Here, as part of their Managing tomorrow’s people series, PwC explores the impact of the downturn on people management, the different options open to companies and the scenarios we believe will play out in this time of great change.

The credit crisis and subsequent global recession has created the biggest challenge to economic prosperity since the 1930s. Focused on survival, many companies are slashing workforce headcount and drastically reducing their expenditure on people.The economic crisis has raised fundamental questions about the institutions and practices of modern business life. Belief in a self-regulating financial system has been shaken, confidence in the foundations of business has been eroded and a new generation of workers are reassessing the relationship between employer and employee.

Here, as part of their Managing tomorrow’s people series, PwC explores the impact of the downturn on people management, the different options open to companies and the scenarios we believe will play out in this time of great change. As we head towards the upturn, we examine how the decisions companies make today will affect their ability to compete in the future.

PwC outlines three possible worlds or business models which will co-exist in the future, illustrating three fictitious companies as they look back from 2020. Some common themes have emerged:

•     Demands for greater transparency and social responsibility in business have been magnified by the crisis and combine with the call for environmental responsibility already present in the green agenda. This will impact manyareas of people management, particularly in relation to how people are rewarded. This is expressed in our Green World scenario.
•     Increased focus on hard people metrics to measure performance and productivity as companies look at a long-term reality of having to do more with less. Our Blue World scenario imagines the performance and efficiency culture necessary for global companies (some larger than many individual countries) to succeed within a new order of economic superpowers.

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Contact at PwC the Netherlands: Henk Zeilstra , Senior Manager International Mobility Advisory.