Here to help you achieve zero (safely)
As the lockdown measures for COVID-19 loosen, we are working to ensure our staff and clients remain safe and that no one is put at unnecessary risk.
Throughout lockdown, we have continued to serve our clients, using our secure and established infrastructure, to ensure effective home working. Being unable to visit sites, we have been working with new and existing technology to focus on remote working, enabling us to continue to provide our high level of service delivery.
Now that lockdown is easing, we are delighted to be able to get back on site and working with our clients face-to-face where this is required. We realise that this places a great deal of responsibility on our shoulders, to prevent spreading the virus and so we wanted to reassure you of the steps we are taking:
- All staff visiting sites will adhere to site rules around PPE and members of our team have been provided with additional items of PPE for the protection of themselves and others they are working with.
- Travel to sites will be risk assessed, and where possible our staff will avoid any form of public transport. This differs from our normal travel hierarchy, whereby we promote public transport, but it is a change we feel important to reflect Covid-19 precautions.
- Currently Government advice is to continue working from home where possible and therefore our employees continue to do so. We have plans in place for our team to start returning to our offices and this will be implemented in a carefully controlled way to ensure social distancing. We have been making use of outdoor areas surrounding our offices as part of this which has added a new element to our ways of working.
Mental Health Awareness is something we actively champion, and encourage our team to support each other, raise any concerns they may have and openly talk about mental health. As we can see from statistics worldwide, mental health is an area of particular concern at the moment, and we’ve been in regular contact with our employees throughout the pandemic, encouraging them to complete their Wellness Action Plans, to highlight any areas of concern, or support we can provide.
Verco has always encouraged a good work-life balance, and flexible working was something we have supported for a long time. Covid-19 has undoubtedly brought challenges to the ways in which we work, but our employee well-being and safety has always been our priority.
Positive change
As with all businesses, Verco has been forced to change in response to Covid-19. Despite the personal challenges and uncertainty, there have been positive outcomes from an environmental perspective, which we expect to impact how we work in the future:
- Our reduced travel means our own carbon footprint has decreased significantly and we are actively working on ways to maintain this new lower level.
- Homeworking has become commonplace and has accelerated related initiatives we were already working on around flexible working. We have seen significant benefits in avoided commuting time and carbon emissions.
- We have all got very used to video conferencing and feeling more comfortable on camera; turning our strategy of reducing face-to-face meetings into an instant reality.
Despite the physical disconnect, we still feel very well connected with our team and clients and we look forward to continuing the evolution of our ways of working to maintain safety and help us all on the journey to achieving zero.