Last month the Hodge Research Group in Cardiff Met’s Creative Leadership & Enterprise Centre (CLEC) sent out a questionnaire to 74 firms and asked them about their experiences during the lockdown. We had a good response rate of over 35% and some responses are still coming in.
We are proposing to follow this survey up with a longitudinal view of the effects that the pandemic has on business over the next 12 months.
Firms Operating
The headline figures are that 35% of respondents remain fully operational and conducting business nearly as usual. 46% are partially open with reduced workforce, while 12% have temporarily shut down all operations.
Furloughing
Nearly 60% of firms have furloughed at least some of their staff.
- Full staff numbers working as normal: 31%
- Some staff furloughed: 54%
- All staff furloughed: 4%
- Full staff numbers but working at reduced capacity: 12%
None of the respondents said that they have made anyone redundant during the lockdown.
Government Assistance
70% of firms have applied to the government for some form of financial support. Most of the ones that did (62%) had found the process of getting the support straightforward, although some 39% had found some difficulty or had no success.
| Definitely yes | 61.54% |
| Probably yes | 7.69% |
| Might or might not | 7.69% |
| Probably not | 19.23% |
| Definitely not | 3.85% |
| Total | 100% |