14.04.20

Covid-19: We’re here for you – a message from the BaseKit team

These are unprecedented times. It’s been said many times and in many languages over recent weeks. Each day brings a new challenge. And with every corner of the globe impacted by Covid-19, it really will take a collective effort to come through.

To all of our partners, customers, and collaborators, we are here for you. We’ve taken steps to ensure that we can still deliver what you expect of us, what you need to do your job. Our whole team is fully operational. Emergency call numbers and support times haven’t changed. We’re working hard to ensure that you don’t see any difference in the service we provide to you.

This article outlines the decisions we’ve taken to maintain this level of service through Covid-19. We explain below the initiatives we’ve taken to look after our people and shared some ideas to help you adjust to the new world of work. We hope that this information is useful and reassuring at a difficult time.

Working from home during the pandemic

Our approach is to be as proactive as possible. For that reason, we here at BaseKit decided to ask our staff to work from home even before the UK Government had introduced these measures. The safety of our staff is paramount. By putting our people’s health first, we hope to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus, protect others, and continue to serve our customers.

Working from home is a big change for everyone. We’ve included our top three tips on homeworking to help you and your teams adjust.

Top homeworking tips:

Maintain human interaction: Our team leaders have set up daily video calls, to chat with their teams and keep human interaction on the agenda. At least once a week, we have a company-wide video call. The opportunity to see and speak to co-workers is vital for feeling connected to work, each other, and the purpose of what we’re doing. Our aim is to serve our partners as well as we can. Maintaining routine, positive interaction, and ensuring we stick together allows us to keep up the team spirit and do the best for the people we work for.
Keep the conversation going: We’ve added a ‘Trivia Channel’ and a ‘Thanks Channel’ to Slack. The trivia channel tests our general knowledge, keeps our brains engaged and our morale up. Although the Covid-19 situation is serious, maintaining fun and camaraderie means that we’re in good spirits, ready to support our customers. The thanks channel is connected to our staff rewards programme, Bonus.ly. Our team members who have collected rewards can exchange them for coffees, lunch, fitness classes, or charity donations. More than ever we need each other. Our team members are going above and beyond, people are bending over backwards to help one another. We are so proud of our team and this is a small way to recognise them, to express gratitude to those who walk (virtually) alongside us.
Use video calls as much as possible: We’ve used video calls instead of the phone. It’s important to continue to get some facetime and to see people’s facial reactions – and sometimes the faces of their cats, dogs and children! Now more than ever, technology is helping us to maintain some normality. And we are getting to know our colleagues better, by having a glimpse into their world! Technology has enabled us to work with partners in many countries for a long time. Now it is enabling us to keep providing the business-critical functions that our partners and customers rely on.

‘Our team have adapted to this new way of working incredibly well, and I’m super proud of them all. We do recognise this is a difficult time and is presenting many challenges. The health and wellbeing of our team and their families is paramount and we’re doing all we can to support. We are getting through Covid-19 as a team, and are sure we will come out of this even stronger’
Wendy Weston, HR Director

Staff welfare

Moving from a desk in an office surrounded by colleagues, to a home office, cut off from normality, familiar faces, and with the Covid-19 pandemic raging outside is a lot to deal with. There’s potential for a strain on all of our mental and physical wellbeing. That’s why we’ve provided our team members with an allowance for home office furniture. When we feel that we are work-ready, and in the right environment, we do our best work. To support our team’s physical and mental wellbeing, we have created a monthly allowance for people to buy things that make them feel good: fresh fruit, great coffee, even flowers!

Our VP of Product, Gordon Plant, has given everyone plenty of great advice on correct seating posture. He’s a passionate supporter of the office furniture initiative, so people can work in comfort and safety. After all, posture and movement are key to staying healthy. We’ve turned monthly yoga classes into a weekly occurrence, delivered safely by video call.

Looking towards the future

We’re clear that we are in this for the long haul. However long it takes, we will do whatever we can to look after our staff. When we take care of our physical and mental health, we do the best work for our clients. We want things to be as easy as possible for our staff and our customers during this strange and unsettling time.

As a team we’re fortunate to have lots of experience working remotely, so we transitioned quickly to operating at full speed from our homes. This means our partners and their customers have access to the same great team and the same fantastic support as always. We know how important this is, especially at this challenging time.
Simon Best, CEO

Thank you!

We at BaseKit have never faced a challenge quite like Covid-19. Neither have our customers nor any of the people we work with, from partners to suppliers.

We’d like to take the opportunity to say, thank you. We couldn’t do what we do without your support and we are truly grateful for:

The commitment of our people – they have adapted fantastically well and at an astonishing speed. Without them, we simply couldn’t go on
The faith that people have in us – we are currently onboarding two new members of staff. We appreciate their understanding during these strange times and we hope that the process is as smooth and painless as possible. We can’t wait to work with you face to face!
The ongoing support of our partners – despite the extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Your commitment to us is exemplary and we will do everything within our power to repay that commitment

How to reach us

If you need any support, don’t worry! We are fully operational and all the usual channels are open. We are here to help…

If you have a general enquiry, contact us via our website.
To contact sales, email partners@basekit.com. You can also request a call back from sales via the website.
If you need product support, take a look at our support portal.
Support is available from 8am to 4pm UK time Monday-Friday.