts by a factor of c.7:1.

Positive Impacts

The responses highlighted the benefits of flexible working patterns and implementing new ways of working. Working from home (within the confines of hybrid working), as a means of addressing the current cost of living challenges, was seen as a positive. The knock-on effect of right-sizing offices to support a reduced daily attendance was referenced.

Negative Impacts

These broadly fell into three categories:

Politics, Economy and Supply Chain

People and Salary

Climate Change and COVID, this category saw only a few responses.

Politics, Economy and Supply Chain

Uncertainty due to inflation, costs and general political upheaval were reported. With many of SPACE’s clients being involved in the North East energy sector, specific issues such as an Energy Windfall Tax and an unclear future for the North Sea were mentioned. Energy cost increases have impacted businesses across all sectors. Efficiencies were having to be investigated as the cost for services and products increased, with project budgets not tracking these increases.

People and Salary

This was the most frequently reported negative impact, reaffirming the data from Q5 regarding challenges with recruitment—not just in terms of finding the right people (with the right skills), but in terms of the time taken to recruit and the expectations over salaries.

The impact of trying to replace European staff with UK-based staff was reported, with an example given of 250 interviewees for positions resulting in only 6 people being hired. In the Third Sector one respondent commented on salary expectations now being 15-25% higher than pre-pandemic levels, making it difficult to recruit into management roles.

While, for some, hybrid working is a positive, others reported that it has been difficult to get the balance right, ensuring that the right people are in the office at the same time.

It is worth noting that the topic with the biggest impact does not necessarily correlate with the most popular current discussion topic which, from our experience, is the journey to net zero.