BEST COVID-19 RESPONSE INVOLVING FINANCE / PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Cardinus Risk Management – Global Ergonomics Covid-19 Response
The pandemic created massive health, safety and compliance challenges for organisations. The physical and mental health impact on employees was huge, with millions of employees working from home without adequate equipment and training. Organisations had four core challenges:
Recentralising ergonomics programmes in reaction to the event; Not understanding regulatory obligations around the world; Supply chains affected, and organisations struggling to get ergonomics equipment to employees; Ergonomics equipment could not be provided as living arrangements were too small. Organisations were starting from scratch. Employees reported increased levels of discomfort. Few organisations had training or assessment programmes in place that could address real-world ergonomics issues. By April 2020 Cardinus developed and launched their response: Global Guide to Ergonomics Regulations in 191 countries; Pragmatic, low-cost e-learning for homeworkers; Free-to-use communication tools; Global network of certified assessment professionals; Low-cost equipment packs to help at-home employees achieve better postures; COVID-related ergonomics and comfort resources, including Cardinus’ HealthyWorking MOVE app; Educational COVID-related ergonomics webinars. Supporting testimonials highlight the strength of support for the project which provided timely, pragmatic advice, training and guidance with simple delivery and implementation to meet the challenge.
Energy Networks Association – Covid-19 Supplier Liquidity Scheme
At the outset of the pandemic Energy Networks Association (ENA) members, the gas and electricity networks immediately came together with Ofgem and Government to ensure stability of markets and businesses involved in the production, transport and supply of energy to homes, public services and business. One issue was the need to support energy suppliers and shippers who were facing cash flow challenges as a result of the unprecedented public health emergency triggered by COVID-19. In response ENA developed and put in place COVID-19 Network Charge Deferral Schemes. The Schemes helped mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on energy consumers by providing relief to cashflow constrained suppliers and shippers through a temporary relaxation of payment of charges relating to electricity distribution & transmission and gas transportation. The total value of the credit facility made available under the Schemes was in excess of £350m. 18 organisations utilised one or more of the Schemes with £651m provided in extended payment. The Schemes were a major contribution in helping to minimise the risk of suppliers/shippers exiting the energy market in a disorderly way and consequent disruption to energy consumers, thereby ensuring continued delivery of services during some of the darkest days.
IRIS Software Group – Covid-19 Response
Behind the scenes, IRIS Software Group (IRIS) has been monitoring the business on a weekly basis to review the impact of COVID-19 and responding to what it sees and hears, as well as using the extensive experience and knowledge of teams. IRIS has adopted an agile and rapid response to embrace changes and opportunities with a resilient business model – with the needs of customers and employees in mind. IRIS is one of the UK’s largest privately held software companies. Its purpose is to be the most trusted provider of mission-critical software and services, ensuring customers get it right first time. IRIS takes the pain out of processes and lets professionals focus on the work they love and building their businesses. Its software solutions and services for finance, HR and payroll teams, educational organisations and accountancy firms helps comply with regulations, drive productivity and better engage with key stakeholders. By simplifying, automating and providing insights on essential everyday tasks, IRIS ensures customers can look forward with certainty and confidence.
LV – Financial Services
2020 started the same as every New Year filled with excitement and anticipation as we continued to drive our business forward, delivering an even better service to our customers and advisers and building the intrinsic pride and engagement of our people. January and February our plans were in full flow goals set, objectives in place, simplification and improvement activity was well under way and a whole new people engagement strategy was evolving. Little did we know that after a few short months, life and work as we know it would take an immediate change of direction and possibly never be the same again? Led by the strongest leadership team S&R CEXP has ever seen we transitioned 140 frontline staff & Contact team to working from home with little to no disruption to service in record time; a task we thought we would never have the capability to do. Ensuring our people’s engagement and wellbeing was a constant focus, we achieved record high mid-year engagement scores and further to that delivered the outstanding service LV is known for as seen in our testimonials document. In a year like no other LV is a clear leader in the covid crisis response.
Newable – Business Services
Newable has been providing business advice to SMEs for over 30 years, with a number of solutions for businesses under three main service offerings: Money, Advice, Workspace. Due to government guidelines urging businesses to work from home where possible, it was difficult for our space solutions to continue providing flexible workspace solutions. However; our Money and Advice solutions were quick to pivot our services to meet the needs of our customers and SMEs throughout this difficult period.The Newable Advice team made our advisors as accessible as possible, offering free 1-2-1 consultancy available to any SME impacted by Covid-19. Our campaign included key internal and external interventions designed to ensure resources met the changing needs of SMEs throughout the crisis. We did this by: Repurposing and upskilling Advisers; Extending our Advice offering across our networks and group; Retooling our events capability. During 2020, Newable launched a brokerage (Newable Finance) offering businesses access to more funding options paired with the expertise of in-house finance specialists. This pivot of our offering allowed Newable Finance to be able to help more SMEs secure funding during the pandemic year, an extremely uncertain time for businesses across the nation.
NHBC
NHBC has around 500 people based out in the field who visit customers’ building sites and policyholders’ homes. The business also has large, office-based customer service and claims handling teams, all of whom had to maintain the delivery of a high-quality service during the challenges of home working and furlough. A Covid Response Team was quickly established to provide fast decision-making about the company’s response to the pandemic and to provide consistent answers to questions from managers and colleagues. Office-based colleagues were very quickly provided with the necessary equipment to work from home and given flexibility to manage their work around their caring responsibilities. Field-based colleagues were provided with health and safety packs. Later, and before they were made available to the public via the NHS, the company also purchased 10,000 rapid antigen testing kits and distributed them to their field-based staff. An enhanced communication programme which included great use of video, shared practical information and company updates as well as a focus on sharing colleagues’ stories to personalise what was happening and to convey a sense of solidarity.
As restrictions have eased, NHBC has offered a flexible, phased return to work programme with suitable, additional health and safety measures.
The Social Element
In the third year of Visa’s Where You Shop Matters campaign, the brand faced a challenge: encouraging individuals to support small businesses whilst being respectful of the distressing nature of Christmas amidst Covid-19. On social media in particular, this was a tall order. The Social Element managed Visa’s social media strategy and execution for the campaign, creating a lightning rod for the messaging to reach and engage with real individuals in a personalised and human manner. By proactively seeking and joining customer conversations, The Social Element got consumers emotionally connected to how their spend could impact local merchants. Keeping conversations authentic, human and personal had a huge impact – generating huge responses and positivity on social media – all while drawing attention back to what mattered: the small businesses at the heart of the campaign.
