WIRRAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
1 Internal (Staff)
> Homeworking
> Benefits / Challenges
> Hot Desking
2 External (Business Engagement)
> Proposals
3 Next Steps: Research
4 Proposed Implementations
> Phase 1 - During Lockdown
> Phase 2 - The Easing of Lockdown
As a result of the current Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation we are continually asking ourselves many questions. In particular, how do we work as an organisation in the current climate? How can we change our working practices? What will our post COVID-19 work life look like and how will we adapt to a new normal?
Over the last few weeks, indeed months now, we have all been given the opportunity of both considering and trying out new and effective ways of working. We now need to deal specifically with two questions, as we move forward:-
1) How are we going to have staff working from home and working safely when returning to the office?
2) How will we engage and communicate with businesses going forward?
Below we explore the benefits and challenges as well as some proposals for a new way of working and finish by outlining the next steps that are necessary for this to become a reality.
During the last decade advances in technology has enabled remote working to become not only a reality but, in many situations, the norm. Research has highlighted the effectiveness of home working and the positives that it can bring to both employers and employees.
Nevertheless, like many things, home/remote working can also provide various obstacles. The question is, can we overcome them in order to make home/remote working effective and to become an important tool in our work at the Chamber?
Homeworking offers staff some level of flexibility around how they structure their day
Cuts commute times and associated fatigue
Less office distractions such as noise and interruptions
Increased productivity - some people see an increase in productivity levels in a home environment
Staff have the ability to live anywhere –hiring staff with a good skill set can be looked at from a wider geographical area
Reduction in businesses’ overall footprint
More time with loved ones by reducing the time spent travelling to and from work
Prevent risk of infection spreading as there will be no large groups working together/eating together during lunch etc.
Staff will spend less time travelling which means less money spent on fuel, less transport congestion and less environmental impacts
Studies have shown that employees take shorter holidays and fewer sick days when working from home.
Health benefits – home working will allow staff to have a flexible work environment which ultimately relieves the amount of stress in their lives and gives them a healthier work-life balance
People who work from home have an easier time eating healthily and striking a manageable work-life balance resulting in less stress, a happier employee and a more productive employee too.
Introduces challenges for team cohesion, collaboration and innovation
Additional cyber security considerations
Will there also be distractions at home? Pets, food, children etc.
Whereas others may find their productivity suffers at home
Fewer social opportunities, however as an organisation we can think of innovative ways to continue the social aspect of working from home
Wi-Fi problems – no high-speed home broadband/ networks could collapse/ temporary cuts to service
Digital divide (i.e. the uneven distribution in the access to, use of, or impact of Information and Communication Technologies between any number of distinct groups)
Mental health issues, loneliness and isolation affects team cohesion
Zoom calls can drain your energy and people can become “zoomed out” – how many meetings can we carry out digitally each day?
Communication can be a barrier
Additional costs to help set staff up for homeworking e.g. office equipment.
Theft – laptops/ screens being stolen from homes is an increased risk as well as misplacing confidential information
It is clear that there are a number of benefits and challenges that need to be properly balanced and mitigated against to ensure that we, as an organisation, can work at home effectively. Based on this, we have identified some key recommendations and proposals:
1.
Mental health initiatives.
For many people, co-workers can be their main source of daily human interaction. Without opportunities to engage with others outside of their home, mental health problems and loneliness may be more prevalent. Several organisations have dealt with this problem by putting in place initiatives such as virtual happy hours, the recreating of morning coffee breaks and the creation of Wellness Wednesdays (a great opportunity to remind people to check in with their colleagues). As we move towards homeworking and we regularly carry out meetings and events digitally, screen time can be tiring on the eyes so we must ensure that staff look after themselves and look away from their screen every now and then to refocus. An idea may be for staff to go on walks and use voice call instead of video call so that they aren’t viewing their screen all day. It would also be increasingly important for managers to actively check in with their team’s mental health as working apart may make it harder to identify issues.
2.
Staying connected and keeping in touch. Conversing, speaking to people (both internally and externally) and sharing ideas is integral to our way of working at the Chamber. It is important that colleagues have access to platforms that make collaboration and team working easier from afar. Packages such as Microsoft Teams, Google Hangout, Yammer and Zoom are platforms that can be used to allow colleagues to connect and socialise whilst working at home. Other things to consider are establishing virtual drop-in-hours and the setting up of a virtual office by using video conferencing software that allows people to pop in and out and have live conversations.
