Pandora is, apparently, the jeweller of choice among young women of a certain age (including Millie Bobbie Brown of Stranger Things fame and my daughter to name but two) but this caught my eye not because of the focus on Star Wars charms, but because of the choices that Pandora has made during the pandemic. In particular, the choice to keep all of its staff on full pay throughout the various periods of lockdown.

Justifiably, it might be argued that this is all fine if the business can afford it and has been sufficiently profitable. Many other businesses have had to make hard choices without any alternative. This is completely understandable, and no business should be criticised for it.

But... a business that chooses to focus on the wellbeing of its staff, especially in a challenging climate, is making an important choice. It is choosing to focus on the long term benefit of the workforce, rather than the short term bottom line. It is investing in staff. It is choosing, in short, to prioritise people over profit.

It is easy to look to cut staff costs when times are hard; usually, they are a business's biggest outlay and an obvious target. But the long term impact of the choices that we make will stay with us, long after the vaccine has been distributed and things have changed again (I'm not saying "gone back to normal" because who knows where we will end up? But that's another blog...)

These are tough times. There are tough choices to be made. But sometimes, we need to take the long view.