Companies decide to wait and see on Brexit

It is up to Prime Minister Theresa May to trigger Article 50, kick-starting the UK's departure from the EU.

The survey of 200 UK businesses gauged employers’ thinking about the implications of the Brexit vote, whilst looking at what organisations are planning to do to prepare their business and employees.

The report shows that four-fifths (78 per cent) of companies have begun a broad consideration of the implications of Brexit and more than half (60 per cent) have conducted an assessment of what it means for key areas,

However only 24 per cent have carried out a detailed impact assessment and only a third (33 per cent) have done any scenario planning. The most scenario planning was seen in financial services (carried out by 45 per cent of companies) and the least in technology, media and telecoms (20 per cent).

Richard Veal, director of Willis Towers Watson’s Talent and Rewards practice GB, said: “The results show that UK business is concerned about the effects of Brexit, but uncertainty appears to be hindering many companies taking immediate action.

“It is important that companies think about what the next steps should be and get into a more action-oriented state of mind.”

The report shows that UK businesses’ biggest concern is the impact of Brexit on the workforce, cited by 76 per cent of those questioned.

The second biggest worry was organisational change (cited by 51 per cent).

“Minimising the impact on the workforce seems the obvious area of attention and it should be the area of immediate concern,” said Mr Veal.

“The ability of a business to understand the number of workers affected and how it impacts the business will be crucial to any organisation going forward.”

The report also took a more in-depth look at organisational change. Half of companies (50 per cent) are thinking of reassessing their current operating model and organisational structure, while just under half (47 per cent) are looking at the HR implications of business disruptions or delays to corporate transactions.

There is a slightly stronger trend for organisations in financial services and professional and business services, where 59 per cent and 67 per cent respectively are assessing implications for organisational change.

“The data implies that many businesses are not assessing the effect Brexit will have on their business structure,” said Mr Veal.

“This is particularly noticeable in the HR space where the research shows less than half of businesses are creating a specific HR Brexit team, suggesting that HR may be lagging behind other business areas in terms of readiness.”

Willis Towers Watson said it carried out the survey in a bid to better understand how prepared organisations are and how they are planning to address the implications of the June 23 Brexit vote.

The survey was carried out in July 2016 and 196 organisations responded.

Willis Towers Watson said it is planning a follow up with a series of surveys monitoring the reactions of UK business to Brexit.

The survey comes at a time when businesses are acting in limbo before Article 50 is triggered. Article 50 will start a two year process for Britain to leave the EU, yet analysts say this will not be nearly enough time.