COVID Safety and Wellbeing Engagement in Estates and Facilities

At the start of the COVID Pandemic, Estates & Facilities faced a significant challenge in that guidance, including changes to SOPs and Safety instruction, was changing on a regular basis and there was no reliable way to ensure that this information was appropriately circulated across all of our staff, with limited IT access for our staff groups and the limitations on social distancing preventing staff meetings.

This issue was of significant frustration throughout the Senior Management Team, was regularly discussed with our staff side colleagues, but more importantly we were struggling to ensure that the staff on the floor were getting important information timeously, including COVID safety information as well as information to support and improve staff wellbeing.

As a consequence, the Senior Management Team recognised that we had an obligation to find a route for essential information to progress timeously and reliably to all staff.  This took the form of a Team Brief/Covid Safety, which was initially issued on a weekly basis, and which we now continue to issue on a monthly basis, based on the positive feedback and the recognition of an ongoing need for supportive engagement and communication with staff.

The detailed Brief is shared verbally with all staff, along with being circulated electronically and on Staff Noticeboards. This very simple approach has been welcomed throughout the Department, and has been adopted by others throughout the organisation too.

William Hunter, Deputy Director (Facilities & Corporate), advised that ‘there has been a  positive response to this brief :-  in very difficult circumstances, we have been able to increase direct communication with our staff, including the provision of key work, wellbeing and safety related information, which I know that staff have found very reassuring and supportive.