Steering Action On Coronavirus

Over the last 11 years, I have had many roles in the Society including recently heading up our Member First programme. This week I have been appointed as one of two Coronavirus Co-ordinators with Peter Lockey, and we thought it would be good to let you have an update as to what we’re doing across the Society.

Both of us will now be working on the coronavirus full time, which will ensure that as an employer Midcounties are doing everything we can to keep our colleagues safe, mitigate the impact on the business and support all our members and customers.

An Executive Steering Group has been established, chaired by our Chief Executive Phil, with representatives from across all areas of the Society. This will report to the Board on a weekly basis. The Steering Group meets 3 times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There will also be a skype call on Sunday to cover the weekend. An action log will be kept so all colleagues will know what we are doing. Each trading group has also prepared a plan to ensure that all our actions are co-ordinated across the Society.

As I’m writing this, there have been no confirmed cases as yet of the virus directly impacting any of our sites. However, there is a clear expectation that this will change and plans are in place to ensure a swift and effective response in line with Public Health England’s guidelines.

We are aware of panic buying in some Food stores and this has severely affected the availability of certain products such as soap, hand sanitiser and toilet rolls. Our Central Support team are working closely with our suppliers to improve the supply. It is anticipated that toilet roll availability will be improved by midweek next week and we will have new stock of hand sanitiser, not for sale, but to be provided to all our sites and offices to help protect colleagues from the virus.

To ensure a measure of protection in the event that the Society’s cash position is impacted, all capital projects have been temporarily suspended.  Modelling is taking place to both appreciate the potential financial impact of a widespread increase in the virus and also to plan for a return to normality.

A decision has been taken to cancel all conferences and non-essential meetings scheduled in March and April to reduce the risk of spreading the virus and ensure the business is able to respond quickly to any eventuality.

Policies relating to sick pay, holiday pay, redeployment etc. are being reviewed by our HR Team and consultation meetings with USDAW have already begun with the aim of being able to provide the best levels of support for all our colleagues.

All updates will be posted on the Colleague Connect website, so colleagues should check it daily to ensure that they have the most up to date advice. We are really interested in what further information we could provide you, and will be asking for your opinion next week.

Many thanks for your ongoing hard work and support.

John Street

Coronavirus Co-ordinator