COVID-19: Organisations in India are Experiencing Great Business Impact but Fewer are Adopting Drastic People Cost Measures When Compared to Global Findings, Korn Ferry Survey Reveals--

-- 84 percent of organisations in India say they are not currently considering permanent staff layoffs or redundancies --

-- Only 14 percent organizations in India have implemented salary cuts --

-- Only 18 percent organizations have implemented salary increment freeze -- 

Mumbai, 1 May 2020 – From customer-facing staff, middle managers to executives, most respondents both globally and in India believe that adjustments to rewards and benefits as a result of COVID-19 will likely affect employees throughout the organisation, according to a survey by Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY).  22 percent of organisations surveyed in APAC expect a serious impact on their business, where the company’s annual business revenue is expected to decline by more than 30 percent, with around half of these respondents expecting that the impact will be at least 50 percent.

In India, the most commonly implemented measures for rewards and benefits are on promotion and salary hike, with 23 percent organizations suspending the promotion increases and 18 percent organizations deferring and/or delaying salary increases. 36 percent of organizations have implemented or are considering implementing a salary freeze to manage costs. Given the government’s extensive requests on avoiding laying-off employees, the majority of companies have not implemented or are not currently considering permanent staff layoff/redundancies (84 percent) or temporary layoff/furlough (83 percent without government subsidy support and 91 percent leveraging government subsidy). 

Other India findings from the survey include:

• 51 percent of the companies in India will prioritize employee engagement.
• 54 percent of companies in India will encourage more open, transparent and frequent/always- on two-way employee communication.
• Beyond the pandemic, 55 percent of respondents in India indicated that they will continue to operate more virtually, with 63 percent said that they will be more disciplined about cost management moving forward.
• 55 percent companies said they will operate with a more flexible approach to managing people costs

Commenting on the survey, Mr. Roopank Chaudhary, Client Partner, Korn Ferry India said, “Given the current circumstances and uncertainties on the recovery for market conditions, business leaders are trying everything to survive this storm and manage their costs. Among the dozens of ways organisations are taking out labour costs are layoffs, hiring freezes, reduced hours, less reliance on contractors, reducing overtime, delaying bonuses or merit increases, suspending certain benefits like retirement savings/capital accumulation programs, and many others.”

“Communicative and action-oriented leadership is of utmost necessity during this period to make people feel secure and taken care of, and helping the workforce remain focused on preserving operations as best as possible as the outbreak spreads. Managing the challenges of this global pandemic will require innovation and agility amidst unprecedented uncertainty and business leaders will need to balance between implementing short-term measures to address immediate impact and keeping a long-term view on future growth.” he further added.

Global, APAC, ASEAN & ANZ findings from the survey include:

%	Global	APAC	ASEAN	ANZ	INDIA
Salary cuts effected	15	14	11	19	14
Annual salary increases cancelled/freeze	21	17	14	19	18
Annual salary increases deferred / delayed	23	14	12	16	18
Promotion increases suspended	22	17	16	15	23
Short-term incentive/annual bonus reduced, deferred or delayed	14	13	10	18	15
Temporary layoff/furlough (without government subsidy) effected or currently considering	18	15	10	18	17
Permanent staff layoffs/redundancies effected or currently considering	23	21	14	33	16

Korn Ferry Recommendations:

As organisations are facing decisions with respect to rewards, Korn Ferry recommends for organisations to consider the following six principles to alleviate the repercussion of the current situation:

1. Place employee well-being at the top of your priorities
2. Leaders should lead by example
3. Treat people like adults (share what you can as soon as you can, be honest, emphasize two-way communication)
4. Take a balanced approach (especially when considering labour cost reductions)
5. Remember this situation is temporary; avoid drastic near-term actions that could weaken prospects for bouncing back
6. Tailor actions to fit individual company/industry/regional circumstances; “best practices” are what is best for you

About the survey

To understand the impact of COVID-19 on business and human capital management practices, Korn Ferry conducted a pulse survey from 15^th to 24^th April 2020 on almost 4,000 respondents from 99 countries. This is the second global pulse survey that Korn Ferry has conducted to track the measures companies are taking as the pandemic evolves. The majority of respondents are from the Compensation and Benefits function and were at Manager level and above currently working at a wide range of size, ownership and industry. Korn Ferry will be updating these survey findings periodically over the coming weeks to capture changes as they evolve.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm. We work with clients to design their organizational structures, roles and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward, develop and motivate their workforce