Resilience and wellbeing – staying positive in a pandemic
Richard Clark, CEO at CFG Law, discusses staff engagement and recruitment challenges and wins during the Covid-19 pandemic.
So, here we are. Six months into a new way of life none of us saw coming. One that has seen some companies face challenges they were sadly unable to overcome and that has put severe strain on some parts of the legal sector. And now, a second lockdown is underway.
Resilience has become a key phrase. Not just business resilience but in our work and personal lives. Wellbeing has never been more important as we all come to terms with restrictions that were unthinkable as we celebrated the start of a new decade just over 10 months ago.
Wellbeing has been at the heart of everything we’ve done at CFG Law. For colleagues, the first priority in March was to let them know we’d all be working from home for the foreseeable future, that we had the technology to enable that and then to settle each colleague into their new routine. And crucially, we also prioritised checking in with clients regularly. With many shielding, we were sometimes the only phone or video call they got that day. It mattered to them and to us.
So communication has been key. We had daily updates at first and still have thrice-weekly morning updates to everyone via our new intranet – launched just weeks into lockdown and a key channel for keeping people informed ever since.
I now do a weekly vlog, often from my garden, and we’ve had other colleagues using vlogs to share training and other news – some recorded in kitchens and featuring their children, others filmed out on walks.
We went into the lockdown period off the back of a winning at the Manchester Legal Awards just days before the government’s announcement so we worked hard to harness that feel-good factor and to keep the key theme of CFG Life – so popular with colleagues – running despite agile working.
The 20 weekly quizzes via Teams followed, plus social events – including a virtual first anniversary of our Manchester office. We made sure teams met regularly (virtually) to keep spirits up and a sense of togetherness. I also enjoyed ringing colleagues just to catch up, as we would have done in the office over a cuppa. Anything to stay in touch.
Colleague feedback informed our decisions. As lockdown eased, some were keen to get back into the office a few days a month, other less so. No problem. We’d always said it didn’t matter where people worked and so we were able to open our Cheadle office, where we’re the sole occupants, for those who wanted to come in, in line with guidelines. Manchester will follow suit.
And having a steady stream of positive news also helped. During lockdown, we started a new service – Court of Protection and private client – and had a number of colleagues joining our team. Inductions may have been online but they still captured the essence of CFG Life and what makes us so different.
We launched new partnerships with the Spinal Injuries Association, for whom we had an amazing virtual cycle ride fundraising day involving dozens of colleagues, as well as Brake and Roadpeace, and we celebrated the success from our work for clients and new business every week.
But, as the second wave develops and we now face a new lockdown till December, people will face new or renewed challenges. Resilience again is a key focus. Thankfully, we’ve just completed business-wide positive thinking sessions for all colleagues. Useful tips to help them meet the personal challenges we’ll all face as we head into a tough winter.
We believe if you look after the wellbeing of the people who have made your business successful, business resilience will be assured. Wellbeing will remain key for us all.
Stay safe.
Richard Clark is CEO of leading serious injury business CFG Law, which has offices in Cheadle, Manchester, Oxford and Sunderland.