Making the Most of Payment Protection Funding
Next Level is a professional services firm with offices in Seattle and Portland. The firm is offering aid to businesses in need during the pandemic in the form of service grants, which offer a range of strategic expertise. I partnered on a service grant project for a Next Level client, which was among the first applicants for the Payment Protection Program (PPP). Here are four things I’ve learned about the PPP and workforce planning:
1. Establish your goals upfront. In this case, our objective is to preserve all jobs.
2. Use scenario planning. Because we can’t predict how business will resume after stay home orders are lifted, we modeled three scenarios to bring employees back from furlough.
Upon PPP funding, bring all employees back, assuming the stay home order has been lifted. This option assumes an immediate return to pre-Covid-19 sales.
Bring 75% of employees back upon funding and the remaining 25% by June 30. Assumption: steady return of pre-Covid-19 revenue.
Bring back a skeleton crew of 50% with the goal of bringing the remaining 50% back by June 30. Assumption: a much slower return to pre-Covid-19 revenues.
3. Tailor communication plans for each scenario. Each option requires detailed communication for both employees and managers. For example, company leaders need to address the question, “Why are some employees returning to work and I’m not?”
4. Establish close HR/Finance partnership to ensure accurate modeling. I collaborated with the company controller and NextLevel CFO. We modeled the impact of PPP dollars to both a base case financial scenario and a worst-case scenario. This modeling has supported the client’s decision not to conduct layoffs even at a low percentage (e.g. 5%), which aligns with their 100% job preservation goal.