A national labour survey is meant to take the pulse of a country’s economy. But when the Covid-19 pandemic caused a surge in unemployment, it was clear that in one country that the numbers generated did not tally with reality.

This distortion left the national statistics agency for that nation, based within the Middle East and North Africa region, with a big problem: how can the government support its people if it doesn’t have an accurate picture of the economic health of the country?

An independent external review was launched, with Hyphen and a major global consulting firm assisting the government agency in conducting a thorough review of the processes involved in the survey from start to finish.

Our hand-picked team of seasoned technical specialists and senior experts brought clarity where there was confusion.

Every stage of the survey needed to be reviewed to understand the full extent of the problems and to potentially design a new system fit for purpose.

Using our network of contacts, we carefully built a team of reputable, independent experts with specific and complementary skillsets to critically analyse the situation and use their specialist knowledge to come up with solutions.

The group included national leaders and experts with experience in running national labour force studies, including:

Specialist knowledge was key to launching a comprehensive review and transforming the government agency’s processes.

The team completed a comprehensive review in less than eight weeks and led the way when creating a detailed plan to remedy the problems. Their extensive analysis highlighted 40 areas for improvement and Hyphen’s experts provided the client with a one-year roadmap for implementing the changes.

Seeing the value created by our experts, the client enlisted the group in an advisory capacity throughout the implementation phase, which included training staff and preparing a methodology and documentation review. This overhaul has raised processes to meet international standards and will provide the government agency with a strong foundation to assess the national economy with far greater precision for decades to come.