Covid-19 A Year On

In our April Bulletin last year we wrote about Covid-19 for the first time.

• Looking back on the article a year later it now seems perhaps naive writing about how we thought the situation would evolve over the coming weeks and even months. We now know the situation has been ever changing for over a year and will continue to change.

After some initial adjustments the whole sector has shown its adaptability and resilience in the face of this virus. We came together quickly through FISA and produced guidance on how our sites could continue to work safely, and for the most part we managed that.

Covid-19 has challenged us at work in many ways, separation on sites, extra cleaning of welfare, working from home, home schooling for some, face coverings in offices and hand washing and sanitising like never before, and of course, social distancing. We aren’t out of the woods yet, there may be more twists and turns to come, but Tilhill and the whole sector can be rightly proud of how we have worked together virtually to enable us to continue to work.

With vaccine roll out well advanced the direction of change will hopefully be away from restrictions, but with third waves in Europe and possible different variations it almost certainly won’t be a smooth ride. As we do return to having greater freedom, we mustn’t overlook the anxiety this could cause some people, worried about sharing offices and vehicles for the first time in over a year.

We must also hold onto the benefits we have found through our adaptation to Covid-19, such as reduced travel and online working. We have achieved better attendance and representation at industry working groups when we swapped a days’ travelling and sometime overnight accommodation, for a couple of hours on a video meeting for instance.

So, we can look forward with some optimism to regaining some of what we have missed, holding on to the benefits we discovered, but we must stick with the Covid-19 rules to make sure we secure the recovery we all desire.