KPMG professionals expect significant changes in structure and business processes that may affect the way employees work, how they manage their human resources, and how they serve customers.
As we know, the chemical industry has always adopted new ideas in a relatively prudent way, with a clear focus on the impact of change on profit per pound. A large manufacturing plant should not and should not emulate a software start-up trying to “act fast and break the rules.”. However, the current situation requires chemical companies to speed up the pace of reform. As more and more employees work from home as part of their work, the demand for physical office space in urban centers may be significantly reduced – which may lead to the plight of larger corporate assets at headquarters and regional centers. More fundamentally, many chemical companies are building a zero based budget that uses current market uncertainty as a catalyst to determine what the organization really needs to spend.
Instead, KPMG’s member companies expect that the shared services center will be relocated from some low-cost locations in the next few years. Many companies have found that during the covid-19 shutdown, not all jurisdictions had remote technology or Internet bandwidth, enabling SSC personnel to work effectively in non city offices. Cyber security has also become a huge concern because of work from remote locations on insecure personal and public networks. Since the beginning of the covid-19 crisis, we have seen a dramatic increase in cyber attacks from state and non-state actors trying to use strained security networks and corporate executives to shift attention elsewhere. The services provided to the above mentioned locations are more likely to be provided in accordance with the globalization and sharing of services.
Significant changes can also occur in the management of employee travel. The traditional leadership model tracks employees to work in multiple locations overseas before returning to the headquarters to join top management. This model may no longer be a practical model in the distant world.
The industry is still lagging behind in terms of gender and ethnic diversity. You can count the number of female CEOs in chemical companies with one hand, and when you look at racial diversity, the numbers are not much better. Despite recent efforts, more needs to be done to attract more women and black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) candidates to graduate students in Chemical Engineering – which should be the core environmental, social and Governance (ESG) agenda that is now easier than ever to give the chemical industry a role, as discussed below, to support existing employees through their journey, We see greater diversity in the management of chemical enterprises in 2030. In addition, with the dramatic changes in the business model discussed in this paper, chemical companies may need to attract talent from a much larger pool than ever before, and perhaps compete with technology departments to obtain candidates who are proficient in digital technology from outside the traditional pool of chemical engineers. More diverse candidates with different gender, race, orientation and skills will be the way to make more profits in the future.
