My lockdown lessons

Head of Operations and Clinical Support Lucinda LLoyd talks about what working remotely has taught her.

Assumptions versus reality

I think my biggest concern as we went into remote working was about the potential distraction of my two young daughters being at home. I assumed that I would find it very challenging to manage the team alongside the additional pressures of home schooling.

Of course, it has been tough at times, but at JJ&A we are a small team and we have managed to be flexible with each other’s needs and time pressures, and we have kept our lines of communication open.

I have been really impressed by how the team has adapted to working remotely and how well it has gone. I was really fortunate that our administration team have adequate space at home from which to work. Not everyone is that fortunate, so this was a big bonus for us.  

Doing it all over again

If I had to do this all again and knowing what I know now, I think I would make a greater effort to have more social conversations with the team right from the start, as after we began working from home we continued to run our regular meetings remotely in a very structured and business-like way.

As we have got used to lockdown and the weeks have gone by, we have all ended up speaking to each other more about everyday things that aren’t necessarily related to work and that has felt more natural. We have been checking in on each other more frequently because we don’t have those off-the-cuff office chats anymore and we have all missed that.

Unexpected benefits

I think we have all benefited from the flexibility of working from home, because it has allowed us to juggle our priorities without harming our home or work routines. We have also successfully carried out assessments and conferences remotely, which has meant far less travelling and this has reduced our business carbon footprint. 

New faces

We have recently employed two new admin assistants, Mel and Alex. Charlotte, our Training and Development Co-ordinator, did not think it would be difficult to integrate them into the team but she and I agreed it would be most beneficial to provide their induction in the office rather than remotely. Fortunately, at the time, social distancing rules allowed us to do that.

Keeping it going

Most of the things we have adapted to within the business, with regard to working remotely, will continue long after lockdown ends, and we return to whatever normal is. Being forced to work remotely has made us think about how we can work differently as a business. I have just completed a Digital Leadership course and I would like to pursue this further so that we can digitally transform JJ&A, to give our clients, experts and office staff the best experience when working with and for us.