UDIA WA is working swiftly to ensure we have a clear understanding of the impact of the current pandemic on our member organisations. As such we sent out a survey to all of our member organisations to gauge the level of impact of COVID-19 on the development industry.
Upon completion, the results assisted UDIA WA in delivering a stimulus letter to WA State Premier Mark McGowan detailing some of the measures that would be of most benefit to organisations and businesses working in the development industry at the moment.
The survey included responses from a wide range of companies within the development industry, both large and small and detailed the tough decisions being made on a daily basis.
The majority of respondents confirmed they had implemented social distancing practices within their organisation and a large proportion either allowing all staff to work from home or allowing most staff to work from home while maintaining an ‘open office’. A large number had also placed a restriction on interstate travel prior to the official advice delivered by the Government.
In terms of negative impacts, the majority listed IT and remote working issues, maintaining staff morale/productivity and maintaining public facing operations as immediate issues they will face in the next two weeks.
As time goes on, many companies see cash flow, managing staff sick leave, the impact of carer duties and redundancies having a growing impact on their business within the next 6 months with cash flow issues and redundancies also having negative impacts on their business up to and beyond the next 12 months.
When forecasting impact on revenue the majority feel there will be between a 0 and 40% reduction in sales for the remainder of this financial year followed by up to a 30% reduction in sales in 2020/21 Financial Year.
In terms of mitigating the financial impacts just under half said they had not fully considered how they would do this but would be exploring options soon, with around 10% of respondents either cutting non-wage related costs, reducing work hours or actioning job losses.
UDIA WA would like to thank all those who took part in this initial COVID-19 Pulse Check Survey.
To see the results from this first survey in full, click here.