It wasn’t a year ago that we were working in the office, unaware of what was about to unfold.
March 23rd 2020 saw the Society staff move to remote working as the Covid-19 pandemic started to impact us all. Now remote working has become a new normal way of working, although it’s not perfect, especially when you have your partner and children draining the internet speed!
Importantly we have coped and found a way to get through this while keeping the service to our members running smoothly…hopefully you won’t have noticed any real change in your day-to-day dealings with us.
There have been some positive lessons learnt:
- Email is much faster than the post and pass-wording makes it secure - we must do more to use this efficiently and cut down on paper usage.
- There’s no replacement for a friendly voice on the other end of the line - picking up the phone and talking things through is both comforting and helpful.
- Working together as a team means you can tackle whatever gets thrown at you - our staff have pulled together, supported each other and our members.
Covid-19 may have impacted us all personally, but it has also impacted businesses with many finding it hard to keep going. You may be wondering how we have fared under the strain.
The good news is that your Society has coped very well. A strong financial base built on prudent management in the past, together with close controls and monitoring using the experience of our advisers to support and guide us, has meant we remain financially strong and able to continue to provide the products and services you expect. We will be explaining more in the 2020 Financial Statements which are due out later this year, ahead of the June 2021 Annual General Meeting.
And we have still found time to develop the business – a Rules change was finalised last December and we can now press on with planned product developments that will access new markets and help us grow the Society.
There has been a changing of the guard – Alan Godfrey retired after 49 years, and we have recruited a new Sales and Business Development Consultant, Gavin Puzas. We will be putting him under the staff spotlight very soon on our website and in our Spring newsletter. Poor Alan didn’t get chance for a leaving party because we were in lockdown, so we’ll make sure we celebrate his lifetime of service as soon as we can.
It’s also been really important to have a bit of light relief from the daily grind of looking at a computer screen. We have been having staff coffee mornings, the ‘daily joke’, a short story challenge (fictitious of course) and we have even had a drawing competition.
We hope that we can get back into the office in the Spring. It will be a phased return as we abide by the Government guidelines and we will keep you updated via our website. Please also look out for our social media posts, and online news features as we aim to keep you up to date, informed and interested in what’s coming up.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if we can help in any way.