2020
Q1
It's been declared an unprecedented pandemic! Riding the first two quarters of the "New Normal".
2020
Q3
Are we ever going back to business as usual? Hope reigns supreme as the numbers start to bounce back.
2020
Q4
Reality dawns as we learn to live with the virus. The numbers, and businesses in general, see a correction.
SO FAR IN...
2021
Business is definitely on the rebound. The global economy is positive about growth in the new year.
2020
What a year it was - the worst most of us have ever seen - with levels of uncertainty that were frightening and mentally stressful.
The first two months of 2020 started really well and were showing signs of it being a great year of continued growth for the economy and the world at large. And then suddenly, everything came to a grinding halt in March before plummeting in April.
month-on-month decline in March '20
month-on-month decline in May '20
Hiring freezes, cost cutting and businesses going belly up were an overnight reality. From what we could see, our customers and companies in general were honoring offers that were still out there - but industry slowing down was inevitable. What made it worse was the uncertainty - will things ever get back to "normal" and if so, when? No one had any answers.
The months of May, June and July saw very little activity with new hire onboarding on a decline. Those that were still onboarding were part beneficiaries of the pandemic - industries like healthcare, FMCG and financial security services.
The growth driving these businesses helped prop up some industries, but the economy in general was struggling to stay afloat. Markets had tanked and investments had all but dried up completely. The present was very bleak and the future did not seem bright either.
2020
We started seeing a bounce back of numbers in Q3. July, August and September were the true revival months with businesses starting to understand how to deal with the "new normal" and thinking about investing back into the business.
month-on-month jump in August '20
A 65% jump in August gave us the indication that businesses were starting to look at 2021 with hope. Our customers were starting to see a small bounce back and investments were freeing up to start growing again.
We can't call it exuberance - but executives were seriously looking at 2021 and thinking about investments that needed to be put in place to grow their business. CEOs, CFOs and CHROs that we spoke to saw Q3 as the beginning of the plan for revival.
However, there was still some amount of uncertainty. While investments had started coming in, investors were being careful. There was "cautious optimism" and the markets were desperately trying to rally back.
We could see this in our onboarding numbers. Markets like India and US had started onboarding people again. The European market had all but stalled from this perspective, but hopes were pinned on Asian economies.
It was during this time that we saw a lot of our customers talk about investments being poured into Asian markets like India - to consolidate and focus on growth. Our India onboarding numbers were tracking back up and all the growth we saw in Q3 was from this region.
2020
If Q2 was crash and burn and Q3 was optimism, Q4 brought a sense of reality and we saw onboarding numbers correcting a bit to stabilize. What was interesting is that traditionally the holiday season does see a small dip in numbers and this year was no different.
Onboarding numbers through Tydy (Oct - Nov 2020)
Our customers span retail, FMCG and Pharma - the industries that were growing through the pandemic. They continued to onboard during the last few months, albeit in smaller numbers.
From our conversations with leaders we found that the focus during the holiday season was on the future. Most were busy prepping to start investing in the first quarter of 2021. So while hiring and onboarding flattened a bit (as was expected), Q4 saw a lot of optimism for 2021.
THE STORY SO FAR IN...
From an employee onboarding perspective, we are actually seeing the curve rise back up to pre-COVID levels. All the planned growth for 2021 is actually happening and we are seeing businesses start to invest and onboard for various functions. Offices are gradually opening up more and people are learning to live with the virus.
month-on-month growth from January to April 2021
The year has started really well. Businesses are making serious investments in sales, marketing and revenue generating roles. IT firms and digital transformation companies are seeing increased growth from US customers who are turning more and more of their processes into automated and digital ones.
While we might still see some correction in Q2 of this year - it's important to note that, at Tydy, we are now back to pre-pandemic levels. And leaders of global businesses tell us that their mandate is to keep investing in growth.
The number of enquiries we are receiving for "digital employee onboarding" have also grown quite considerably. This tells us that businesses are looking to automate and digitize their onboarding and employee data processes. It has become one of the key priorities on the Digital Transformation agenda.
With Flex Work and a hybrid model of working gaining in popularity, companies are realizing that digital onboarding is the need of the hour.
Onboarding numbers are clearly climbing back up for our customers. Meanwhile, at Tydy, our Lead Velocity Rate (LVR) has increased given that global businesses are looking for ways to automate operational processes.
With a steady increase in high quality inbound leads, we are also seeing businesses forecast an escalation in hiring and onboarding of revenue generating resources this year. In fact, a lot of this growth will be seen coming from Asia Pacific with countries like India, China, Malaysia and Indonesia as beneficiaries of these investments and growth spurts.
The US is also picking up and we are expecting to see onboarding numbers increase by Q2 of 2021. Western European is fairly flat at the moment even though leaders in these regions are talking about reaching pre-pandemic levels by June 2021.
We will be tracking our numbers quite closely and hope to see continued growth in Q1 of 2021 and through Q2 as well.
Until the next report, stay safe!
Feel free to reach out to us at sodo@tydy.it if you have any thoughts or feedback on the report. And in the mean time, feel free to watch our brand new brand film 🚀