3.
It is important that staff are encouraged to promote the Chamber and our businesses as much as possible on social media. This not only includes sharing content, but also engaging by commenting on posts as well. Although this is an internal goal, it is an external focus.
4.
IT improvements will need to be made to ensure that people can work from home effectively. We are looking into several options on how we can communicate via telephone and transfer calls. Will the helpline still be useful for businesses going forward? (a question for the business survey).
Some contracts also require signatures so we will need to look into a process to obtain these.
5.
Homeworking can increase cyber security risk, therefore particular consideration should be given to our cyber security arrangements.
6.
Staff may not have the equipment and support to work from home so, if needs be, they will be given a budget for any work equipment that may be needed to enable them to work from home. A list will be drawn up for essential equipment that any employee may need e.g. including a desk, a suitable chair, new laptops etc., as we won’t want working from home to impact on people’s physical health.
7.
Training: data protection and security training will be required for all employees as homeworking increases risk in this area. Directors will also need training on the people management techniques needed to manage staff remotely and to ensure work gets done effectively, efficiently and safely.
Working from home part of the week, and in the office on other days, is becoming a popular working practice. It also presents an opportunity to reduce the number of desks we occupy and, in turn, also the costs associated with having an office that has to accommodate the whole workforce. A common way of doing this is a switch to hot desking, though at this time, it is not advised that we do so. We will, therefore, allocate every member of staff with their own desk in the office, but staff will not be expected to come in on every day of the week. We will then look into hot desking at a later date, when it is safe to do so.
Returning to the office will raise many concerns with regards to the health and safety of staff following the covid-19 crisis. Therefore, new health and safety measures will be required following new risk assessments. Desks will be 2m apart whilst covid-19 is still an issue. We are also looking into a one-way system so that nobody passes on the stairs or in the corridors and disposable gloves, masks and hand sanitizer will be made available throughout the buildings. See Government advice on Working safely during COVID-19 in offices and contact centres:
http://ow.ly/vhPm50zH4Wd
The cleanliness of desks is important. Accordingly, hand sanitizers and wipes will be available and desks will be cleaned daily. To reduce contamination, lockers will also be provided to ensure personal belongings can be stored safely and not left on desks. Providing personal lockers will also reduce the strain of persistently carrying equipment and materials around and will allow confidential material to be kept safe. For those that deal with confidential files on a daily basis, we will provide several filing cabinets so that staff are able to safely store files before returning to work later in the week. It is important that all files stay at work and are not taken home. We are currently looking into ways to electronically store files and client signatures so that less paperwork is required and files are more accessible.
As an organisation we hold a number of events and have a lot of face to face meetings with our businesses. These take time to organise, travel to and contribute towards our carbon footprint. Virtual meetings:
• Are better for the environment
• More accessible
• Save people time in terms of travel
• Are cheaper
• And material can be recorded and reused
The COVID-19 pandemic has given us an opportunity to explore alternative ways to communicate with our members and is giving us the chance to look into whether we can hold our events virtually whilst continuing some level of face to face engagement.
Meetings with members can take place in many different ways, thanks to the technology that is now available. There are many simple, quick and effective ways of arranging meetings to take place remotely. Staff can make phone calls, FaceTime, connect via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts and more – allowing them to have the face to face contact that they would usually have if in the office.
Sector Forums will only take place digitally going forwards. We hope to be able to continue having face to face sector forums following the COVID-19 crisis, but due to the many benefits that digital events bring, we will look at hosting a mixture of both.
We have looked into delivering workshops/webinars in partnership with some of our members on life in lockdown, the lessons learnt and managing the impact of COVID-19. This could cover topics such as how to create, develop and use online networking, designing online meetings for maximum success, gaining knowledge about software possibilities and marketing opportunities out there, planning for the future etc. We are also carrying out workshops/webinars for Enterprise Hub (business start-ups and pre-starts), Training, Business Growth Platform and Export.
When delivering our digital workshops/ webinars, we need to consider our clients’ access to technology. For example, several staff have conducted one to one Zoom meetings with business start-ups who run the app through their phone as they do not have a laptop – this would be the same for workshops/webinars. On a short term basis, we can work around this, but long term it may exclude some people from accessing our services if future workshops / webinars are digital. A solution that we are looking into is having a couple of desks available with either a screen or laptop in a controlled space within one of our buildings. This will allow clients/businesses to come in and use them for workshops/webinars.
