The Scottish chief executive of global recruitment firm SThree, which has a major operations centre in Glasgow, today said the impact of Covid-19 will drive increase demand for the STEM skills it specialises in.
Although Mark Dorman said the coming months “will not be easy” he also believes that in the longer term there will be opportunities arising from the changes being driven by the response to the virus.
“However severe the current disruption proves to be, the demand for STEM skills and the trend to flexible working will accelerate as a result of the changes we are seeing in social behaviour, travel and working patterns,” he said.
“We are focused on capturing growth in the medium to long term brought about by these increasingly important secular trends.”
Dorman’s comments came as the firm said it was looking to reduce its cost base in the short term. All hiring is on hold along with all non-essential capital expenditure.
Salaries of the executive directors of the board and senior executive team, and the fees of the non-executive directors, have been temporarily reduced by 20%.
Dorman added: “As a strong business with the right strategy, a diversified footprint and a sound platform for growth in place, we are confident we can weather this crisis and will emerge well positioned to continue on our growth trajectory.”
In 2017 the company established a new centre of excellence in Glasgow to bring together its UK support services in a move which saw the creation of around 200 jobs in areas including IT, finance and HR.
Dorman is a former army officer from Dundee who started his career on ‘civvy street’ as a private investigator in Kirkcaldy. He was previously president of higher education, international & professional for US-based McGraw Hill Education.
