Cambridge, UK: March 18th 2020: In the light of the ever escalating Coronavirus outbreak I want to inform and reassure you about the plans we have in place to manage the commercial impact of the virus.
At the forefront of our plans and concerns is the health and wellbeing of our staff, our clients, and all those with whom we come into contact with on a daily basis. Business continuity for both our clients and ourselves is also clearly paramount and while I have no doubt that the next few weeks and months will prove challenging, equally we remain resolute in seeking to take whatever steps are necessary to assist our clients and our staff to deal with the economic and health challenges ahead.
To date we have been keeping our staff regularly updated on what is a very fast moving position, including having a very open dialogue on matters of hand washing and hygiene, essential personal travel, involvement in external meetings and a great effort in ensuring we know immediately if anyone has been exposed to what may be a risky environment from the point of view of Virus management.
As of yesterday (Tuesday 17th March) we have decided to escalate our precautionary approach to one of reducing the number of people working in our offices and more fully enabling our staff to work from home, in an effort to further shield themselves, and others, from the inadvertent contracting and then spreading of the virus as far as one can. This policy extends across all disciplines of the firm and all our staff know, understand and accept the upheaval this measure causes. All our staff are fully IT enabled and our Work from Home policies and practices are robust and secure. This effectively divides all of our teams into a dispersed out of office capability and a much reduced number of staff in the office at any one time.
Alongside working from home our offices continue to be open and populated with highly capable and experienced staff, and that policy will not change unless the government firmly advise to the contrary.
In any case we will continue to offer you the very best attention and quality of service that you would expect of us. We hope you will see little or no change in the service that we deliver to you, but you will notice that we will be asking you one or two abnormal questions if it is essential that we need to meet face to face, in a way we haven’t had to in the past. We do not envisage any work we normally carry out for you being adversely impacted but the procedure that the work is completed by may differ, in so far as our direct contact with you is concerned. We will discuss these matters with you on a case by case basis, but if you are in any way nervous about meeting, we will come up with an effective alternative solution for you.
In respect of events, in accordance with official government guidelines and safety measures we have postponed until the end of April 2020 all our planned events and presentations to stop non-essential contact with others. This will be reviewed in line with updated guidelines at the end of April and we will inform accordingly.
We have a business continuity plan in place in the event we are forced to close offices but we all hope that it won’t come to that.
You may be concerned about how the Virus may affect your business in the days and weeks to come and, if so, please always consider yourself able to call us, we will support you in any way we can.
For further advice to help mitigate the risks of contracting Covid-19 and preventing further spread please visit the Government website
Please stay healthy.
Jody Thorne
Managing Director (Prism Sound / SADiE)