We have created a page, on the website, for businesses to view previous webinars and forums that they may not have been able to attend due to other work related commitments or illness. This will not only help businesses out, that can’t attend, but will also allow people to re-watch in case they missed anything. By doing this, it will also showcase the speaker for a longer time period. You will find this content on the website under Press > Chamber@Home.
Sector Board meetings will take place digitally for each sector and minutes will be recorded. The Industry Board meetings will also be digital going forward.
BDM’s can stay in touch with members by sending emails on a daily basis. A mass email can also be sent to their sector once/twice a month to keep engagement levels up. This will include information such as upcoming forums that they may be interested in, meeting requests/ queries, new members in their sector, events they may want to get involved with/attend on Wirral (Food and Drink Festival as an example for VE), QES surveys etc. This can be purely tailored to each sector depending on the news and updates that may be beneficial to those businesses within.
We have started to use Mailchimp to send out our emails/newsletters/updates as it:
1) looks better
2) we can semi automate some aspects, making best use of technology and saving us time
3) allows us to capture data such as when people open our emails/click through on links/ register for events. By doing so, we can better tailor our emails/communication to get maximum engagement
4) it puts control on the member on what mailing lists they get added to and means we can easily create/adjust mailing lists to keep them up to date.
It is likely, especially due to recent circumstances, that some businesses will have matters that concern them, some of which are serious and perhaps urgent, and which they would like us to address. How can we help in supporting you? We will have a specific session that focuses on the support that we can offer our businesses, with an update from our CEO. This session will take place every other Tuesday at 11am for all businesses (members and non-members). We will also be having a session every other Thursday at 11am for our Patron and Strategic Partners only.
Due to advances in technology, it is clear that we will still be able to provide our members with support and events whilst working from home. Nevertheless, many of our member’s primary reason for joining the Chamber is to network and build connections. With there being none/ less face to face forums than usual, there are currently less opportunities to network. And some may not be inclined to talk on Zoom calls. This poses some additional questions for the organisation. How will members still network? What does the future hold for networking? How will we give our members the opportunity to engage with one another when half our forums are going digital?
Networking digitally can be difficult, nonetheless our goal is to still help members make those necessary connections. This virtual event will be purely for networking with no key speakers involved. Members will each have a minute to come on and introduce themselves, their business and the support that they are able to offer other members. Following the session, a delegate list will be sent out to all attendees so further connections can be made.
It is important for our members that we are promoting them as much as possible, especially during this extraordinary time. We will be creating member shout-out graphics to promote our members and their offers on a regular basis. This will allow members to view other member’s offerings and get in touch if it is a service that they are interested in.
To allow businesses to obtain valuable advice for their particular business, we have created seven sector specific Twitter accounts. This platform of support is open to all members across the Chamber to follow so that they can frequently ask questions and share information, thoughts and ideas. This will mean that emails don’t have to go out as often, as necessary information can be shared and contributed on this platform.
An alternative platform will be needed for Enterprise Hub clients that do not have Twitter (e.g. pre-starts). We are looking into creating a Facebook Focus Group.
To help improve our mental health as we work from home more, it will be good to get out and socialise with members and co-workers. Once a month (weather dependent) a day will be dedicated to walking and networking with our members.
As a Chamber, we want to introduce a member and staff challenge to encourage everyone to stay fit and healthy. As we are sat at our desks all week working and not moving, we can encourage everyone to start the weekend off positively by doing the Birkenhead Park-Run. This takes place every Saturday at Birkenhead Park, 9am and people can participate whenever they feel like it. A leaderboard with Chamber members and staff can be put together. This is a free way to get everyone involved and stay active. People can also grab a coffee after and network in the park.
The world has suddenly turned quiz crazy and many people are quizzing all week long. Why not use this going forward as a different and fun way to engage with our members? We are looking at carrying out a quarterly quiz for all to get involved. Quizzes can relate to the Chamber and its members, be Wirral related, include famous leaders, have a seasonal relation etc. Prizes could include vouchers for the VE sector, reduced membership for the year or discount on office space etc. They will take place between 3-5pm one afternoon so that it doesn’t cut into anyone’s evening and allows businesses to take part in the quiz together (once back in the office).
