12 months ago to...

A year ago today I stood up in front of The Yardstick Agency team and told them we were moving to remote working for their safety. I can’t believe that was 12 months ago. 

So much has happened over the last 365 days I thought I’d jot down a few thoughts and lessons we’ve learnt:

? When I said “we’ll see you back in the office in 2-3 months” I was being wildly optimistic and completely underestimated the length of time this would affect us for

• Our Coronavirus battle plan, which we started in February, showed the benefit of planning for the worst. The lessons we learnt will be valuable in the future 
• As it turned out I’m proud of the fact that we’ve hired 13 new staff members over the past 12 months and made no redundancies
• We got lucky though, we’re in a resilient sector which did a great job. Financial planners provided confidence and reassurance to their clients at an incredibly difficult time. We were proud to support them
• I remember saying 12 months ago that how we reacted then would dictate the business we had in months and years to come. Our team has been amazing. They pulled together and adapted to home working brilliantly
• The lockdowns have confirmed to me that it’s every employer’s duty to look after their employee’s mental wellbeing. We retained a fantastic therapist for our team and their partner/spouse to call upon as necessary. It’s a resource that has been widely used and one we’ll keep in place long after this comes to an end 
• The debate about office v homeworking will continue. It’s not binary, as some would have you believe. There are benefits to both. When the time comes to make a decision, we’ll take a best of ‘both worlds’ approach. I hope other businesses do the same 

Finally, I miss the team nights out in the pub…looking forward to being back in the Six Barrels sooner rather than later!