Professional & Personal Learnings from the Pandemic

Managing Director, Graham Tilly, comments on learnings from the Covid pandemic now the company is returning to the office after exactly 2 years of lockdown!

How did your business change as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

“Fundamentally, our core services have remained the same, however, during the last two years we have adopted new ways of working and at the heart of all our decisions was the importance of protecting our 24-hour Control Centre and the people who work there.

One week prior to the announcement of the national lockdown, we opted to implement our business continuity plan and the relocation element was put into action. This involved, all employees except Control Centre Operatives to work remotely and apart from some minor adjustments and investment to our IT infrastructure the plan was successful.

As with all our service contracts we are dependent on customer requirements and these both increased and decreased during the pandemic resulting in us having to adapt our resources according to their needs. This was through both our manned guarding operation, where hours fluctuated, and our mobile patrol teams which increased their presence across our customer portfolios”.

 

What have you learnt both professionally and personally over the last two years?

“Professionally, I have learnt that, subject to having the right people, we can work from anywhere. This was compounded by my natural apprehension of our team being divided and isolated from each other, however, within a short space of time my concerns quickly disappeared as it was evident that I had a committed and resourceful team, which I knew already, but this compounded my thoughts.

Personally, I have learnt that spending time at home and with my family is my ultimate priority. Prior to March 2020, I was the world’s worst for making sure I was busy and constantly doing something, which often involved not being at home and wasting time on frivolous activities”.

 

What are you looking forward to the most now that you are returning to “normal”?

“We are a people business and the last two years has magnified the importance of being together as a team and I am relishing being able to connect with my team and see people face to face; Teams meetings served a purpose and I think still will to a degree, but there is nothing like human interaction”.