How the steel industry is getting back to business safely, featuring Tim Rutter, Head of Comms at Tata Steel UK
Alice Weightman
Global talent advisor in roles that drive revenue, reputation and manage risk. Founder of Hanson Search and The Work Crowd. Global Women in PR member and 30% Club member.
The UK is slowly getting back to business after the shock of COVID-19 put us in lockdown for months and made its mark on just about every industry and sector around the world. The steel industry - the whole manufacturing industry really - has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19.
To get a better idea of that impact and the steps they are taking as we move out of crisis mode, we sat down (virtually!) with Tim Rutter, Head of Communications at Tata Steel UK.
What impact has COVID-19 had on your business and on your sector as a whole?
It's been extremely difficult for the steel industry - all the manufacturing industry in fact. It's hit us hard in many sectors, but that's not universal. The automotive sector pretty much came to a stop after lockdown but we’re now seeing manufacturing open up a bit albeit on reduced outputs. The construction industry has been limping through and is starting to recover now. But sectors like packaging, they can't make enough, they are absolutely booming. That's a relatively small part of Tata Steel Europe but it demonstrates that it's not one-size-fits-all in terms of how COVID has impacted our business financially.
Like any other business, we've had to put in quite stringent measures for people's health. But a steel industry works 24/7 in most parts of the plant. Of course, we've provided PPE, put screens up and implemented social distancing practices, so we've had relatively few cases of COVID, and people have been working through. That being said, most of our office workers have been working from home - that's about 3000 people. And of course, the furlough scheme has been a blessing for people who couldn't work. We have about 2500 people currently on furlough. Read on for the full interview here.
Hanson Search has launched ‘Getting Business Back’ series where we are talking to industry leaders from agency and inhouse backgrounds about the impact of COVID 19 on their businesses and the steps they are taking as we move out of the crisis. We hope these insights help to share learns for other businesses across the industry.
More from our Getting Business Back Series:
Getting Business Back Series: Paul Davies, Managing Director, firstlight PR
Getting Business Back Series: Anne Le Brouster, Managing Director, Golin Paris
Getting Business Back Series: Russ Brady, Head of PR, Co-op
Getting Business Back: Sandrine Cormary, General Manager, Omnicom PR Group France
Getting Business Back: Mathieu Collet, CEO and Founder, Euros / Agency Group
Getting Business Back Series: Nazim Damardji, CEO and Founder, Fabriq
Alice Weightman is the Founder and CEO of Hanson Search, an international talent consultancy for the communications and marketing industry, and The Work Crowd, a platform to connect businesses to the best freelancers in communications and marketing. Contact [email protected]
Group Head of Marketing & Communications
4 年Interesting to read how the Covid crisis has had such a positive impact on employee engagement, especially within a traditional industry like steel. To modify another Smiths song, “What Difference Does IC Make?”. Actually, a whole lot.?Empathy. Leadership. Authenticity. Connection. “You’ve Got Everything Now”.
CTO, Digital Transformation Manager | Driving Innovation, Growth, and Building Great Technology Teams
4 年Thank you for sharing. It is a very interesting series. It's good to know that so many companies said NO to the post-COVID recession and do not give up.