Potential employees have been urged to be adaptive and responsive to the growing demands of organizational firms particularly with the current economic crisis fomented by the coronavirus pandemic.
With thousands of Ghanaians being laid-off since the pandemic started and spiraling with many businesses shut down due to a slowdown in economic activity, the former President of Anglogold Ashanti and Executive Chairman of Jonah Capital, Sir Sam Jonah has cautioned of difficult times for new graduates entering the job market in the short to medium term and has urged them to prepare for the arduous journey ahead.
As Ghana is currently experiencing another surge of the disease with the new strain, many businesses are reluctant to employ new people and are rather devising strategies to keep the job going with a reduced workforce and employees retainability.
Sir Sam Jonah insists the pandemic has indeed morphed and transitioned businesses to make some hard decisions which has consequently influenced and shaped the trajectory of their operations.
“Businesses are going under, and we’re seeing unprecedented levels of unemployment, poverty, and increased inequalities. Sadly, these are the realities of the new world and the one that you are graduating into. The emergence of the pandemic has brought about the need for rapid and radical changes to the way we live and work. There is no longer business as usual and as such, firms will be looking to recruiting and working with employees whose skills and competencies are matched with the insurgencies of the period.
“I recently spoke to the head of HR of a major business organization and I asked her for the essential skills employers will be looking for in post-COVID graduates. She said, flexibility and adaptability, communication and emotional intelligence, creativity and innovation and leadership skills. These are all desperately important skills which you’ll need if you’re to confront the challenges that we are faced with right now”.
Sir Sam Jonah
Moreover, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) last year tasked government to inject some 18 billion cedis into the various sectors of the economy to help lessen expected job losses from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Union, research conducted by its Labour Research and Policy Institute shows the devastating effects of the virus on employees jobs and livelihoods in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
Director of Labour Research and Policy Institute at the TUC, Dr. Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, said government needs to do more to revive the economy and also manage the impact of potential job losses.
“One of the things we did was to estimate the loss of GDP that we are likely to experience because of COVID, and our estimation is based on the data provided by the Minister for Finance when he told Parliament that the 2020 GDP growth which was initially estimated at 6.6% will now be 1.5%. When we look at the numbers, we are looking at an output loss of about 18 billion, and our proposal is for government to find the resources that will fully restore us in terms of the output loss so we are asking government to invest about 18 billion Ghana Cedis into the economy between now and December”.
