Responsible Business

In addition to conducting a regular health check on your business to keep creditor threats at bay and to minimise risk exposure, it is just as vital to assess the mental wellbeing of your management team and conduct a financial health check. The detrimental consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on company finances are apparent across the country, however, the next step that you take is instrumental in facilitating a long-term recovery and rebuilding your business, brick by brick.

Restarting trade and rebuilding business health

The business landscape across the North West is undergoing a transition period as SMEs turn their sights towards recovery, preparing for rebirth, as the country eases out of lockdown and hopes to embrace normality. As unprecedented trading conditions triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic push businesses into a state of deterioration, companies should now focus on replenishing operations and enriching business development initiatives.

Performing business continuity planning from the get-go can help increase revenues and profits, alongside implementing a suitable turnaround solution under the guidance of a licensed insolvency practitioner, such as company restructuring or administration. Following the clean-up of business finances, your company is likely to be in a vulnerable state. During this tender period where the business is receptive, finetuning strategies and feeding your business with tailored expertise can help bolster your position.

Streamlining recovery through a partnered approach

We are delighted to announce that Begbies Traynor Group in Liverpool, spearheaded by Keith Tully (partner) and Jason Greenhalgh (partner), have teamed up with business coaching pioneers, ActionCOACH. Businesses across Liverpool and Merseyside are invited to access exclusive business coaching sessions provided by Begbies Traynor, in partnership with ActionCOACH.

As the coronavirus pandemic depletes cash reserves and hammers down on employee morale, company directors should not fall into the trap of taking a tunnelled approach when forecasting future performance targets. By tapping into a resource pool populated with the greatest minds across a wealth of industries, we can offer additional services, such as corporate finance and alternative funding to not only achieve but exceed your goals.

Call our dedicated Merseyside Directors advice line on 0800 056 1059 for Covid-19 business turnaround and wellbeing solutions, open to all Liverpool Chamber of Commerce Members.

Building on

solid foundations

The Sovini Group is justifiably proud of its award winning culture. In 2020, it was awarded the UK’s Best Place to Work and UK’s Best Place to Work for Women for the second time, and Europe’s third Best Place to Work. It hopes to score a hat trick when Great Place to WorkTM announces this year’s winners at the end of April.

Well Connected spoke to HR Director, Kerry Beirne about her experiences, plans and of the lessons learned – and being learned – for the Group since the start of the pandemic, as it executes its strategy for growth.

“Until the pandemic, we were an office based culture with most staff working out of our ‘the mothership’ Bootle office. Our working lives revolved around it: we held staff briefings and lots of social events there, even non-office based staff would come in to use or to meet in The Bistro, before heading out to work in customers’ homes.

People didn’t work from home unless they had a reason to. We had trialled agile working, but hadn’t taken it further because we simply didn’t have the need to. Then the pandemic swept in, surprising all of us. It catalysed change at a pace no-one, not just Sovini, could have anticipated. Within days of the Government’s announcement we had ‘lifted and shifted’ the majority of our staff to work from home, and adapted operations to meet new and often changing guidelines. The safety of our staff, their families and our customers has always been our priority, alongside protecting our business. Twelve months on and we are adopting ‘agile’ as a permanent way of working, with a focus on performance and trust, rather than measuring time.

We identified from the outset that to maintain performance and remain on our growth trajectory, the health and wellbeing of staff had to be at the core of any strategy. It sounds clichéd, but we have always been passionate looking after our staff. A lot of initiatives had been based on bringing people together to celebrate our culture and purpose, ‘to create opportunities and change lives’. Since this hasn’t been an option for a year, and we are still some way off responsibly being able to get together as a Group, we had to get creative.

We launched the One Group, One Family… One Great Place to Work campaign. This encompassed virtually engaging events and a health and wellbeing programme. It included monthly employee awards presented by our CEO, via Microsoft Teams. We ran our annual Sovini Games celebration, last year’s theme was ‘Scarevini Games’. Since we’ve had an online Christmas Party, Variety Performance and race night. As well as encouraging fun, we run events aimed at supporting people’s mental health such as meditation and mindfulness classes, yoga, financial planning advice, and encourage people to be active and healthy with Sovini Slimmers and exercise classes. We have health and wellbeing champions so it’s not always a ‘top down’ exercise. Our employees have demonstrated incredible spirit, talent and determination. We look forward to a balance of online and faceto-face events from the summer.

We’ve also accelerated our zero carbon programme, a core part of our business transformation strategy. Our housing associations have a regulatory obligation to fulfil a number of objectives by 2050, which we expect to meet or exceed. Where transferrable, we have adopted ‘best practice’ in a Group-wide environmental strategy. Recent highlights include ‘lightfoot driver behaviour technology’ in our fleet vehicles, and 100% of construction waste generated was recycled or diverted from landfill, which equates to over 4,000 tonnes. We also encourage customers to recycle and be ‘environment aware’ through communications campaigns.

Reflecting back, it’s been an extraordinary twelve months, with many highs and lows. While we have made incredible things happen, we cannot ignore the devastation the pandemic has caused. But we have to look forward and build on our strong foundations. We are expanding outside of the region, with sites in Derbyshire and Greater London. Our commercial businesses generate financial capacity, to enable us to build new affordable homes, employ more apprentices and make a significant contribution to the local economies and communities we serve. This year is our 10th anniversary, and in spite of the challenges of the past 12 months, we have a lot to celebrate.”