Firstly, we need to consult with other staff members so that we can identify the key considerations and concerns and see if we are able to overcome them. It will also be good to see how the staff that are currently working from home are coping. This is a complete new way of working and a big culture change for employees – is everyone able to adapt to the new norm?
A survey was conducted and 38 employees responded to 10 questions regarding home working, hot desking and business engagement (please refer to Appendix 1 below for the results).
Employees thoughts on carrying out meetings and running events digitally include:
“Obviously I think you lose some of the networking element, but online meetings and events are a fantastic tool in the current climate.”
“Personally plays a huge part that is severely affected online, getting clients to engage could prove difficult.”
“I don’t feel online is the same as face to face although certain meetings/events can be done that way. It is a barrier and although it is needed at this current time long term I don’t see how online will be more effective than face to face social interaction and to build a sound relationship. With meetingsface to face for at least the first meeting until you build a rapport is crucial.”
“Signatures on client’s paperwork could present a problem.”
“I would much rather talk face to face.”
“Only issue is internet connection which could fail either end.”
“They can be done online, however a big aspect of my role was to work with the business and them have that personable service, I think I just miss the face to face interaction. Also workshops require registration and feedback forms to be completed which can be harder to force a business to do online, you have to trust they will do it.”
“There are certain types of meetings that work better face to face such as brainstorming, planning etc. Information meetings are good for online.”
“Yes, it will be a massive cost and time saver having them online.”
“I feel events online can be a strong move for the Chamber moving forward, it can also be used as a tool for membership as a whole, with pre-recorded workshops on HR, finance and marketing that business could use to support their own business giving businesses more reason to be a member in testing times. This can also be done at no cost to the Chamber.”
“I think in the future it would be nice to have the events live face to face but also being streamed at the same time for people that want to stay at home, you could also then use technology for people at home to be able to ask questions to the speakers as well as people in the room.”
Overall, the survey has highlighted additional areas that we need to look into, so that we can support our employees and businesses as best as possible. It is natural for there to be concerns, and for problems to be highlighted, as we are talking about a new way of working. However, over time, once we have adapted, these problems should disappear.
It will be good to hear from our businesses and see what kind of support they would benefit from and what they are doing differently going forwards. How can we support their new way of working?
Although working from home will decrease our overheads (e.g. office space costs and forums etc.) we need to recognise what materials and technology we need to provide for staff at home, and look at budgetary issues. Equipment may include:
- New laptops
- Desks (if needed)
- Chairs with proper back support
- Lockers for when they come into the office
- Software
It is clear that from the research, proposals and survey results above, various stages will need to be put in place as we gradually ease out of lockdown and move towards a new way of working. This will ensure that our staff, their families and businesses are kept safe during these unprecedented times.
Stay connected and keep in touch online with regular staff meetings – 9:30am meetings every Tuesday and Thursday for a CEO update with all Chamber staff as well as one to ones and team calls/updates throughout the week
Promote the Chamber and our businesses as much as possible on all social platforms (LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook) by sharing, liking and commenting on posts
Risk assessments need to be put in place for home working and for all of our buildings
We need to look into the necessary equipment and technology needed to go forward to support employees at home such as a chairs, desks etc.
Look into training for 1) data protection and security, and 2) managing staff remotely
All meetings are to take place digitally
All Sector Forums are to take place digitally
All Sector Boards are to take place digitally
Strategic and Patron updates with the CEO – every other Thursday, at 11am
Coffee with the CEO – every other Tuesday, at 11am, all businesses
The Breakfast Club – the first Wednesday of every month, at 10am, members only
Look into digital workshops/ webinars for businesses (Enterprise Hub, Business Growth Platform, Training and Export related)
Daily calls to our businesses
Monthly (or more) emails to each sector
Create a survey for our businesses. What would they benefit from?
Member shout-outs and offers shared on socials
Start our Quarterly Chamber Quiz
Walks
Staff will be able to start coming back into the office and work from an allocated desk.
There will be more socialising with other staff members but at a distance.
No face to face events or meetings will take place until January at the earliest. We want to protect our staff, businesses and families against a potential second peak of COVID-19. As we carry on working from home, we may come across new and more effective ways of working digitally. If you have any additional ideas then please get in touch.
