With a number of lockdown restrictions being lifted, we’ve been busy working away to ensure that our new office meets the safety requirements (and then some) to ensure our team is as protected as can be!
Our employee’s health and wellbeing is first and foremost our priority and we have not taken the decision to return lightly, instead being guided by colleagues who are eager to get back to some sort of normality.
We’ve undertaken a stringent risk assessment which has been shared and communicated across the business and we’ve implemented a number of protective measures, most notably the install of glass desk dividers across all workstations. Created bespoke by our client, Specialist Glass Products, the dividers provide an extra barrier between each person.
Access to the office will be managed to limit staff numbers, allowing for social distancing to take place. Along with our landlords at the Heritage, we have ensured that hand sanitiser units are widely available at all touch points and all equipment will be thoroughly cleaned throughout the day. Facemasks are also available to members of staff who wish to wear them, each desk also has antibacterial wipes, hand sanitiser and tissues.
While we have always enabled our team to work flexibly, this past 10 weeks of remote working has reinforced just how well we can do this and that everyone is trusted to ‘get the job done’! However, it has also taught us is that although we can all work flexibly and everyone now feels more comfortable with it, is that we thrive on personal contact and this is where our best ideas and outcomes are generated.
Returning to the office will not be compulsory, and for those who do choose to return they certainly aren’t expected to be there five days a week. We want our colleagues to really live that often sought work-life balance and to spend time with their friends and families, do the things they love and most importantly look after themselves.
Longer term this will adapt how we recruit new staff into the business by not limiting our vacancies to candidates within close commuting distance to Huddersfield. If anything, this global pandemic has shown both employers and employees that round working can be much more flexible. So if you’re looking for a new role, drop me an email!
It’s an exciting time for us at Wild, with an overall shift in the way we work and communicate, and while we are fairly certain we will never fully ditch our office setting; we can certainly see the benefits of increased collaboration and communication through remote working.
That being said, we are all very much looking forward to our first post-COVID night out together, but there have been valuable lessons to us all through this period. Although not able to do so yet, we are looking forward to seeing our clients in our new office at the Heritage!
For now, though, working in a COVID19 era means the end of the tea round for the foreseeable!