The Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives almost overnight. Many of us have been working from home for weeks, relying on technology to maintain contact with colleagues and keep businesses ticking over as much as possible. But what about those who cannot work from home? That includes not only frontline medical staff, but everyone from binmen to supermarket shelf-stackers. The pandemic has forced us to take notice of the ‘invisible’ workers we now realise we can’t do without. And in the property industry, those include concierges, security guards, porters, caretakers, estate operatives and cleaners. In other words, Claibon’s stock in trade.
After the prime minister’s lockdown announcement on the evening of Monday 23 March, call volumes for immediate temporary staff went through the roof. Many permanent staff took the decision to self-isolate because they had symptoms or to stay at home to care for others, especially with schools closed, so the demand for temporary staff ballooned.
While working around the clock to meet that demand, in the two weeks after the announcement we also took proactive steps to adapt to the new normal. That meant reaching out first of all to our amazing in-house Claibon team, and then to all our temporary workers as well as our clients. We had to interpret government guidelines to determine which roles were essential – nearly all in our case – and then educate people and explain our strategy going forward, while empathising with the difficulties everyone was facing as we implemented new systems and procedures.
Thankfully, we have always had a great Claibon team, who are professional, resourceful and committed, as well as loyal, hard-working and trustworthy. Their response to the crisis proved beyond doubt just how adaptable, versatile, creative and flexible they could be too. It also helped that over the past 17 years, we have invested in super-robust technology. Our desktops have always been remote and we have an amazing cloud-based telephone system, which means we can be reached on our switchboard number wherever we are! So that Monday night, we simply flipped a switch and were ready to go.
Of course, there were other challenges that were not so easily met. In the early part of lockdown, there was little in the way of PPE and few precautionary measures were in place. Safety is always a priority, so we talked extensively with our clients to understand first and foremost how to protect our temporary staff going to work. This involved some difficult conversations and decisions, but the outcome was a much better understanding of PPE and the precautionary measures necessary and available to enable social distancing and minimise contact with residents, other colleagues and suppliers.
We immediately made funds available to buy in more PPE from our suppliers, so we could also provide it to our temporary staff where it was not available on site. All internal staff had already been issued with ‘Claibon Co-19 care packages’ consisting of masks, gloves, anti-bacterial gel and tissues, and we scrambled to source more supplies from all over the country so we could distribute care packages to our temporary staff as well. We now have hundreds of ‘smart masks’ in production for the mid to long term, so we’re well prepared if these are required as the country slowly comes out of lockdown.
Another area in which we’ve made adjustments is transport. We drilled down into geographical areas, looking at both site locations and where our temporary workers live in order to minimise the need to use public transport and to allow for walking and cycling where possible. And with carparks currently under-occupied at client sites, it’s also been possible for some of our temporary staff to drive to work and park there, so with a little mutual understanding, solutions can be found.
Covid -19 is a cruel and frightening virus, but in industries like ours, staying safe at home is often not an option. That’s why I’m grateful for the resourcefulness and creativity of our in-house team and the dedication of all our temporary workers. Thanks to them, we’ve been able to meet our clients’ needs throughout the crisis, ensuring their properties are kept safe, clean and functioning even with much of the country in lockdown. After all, someone has to keep the lights on!
Wishing all our colleagues, clients and industry peers all the very best in these unique times, keep safe.
Claire Gibbons, Director at Claibon
