Firstly Hello, how are you and how are you all adjusting to the new “normal” during this pandemic?

As we come to the end of the 5th week of remote working for the DfL team and with the announcement of at least 3 more weeks to come, we wanted to update all our clients and contacts with what we have done, what we are doing and what we are planning for the “new world” we will enter when we start to return to work.

As you would expect, our staff are the heart of all we do. The focus of delivering exceptional quality and service to our clients is delivered through them. As such, when the rise in cases started in the UK, we spent time with each member of staff to understand their concerns around Covid -19 and its impact on their lives and work. Following those meetings and the governments request to work from home, DfL implemented part of our business continuity strategy to set up all staff with home working. Clients were informed, phones were diverted and the teams seamlessly transitioned with no significant operational interruption.

During the process of the first 4 weeks, weekly team briefs have taken place digitally and the use of our internal communications systems have been fully embraced. Despite the lack of face to face interaction, digital meetings really have kept the team productive and connected. We have continued to stay in touch with clients and they have been extremely grateful that we have continued to meet their needs in this difficult time. Proof is in some of the feed back we have had on recent schemes where a Chief Executive of one of our clients took the time to send the following to us.

“I’ll leave my better informed colleagues to answer. I just wanted to reply and say thank you for all your continued support. It really means a lot.

I hope you and your home and work families are keeping safe.”

To ensure we stay involved and close to how the teams are dealing with the changes in circumstances and working from home, we have taken the opportunity to carry out our annual Professional Development reviews with the staff to keep informed of not only their current situations and thoughts but reflect on what we have done in the previous year and the ambitions and targets for the year ahead. We have also taken steps to support the wider work/life balance of our staff and our well-being consultant “Jeff Weigh” of Ignite Performance, continues to support the business and staff, remotely which has been greatly appreciated.

Moving onto the future, as a board of Directors, we are asking ourselves what the office environment will look like when we return to work. Will we all be sat 2m away and not wanting to have face to face meetings with each other? Will we want/have to wear facemasks in the office? How will we manage the risks staff might be exposed to? Do we have to fundamentally change the way we work as a business? We are spending the next 3 weeks considering how we might safely return to the office and ensure everyone is comfortable and happy.

Regardless of what the future looks like we know we are committed to 2 things. The health and wellbeing of our staff and maintaining the high levels of quality we offer to our clients. If we continue to do this we will be in a great place to maintain the growth of this excellent business.

So finally thank you to our clients and staff. We hope that as a business we have been there supporting you through this challenging time and we are here to continue supporting you in the weeks and years ahead. Please remember that DfL are open for business and here to support you in the best way we can.

Regards

Alistair , Richard and Andrew.