2020’s Pandemic Pivot Sparks 2021’s HR Fall-out

7 steps to hiring (and keeping) top talent in a shifting work landscape

By:  Jenna Lang Warford

I’ve had recent conversations with companies that can’t meet staffing requirements because employees who used to make a lower hourly wage are no longer available at that level of compensation. That affects margin, obviously.

— Logan Stout, Founder and Chairman, IDLife

In 2020, direct selling saw an explosion of new distributors as COVID-19 contributed to corporate layoffs, small businesses closing or limiting customers, and shelter-in-place isolation. As everyone in the channel—and the world—tried to wrap their heads around the rapid changes to their lives, some direct selling executives took notice of the sizable scale in the field and responded with effective action to manage the influx. 

“We’re focusing on entrepreneurship at the very top levels, focusing on leadership at levels just below that,” MONAT Global President Stuart MacMillan told Social Selling News about the situation in 2020. “The reason is that we had top leaders who came to us saying, ‘Holy smokes. I don’t know what happened. I now have 4,000 people on my team, and I’m running a multimillion-dollar business,’ and they didn’t have the corresponding leadership or entrepreneurship skills.” MONAT’s executive team took action, including offering a leadership course by John Maxwell and entrepreneurship training by Todd Duncan, among other supporting measures. 

In 2021, the pandemic added a layer of shifting in the workforce that was unexpected by some in the direct selling channel. The previous year’s mandate that all except “essential personnel” work from home triggered millions of workers to reassess how they spend their time and energy—and the wage they are willing to work for.