This week has seen further government announcements which have had a significant impact on us all. The government introduced stricter measures to increase social distancing to help curb the spread of coronavirus, along with very clear advice to ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS and Save Lives’. I know these changes will be felt on a very personal, as well as professional level.
Many of you will be adjusting to these changes and finding a new rhythm to working remotely and in different ways. For many of you this will include the added challenge of balancing parental or caring responsibilities, and perhaps not being able to be with those people you would normally expect to be physically closer to at this time due to social distancing.
There are many individual heartrending stories out there but also how imaginative people are being in coping with the situation.
Just as we are adapting on a personal level, I also know that from a GC point of view you have been responding brilliantly, and with patience and understanding, as we adjust to a daily if not hourly changing situation. Your energy and commitment at this time has been so important and we will need to continue to rely on these strengths as we seek to do the right thing for you, our clients and the organisation over the coming weeks and months.
In what has now become a regular end of week communication you will find an update on our latest position and its potential impact on you. I know it will not answer every question you have but I hope to give you the key updates and these will continue to be complemented by an increasing number of Business Unit and Corporate Services communications.
Our Approach
At this time, the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is having a significant adverse impact upon the ability of many businesses to operate normally, ourselves included. As a Senior Management Team we have discussed in detail and carefully considered all available options to do the right thing for our clients, to protect jobs and preserve our financial viability in these unprecedented times.
The package of business and employment support measures announced by the government will go some way to assisting this challenge and although the detail behind these is still emerging, we are working quickly to understand the impact of these on us both as a business and in the advice and support we are able to offer our clients and partners.
As part of these measures the government announced the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which enables companies like ours, to ‘furlough’ our colleagues to help prevent possible redundancies or other adverse employment consequences.
Utilising the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Our focus is on trying to keep as many jobs as we can during this early phase of Covid-19, while trying to remain commercially and financially robust so we are able to emerge from this situation to deliver our services and any new opportunities that emerge over the longer-term. We will therefore have to make use of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help us do this.
What this means for you
Managers are identifying and will continue to identify roles which we believe need to be furloughed. Under the scheme, if your employment is furloughed, it means that you continue to be employed by the Growth Company and remain on the payroll.
As set out in the scheme, we will pay up to 80% of your total normal salary and other employment costs, up to a maximum of £2,500 (gross) per month, whichever is lower. We are unable, currently, to pay you any amount of remuneration in excess of that amount. As an organisation we will cash flow the first payment of furlough to ensure there is no disruption or delay in our payments to you, and we are reliant on being reimbursed for this via HMRC.
The length you may be on ‘furlough’ is dependent on how the pandemic develops, and on the availability and terms of the government’s Job Retention Scheme. We will keep the matter under constant review.
We will need to move quickly to ensure that those of you who are identified for furlough are notified and that we can administer access to this scheme through HMRC. If your role has been identified as furloughed due to the impact of Covid-19, you will be contacted by your immediate line manager or a manager within your business unit who will explain this to you.
The first phase of furlough will commence from Wednesday 1 April. There might be a need to add further roles as we continue to assess the unfolding impact of Covid-19 on the business and I will, as always, continue to communicate any further changes to you.
Other measures we are introducing from today
The Senior Management Team will be taking a 10% reduction in salary and, in addition to fully utilising furlough, we will be implementing the following additional measures to reduce costs and ensure we have a tighter grip on cost certainty over the coming months:
- There will be no annual uplift of salary for 20/21, except for the Real Living Wage increase.
- There will be no other upward changes to salaries for at least the next six months.
- You will not be able to carry over any more than five days annual leave into next year.
- For 2020/21 there will be no carry over of annual leave allowed.
- We are pausing the current annual leave purchase window for 2020/21 and will revisit at an appropriate time whether staff who have already applied wish to continue with their application.
- All recruitment is on hold except for exceptional cases which will need to be approved.
- We will be advertising temporary redeployment opportunities across the Group where we have gaps in provision e.g. our current opportunity for an IT Support Desk person.
- While we continue to work remotely, and all our premises are now closed until further notice.
- We will be implementing a range of financial control measures that are necessary over this period of time and there will be an additional communication early next week with further details
Staff communications
Based on your feedback we seem to be getting the level and frequency of our communications about right, but this does not mean we will be complacent. I recognise that there are questions you want answered.
Today, we have launched the coronavirus (COVID-19) Staff Hub - which you can access through MyApps - to provide you with a central resource for much of this information. I stress this will not replace your regular communications at individual, team and BU level but we hope will provide you with a touchpoint, where you can access helpful resources and the latest advice. We will work as quickly as we can to answer and share the most frequently asked questions you have and will publish new content daily. I will also be adding to these communications with regular webinars to the Group which will be accessible to all including furloughed colleagues to keep everyone updated at this time.
Wellbeing
Now more than ever it is important that we look after our wellbeing and I wanted to refer you back to the very helpful support that is available to you through our Mental Health First Aiders and Employee Assistance Programme. Further information on how to access this support and wider advice about keeping healthy while working from home has also been added to the Staff Hub. Please familiarise yourself with these resources and take good care of yourselves at this time.
If you haven’t heard from a colleague recently, or seen their face on Skype, why not give them a call and have a virtual coffee break. There are some great ideas people have had to keep in touch with each other and stay social – from daily cooking and baking webinars to Whatsapp reading groups. We’ve shared some of these on the Staff Hub, so please look and share your own ideas with colleagues.
I really do appreciate that the measures I’ve outlined will have a detrimental impact for colleagues and some more than others. These have been extremely difficult decisions and are focused on doing the right thing for our clients, enabling us to retain jobs and ensure our future financial viability.