General news |
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Keeping connected with staff during lockdown
It’s a team effort to get the shops up and running
By Karen Donnelly, Head of Organisational and People Development
their screen and therefore allow the interview panel to view presentations. Just before lockdown we had discovered a new friend – Microsoft forms. This quickly became the best option for allowing information to be collected and analysed and were easily accessed for the majority of staff either on a computer or via a mobile device. However, through all this we remembered that not all of our colleagues are IT aware and so paper forms and telephone calls were an option. Keeping in touch with all our colleagues we produced weekly newsletters, sharing information, hints and tips, updates/good news stories from all staff. We live now in our new “normal” and adapt and change as time goes on, who knows when or if this pandemic will be under control. Until then we need to continue to look after each other, enjoy every moment of time we spend with our loved ones and take care of those around us, remembering that we will get through this and emerge from the other end. Stay safe and Take care.
By Nick Grinter, Facilities Manager
If anyone had suggested at the start of 2020 that this year would bring us a worldwide pandemic, national lockdown and a complete change to our lives I would have thought you’d watched far too many Hollywood blockbusters! But as we know everything had changed. We had sit” her new grand-furbaby, Henry, whilst working away
It’s been a proper team effort to get our shops open across Ayrshire making sure they are as safe as possible for staff and customers. The maintenance team have been extremely busy building the Perspex screen frames for all shops as well as installing new till counters in some others. Work has been completed in our Troon, Kilmarnock, Cumnock, Prestwick and Ayr shops. With work to be completed in our Largs, Kilwinning and Girvan shops left to do.
staff continuing to work in the hospice, from home, staff shielding and staff on furlough. Our main question was how do we continue to support our amazing staff and volunteers during these times? So the Organisational & People Development team stayed home and set up new workspaces in kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms or bedrooms. Family life became part of our working lives, bringing its own unique challenges. Shirley Scott, Employee Development Adviser, along with her dog Blue, who promoted himself to office dog, problem- solved their way through all work dilemmas, whilst her husband, a DIY-addict,
in the bedroom which had been transformed into her office complete with laptop and printer. Veronica Morrison, People Development Officer, took over the living room through the day with her creative flair coming to the fore to prepare the O&PD Newsletter with that little bit of added sparkle. Whilst I set myself up in the kitchen trying to balance work and family life – never easy encouraging a teenager to embrace home schooling with the distraction of a new puppy thrown into the mix! To adapt to our new working environment, we learned to use Microsoft Teams to keep in touch and for team meetings. As we grew more confident, we started using it for interviews, who would have thought people could wait in the lobby (virtually) until invited to the meeting and that candidates could share
was constantly told to keep the noise down.
Debbie McClung, Volunteer Development Adviser, had the opportunity to “dog
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