How it’s been ‘business as usual’ when things have been far from usual

Life has been extremely different for companies sector-wide and worldwide in recent months. Some operations have ground to a halt, some have been scaled right back and others have been totally reinvented – and it’s all happened literally overnight.

As we’re writing this post, the pandemic continues to challenge companies, as the UK’s second lockdown reaches the second week milestone, with two weeks, and potentially more, to go.

To say we’ve not been impacted by the pandemic isn’t true. But the degree to which we have been impacted is far less than many other organisations we’ve read and heard about and talked too since the start of Covid-19. 

We’ve stuck to our ‘business as usual’ philosophy, despite the fact life has been far from being ‘business as usual’

  • All of our collections and our aluminium processing has continued as normal and so has demand from the smelters throughout the UK and Europe for our materials
  • As a result, we’ve not yet had to furlough any staff and have been able to continue with our 48-hour collection service

We’ve made sure the wellbeing and health and safety of our entire workforce has been, and continues to be, our No.1 priority 

  • We’ve asked staff, who are able to do so, to work from home  
  • A new rotation system has been implemented for breaks and lunch-times to help minimise contact for our on-site workers
  • We’ve increased how often high traffic areas, such as the kitchen and toilets, are cleaned  
  • The Personal Protective Equipment, which the operators and pickers on our production lines have always used, now incorporates clear face visors for increased protection
  • All of our walkways and operational lines have been marked out with two metre spacing indicators. This includes staggering the use of our clocking-in system, which was an area staff used to naturally congregate around pre-pandemic
 

We’ve been highly responsive to our customers’ requirements

  • We’ve always provided a flexible service, but we’ve stepped this up a notch in recent months for certain construction and medical sector customers, who’ve needed us to be even more responsive to prevent production delays
  • Our 30+ years’ experience has also enabled us to pre-empt any new pandemic-related bottlenecks and issues and proactively tackle them, minimising any unwanted additional hassle for our customers

We’ve pulled together to adapt and respond to the new ‘normal’

    • All of our staff have pulled together to look out for one another and make sure we continue to operate safely and efficiently during these new times
  • We’ve worked hard to make our entire site Covid-safe for our whole workforce and to continue to provide customers with the services they need, even if they need to be adjusted  a little here and there

We’re in it for the long haul

  • We aren’t just saying it, we really are. You could say we’ve been fortunate that we’ve still been able to operate all the way through, but we couldn’t have done it without making our operations Covid-ready the way we have 
  • Most of what we’ve done will continue for the foreseeable, which is more than feasible for us to continue with
  • We’re set up to be as flexible as possible and will continue to do all we can to make sure everybody, our staff and interactions with customers are as safe as possible 

Covid-19 has tested our mettle, but it’s also enabled us to really draw upon some of our core strengths, such as our flexibility and adaptability, to make sure we maintain high levels of safety and our industry-leading aluminium recycling services. 

To find out more about our industry-leading ways of working, contact us today.