When the coronavirus lockdown was announced in March independent financial services consultancy Quantum Advisory was ready, as financial controller Suzy Lloyd explained.
“We were expecting it and our business continuity activity was actively engaged in planning for it; but despite that the speed of implementation was a challenge. Getting over 100 people set up at home within a day or two isn’t plain sailing, especially as some, without business laptops, even had to come and collect their desktop computers and chairs,” she said.
Quantum Advisory’s IT team also had the challenge of getting remote access sorted for everyone, getting the whole team briefed on using networking tools such as Teams, downloading conference calling apps like Zoom, and sorting out diverting all landlines to mobiles.
There was also the very real need to keep spirits up, maintain motivation and deal with the potential issues around mental health, which can be exacerbated by periods of isolation and lack of companionship.
“We are doing our very best to keep everyone engaged and inject a bit of fun into the way we work. We have weekly team calls using Zoom, we have a WhatsApp group to keep the little day to day conversations flowing. Our investment team are even having team lunches where everyone dials in and has a chat over lunch.
“We are also placing more emphasis on phone calls, making sure we talk to each other every day and stop the temptation to overuse email just because it’s easier,” Suzy added.
One person for whom the lockdown was an unexpected change was Toni Edwards, recently employed at Quantum Advisory through the Cardiff Capita Region (CCR) Graduate Scheme. A finance and accountancy graduate from Cardiff University, she started at Quantum Advisory on February 4th. Six weeks later the country went into lockdown and she was working from home.
“It’s been a change for everyone. We have flexible working hours, so now I’m working from home I usually start around 8am as I’m up, and then I can finish earlier than I would normally.
“They asked everybody if they had the means to work from home. I had a laptop so it was fine; if you didn’t then the company would provide one for you. We have a works app; you login remotely and then it’s basically the same as working in the office, so not really a huge change.”
As a new recruit, Toni admits that she misses the direct human contact of working in an office.
“It means a lot more email contact, rather than being able to just talk to people where the answers are instant. I prefer working from the office as I am still learning, and at my stage I think that face-to-face contact, especially in terms of feedback, is better,” she said.
“There is a lot of trust involved and it’s good that they do seem to trust me. We have a works WhatsApp so we can all stay in contact which is a big help. We also play a game on there to lift people’s spirits, ‘Through the Q Hole’, where everybody shows a picture or short video of their house and we have to guess which member of the team lives there. Little things like that make a big difference with everything that’s going on. We also use Microsoft Teams and are trying out Zoom for meetings so we are all still very much in contact,” she added.
Toni is hoping that the pandemic doesn’t affect the next steps on her career path.
“Quantum is paying for my ACA qualification to be a Chartered Accountant, which will hopefully still start after my probationary period. It’s really good that they offer that and I’m excited about making a start on the next chapter of my career,” she said.
Suzy said:
“Toni has adapted really well to the changing environment and her appointment has given us much needed extra capacity in a period where tasks are taking longer, whilst we all adjust to the new modus operandi. Using technology to communicate comes second nature to Toni’s generation, so she has had no issues at all with all the new tools we are having to use.”
If you are evaluating your capacity and need any further resource to manage at this time, the Cardiff Capital Region Graduate Scheme may be able to help. The Scheme can provide a free and streamlined recruitment service that can match your immediate resourcing needs to high-skilled graduate talent in the region.
If you are interested in finding out more please get in touch with either [email protected] or [email protected].
