Pandemic Policy

Colleagues, Clients and Communities

Our colleagues are at the heart of everything we do, and their health, safety and wellbeing are of paramount importance and therefore they are the primary consideration as we continue to provide our services to Clients and engage with third parties.

We continue to operate on a work from home basis and remain continually amazed how our colleagues demonstrate exceptional service to all our clients whilst still protecting themselves, their families, and the wider community.

We have maintained some operational capability working from site to manage post, scanning and office.  We installed a process to enable colleagues to access the office to perform specific tasks as required.  We are grateful to those colleagues for their continued support and dedication.

We are planning to facilitate a small number of colleagues to work in the office by way of a site-based bubble.  It is important to point out that no colleague will be pressured to return to the office should they feel uncomfortable, or where they have individual circumstances, travel, or vulnerability concerns nor caring responsibilities.

We are aware that the wider working community desire greater work flexibility, in a post-pandemic environment, to switch between working from the office, home and other locations. Working collaboratively, we are confident that we can improve our systems and structures to develop technology which will enhance future flexibility enabling our colleagues to continue to work remotely.

Risk Assessment

We put together a pandemic Risk Assessment, internally circulated, which will be continuously reviewed against the Government advice.  We are extending the Risk Assessments to facilitate face-to-face engagement where telephone / video conferencing is not possible.

Offices

We established restrictions centred on who can access the office.  Colleague bubbles were created to restrict the number of colleagues they may come into contact and reduced the potential contact in communal areas such as toilets, kitchen, and printers.

We designated one-way travel systems and significantly increased the amount of hand sanitisers and antibacterial wipes available.  These systems are enhanced by Pandemic signage emphasising social distancing, avoiding the sharing of equipment and face to face interaction together with frequent hand washing. Great focus is placed on always maintaining at least two metres distancing.

Visitors

We have limited access to colleagues and key contractors but look forward to opening the office in due course to all visitors.

Home Working

We continue to work from home as our primary operating model and have provided colleagues with all-in-one base units with full IT support.

Colleagues

We acknowledge that our colleagues are balancing a variety of personal situations as referred to above and are encouraging them to take a flexible approach to managing this competing interest whilst providing a proper service to clients.  We have specialists IT, Operations and HR support where needed.

We are acutely aware that the mental impact on colleagues is significant set against the backdrop of enforced periods of home working together with limits on socialising and family interactions.  We continue to provide support through HR and Colleague support.

Inclusivity

We are a very diverse and inclusive business that supports each other and expect this to continue.  

Future

We will continue to support all colleagues and facilitate working digitally and remotely where possible and endeavour to enhance our digital offerings to develop greater flexibility in the way we work in the future.