COVID-19 'war games': the computer program that could help save your job

* Tech firm creates game to simulate impact of COVID layoffs

* 'Broad-front' cost-cutting strategy seen as more effective

* World of work on brink of revolution, creator says

By Sinead Cruise

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Bank of England Chief Economist
Andy Haldane has signed up to judge the winner of a 'war game'
designed to help firms find alternatives to mass layoffs in the
face of a coronavirus-driven slowdown.

Confronted with the most unpredictable pandemic in memory,
cost-conscious firms have already axed millions of staff
worldwide, while UK redundancies hit a record high of 314,000 in
the quarter to Sept. 30, official data showed on Tuesday.

Unilever-owned tech firm uFlexReward created the
COVID-19 War Game to allow executives to explore the impact of
huge job cuts on their future earnings prospects.

"Many companies across the UK are facing financial strains
as a result of the COVID crisis," Haldane told Reuters.

"Simulation tools can help us understand how best to
alleviate these strains while preserving jobs, in a way that
helps both businesses when making difficult commercial decisions
and policymakers when making difficult economic decisions."

The game, designed during Britain's first lockdown this year
and available free to play on the uFlexReward website, calls on
players to devise a strategy to cut people costs of a fictional
firm by 20%.

Participants weigh up the pros and cons of large-scale
redundancies versus alternatives, for the long-term benefit of
the firm as well as the broader economy.

It collates staff salaries, pensions, bonuses and share
awards into one real-time cost-base, helping players see
different ways of trimming overheads more clearly.

This can include making lots of smaller cost cuts in a
so-called 'broad-front' approach, rather than one large saving
in more focused cuts like scrapping entire business units or the
staff bonus pool.

Financial firms have historically slashed highly paid
workforces on the eve of recession, only to rehire rapidly when
the economy rebounds.

Swapping this convention for a broad-front approach could
minimise the risks that employers end up understaffed and
under-skilled when the recovery kicks off, uFlexReward Chief
Executive Ken Charman said.

'CHANGE IS COMING'

Employers in multiple sectors are facing the prospect of a
broader revolution in the world of work, triggered by technology
and mass remote working.

"We are still stuck in a very Victorian view of what work is
- with fixed working days, for a single employer and in a
typically narrow role," Charman said.

"But change is coming that will allow people to be several
things at once ... if companies lose people who are highly
trained, experienced and loyal, they won't get them back," he
said.

Charman hopes the game might persuade employers to waive or
cut dividends as well as executive pay increases, and offer
job-sharing, reduced hours or part-time roles with flexibility
to work elsewhere to staff who might otherwise end up
unemployed.

Pushing through alternatives to mass layoffs will require
strong leadership and communication, particularly when thousands
of employee contracts need to be renegotiated, but retaining
staff could leave firms better placed when the recovery begins,
Charman said.

"Executives need to be willing to abandon the old
conventions; there will be resistance and they've got to be able
to convince people this is in their best interests," he said.

"Employers, big companies and big financial institutions are
part of our critical national infrastructure as much as the
National Grid. They are the engines of our growth, but they are
under threat."

Judging of the head-to-head version of the game, featuring
teams made up of executives from Unilever and NYSE-listed
technology services provider Endava, will take place on
Dec. 3.

Together with Haldane, AstraZeneca senior vice
president of reward and inclusion Rebekah Martin, Unilever head
of global reward Constantina Tribou, and author David Goodhart
are among those judging the strategies.
($1 = 0.7706 pounds)
(Reporting by Sinead Cruise; Editing by Jan Harvey)