REPRESENT- OCS CENTRE MK
Although the entire team were amazing throughout the pandemic allowing us to come out the other side in a better position, the support the OCS team received from a health and wellbeing perspective really stood out.
When other service providers stayed away and managed from afar the OCS team thought about their people, not budgets and offered support through this challenging time to their staff and the community. OCS provide the most staff on-site, 120 in total that cover frontline positions such as security, cleaning, guest services and parking. Most people hadn’t heard of furlough before and there was no rule book for the pandemic. The team had to be agile, quick and confident with their actions, OCS furloughed 60 staff, their approach was to consider the existing health of individuals, and their personal circumstances such as living alone, transport and care. They met each member of the team, created a plan for rotations and welfare checks ensuring the team did not incur financial penalties as a result.
Over 700 welfare calls were scheduled weekly ensuring all were communicated with and to check on their mental health and wellbeing. OCS also supported regular Teams calls for those working either onsite or at home and continued to support the business with regular COVID updates as the government guidance changed, with welfare posters on many subjects to help the team onsite and those at home. The senior national and regional managers also visited the teams when allowed to show additional support and not feel siloed. All centre:mk staff received gift cards as a thank you for their patience and understanding whilst either furloughed or being key workers. When many companies complained about cutting costs, OCS could see this was temporary and for the centre to survive we had to reduce service charge.
