Omicron Only Exacerbated Ingrained Staff Worries for SMEs - ScotPac
(14 January 2022 – Australia) Staff worries were skyrocketing for SMEs even before Omicron made things worse, national small business research by ScotPac shows.
Business owners were already struggling with staff issues in the second half of 2021, well before the January 2022 Omicron spike exacerbated their staff shortage woes, according to national research by leading SME non-bank lender ScotPac. H2 2021 SME Growth Index research executed by East & Partners on behalf of ScotPac with more than 1200 SMEs indicated eight in every ten Australian small business owners are most worried by compliance, cashflow and finding enough time in the day to complete tasks.
The most recent SME Growth Index found three stresses have by far the biggest impact – compliance, managing cashflow and having enough time in the day to get the job done.
“Staff issues was nominated as a key concern by almost half business owners (49%), compared to three years ago when significantly fewer (12%) called it their top concern” commented ScotPac Senior Executive Craig Michie.
“Anecdotally since 2022 began, 8 in every 10 of the SMEs we fund are telling us they are struggling to keep existing staff on the job and to find new staff to ensure their businesses operate each day. Business owners have so much on their plates right now, and staff issues driven by Omicron are just one extra burden on top of their usual burdens.”
"We are trying harder than ever to respond quickly, be a flexible funding partner that understands their short-term needs and challenges, working with SMEs to help them through this latest hurdle so they can get back to growth once recovery is underway.”
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