So here we are, in June already!
As many of you know we have a mission to be completely transparent with our customers, so we thought it would be good to give you an update on what has been happening at Indigo Swan over the past few months and how we are embracing the return to some normality and getting back into the office.
Ensuring that we provide a safe working environment for our swans has always been paramount to us at Indigo Swan and ensuring that all the swans feel comfortable and safe about returning to the office. When we knew that restrictions were starting to ease, we wanted to look at how we could make the move back to the office seamless and make sure that everyone felt comfortable in doing so.
We are always open and honest with our staff as well as our customers, so the main thing for us was to speak to everyone and get their opinions on what would work best for them. We made the decision to open the office up Tuesday – Thursday and alternate the teams that come in each week, so that there is only a limited number of people in the office at any one time. We have a one-way system around the office, and we ask everyone to complete a covid test before they come in to ensure that we are doing all we can to minimise the risk. We also gave everyone the option to return only when they felt comfortable to do so.
This past year has made businesses see that there are some benefits to working from home and the developments in technology has made this possible. As much as people have missed the social aspect of working together in person, there are benefits of being able to have a mixture of at home and in the office working hours which I’m sure are things that we will look at incorporating into our new normal.
As we mentioned, the wellbeing of our staff is one of the most important things to us at Indigo Swan, and each member of the team has been given the option to return to the office when they felt ready to do so. We wanted to show how our swans have felt about returning to the nest, so we asked them for their thoughts and feelings on how we dealt with the move back to the office. Below are a few of their thoughts:
“What is normal? Well normal to me is feeling part of a family, sharing ideas, helping each other to be the best versions of themselves, always looking for a better way and supporting each other through the good times and the bad. Over the last year we have still been able to do this, but not in the same way. We innovated, made extra effort to connect. We maintained and, in some areas, enhanced our culture. We were still normal. However, you cannot beat the feeling and experiences I have had over the last month or so. Reconnecting in person with the Swans, hearing the buzz, seeing the smiles, listening to the conversations, seeing the hard work in person, and knowing that we survived, and we actually improved makes me extremely proud. It’s like the first day back at School or the last day at School, depending on how you found School. It’s like waiting in the queue at Disneyland for three hours in the sun, knowing that the ride will be worth it. Well Space Mountain is back open, and I am here for the ride.”
“I’m so pleased to be back in the office, but still having that flexibility to work from home. Collaborative work is so much easier when everyone is together in the same space, and meetings are much quicker! Learning and development for people who are new to the team, or their roles is much more effective when they can hear and see how other Swans actually work. No amount of virtual training can account for “real world” experience. I also love being back in the city so I don’t have to make my own lunches and can instead support small local traders (with no washing up!!).”
“I would say that I was incredibly nervous about returning to the office. I had been very cautious over the pandemic, so needed assurances that I would be safe, and by extension my family too. The company did everything they could to ensure safe working, and it has made me more relaxed about coming back in. It now feels closer to normal, and that can only be a good thing, right?”
“From the start Indigo Swan were very quick to provide the tools and support to effectively work from home as normal. That has now been extended to a well thought out plan to get us back in the office in a controlled and safe environment. For me the new norm allows a combination of working from home and the office, which reduces my long daily commute and reduces my carbon footprint.”
“It’s been an easy process going back into the office a couple of days a week. As a transition period it’s helped me get slowly used to a new routine and schedule. It was great getting to see everybody and get a sense of normality after months spent at home.”
