Rising to the Challenge: The future of the public and voluntary sectors
11/29/2021
Our new Zurich Municipal whitepaper, focusing on the future of the public and voluntary sector, is now available to download.
Zurich's first report on our research on the future of the public and voluntary sectors is now available in the whitepaper, Rising to the challenge.
It provides an overview of the responses from over 1000 senior decision-makers in public and charity sectors, and the membership associations that support them.
The headline findings are nuanced, in that most organisations (75 per cent) feel both prepared to face future challenges and well placed to take advantage of future opportunities. However, slightly more people are pessimistic about the future of the public and voluntary sectors than optimistic.
Download our whitepaper to reveal sector-specific answers to our searching questions, including what issues will have the biggest impact on organisations over the next five years.
Pandemic positives and negatives
The pandemic has shone a positive light on public and voluntary sectors, highlighting organisations’ efforts and achievements, while managing unplanned changes in desperately challenging conditions. /p>
There’s a strong sense of community and collaboration that many are hopeful will remain long after the health emergency.
The workforce has been reliable and resilient, providing the necessary foundation for continuing to deliver services in a health emergency.
Overcoming the difficulties of the past year has made jobs even more rewarding for many, but continuing to respond to an emergency, as well as adapting to a brand-new business as usual, has put a strain on the workforce. Mental health, wellbeing, recruitment and retention, and diversity and inclusion, are at the top of the agenda of workforce issues both now, and into the future.
All sectors rated mental health and wellbeing as being impactful over the past 12 months.
Digital transformation has been accelerated by the needs of remote working, impacting on the workforce and service users, changing the shape of organisations and how they operate.
Funding and fiscal policies figured highly as a cause for concern in recent times and looking ahead. It was the main issue on local authorities’ minds.
Service demand is increasing and more varied across all areas and sectors. Expectations, both political and within communities, are high.
However, there is no certainty about operating environments. Organisations don’t know what financial and human resources will be available, or how sustainable their business models may be, and the legislative framework is unclear.
Future forward
So, what about the future? Both the challenges and opportunities were a key topic of interest for the public and voluntary sector organisations and their membership association, as well as how prepared they felt to meet them.
Download our whitepaper to find out what our respondents had to say.
This Whitepaper is the first report reflecting the findings from Zurich Municipal’s customer research conducted in July 2021, in conjunction with YouGov and sector membership associations: SOLACE, the NHF, CIPFA, ALARM and NCVO.
