Our COVID-19 Secure Guidelines

WE LOOK FORWARD TO WELCOMING YOU BACK TO OUR OFFICE!

With effect from Monday 10^th August, our gbac team has moved back to the office on a staggered basis. This is in line with Government guidance following COVID-19.

We wanted to share with you the steps we have taken to ensure that the office is a safe environment for our employees, their families, and our clients. This is the result of a thorough risk assessment which has been completed and revised throughout lockdown. For your information,

• Our team have been split into two social bubbles: ‘Bubble A’ and ‘Bubble B’ and will split their working week between home working and office working in order to adhere to the current social distancing measures.
• Our office now operates a one-way system.
• Hand sanitising stations have been installed around the office, these primarily being at the main touch points: outside the office door, in Reception, outside our meeting rooms and in our Kitchen area.
• Each member of staff has been provided with a personal “care pack”. This includes hand sanitiser, tissues and antibacterial wipes which will be replenished as / when required.
• We maintain a stock of PPE (face masks, visors, gloves etc). Our employees are not required to wear PPE under current guidelines due to the social distancing measures we have in place but we want to ensure that these are available in case employees choose to do so when in the office.
• Our office underwent a full deep clean on Friday 7^th August and will continue to be deep cleaned each evening following our return to the office.
• Meeting room capacity has been reduced to enable us to adhere to social distancing guidelines.
• Microsoft Teams / Zoom / Skype will continue to be part of daily business life to ensure that communication is not affected.
• Our risk assessment has been shared amongst our gbac team and feedback / discussions have been carried out during our time spent working from home to help devise a new office procedures manual to ensure that our employees are happy and comfortable with office life post COVID-19.
  
  

How might this change affect our clients:

We pride ourselves on being a welcoming team so we encourage clients to come into the office and speak with us. There have to be slight adjustments to how we do this so that we can ensure the safety of our employees, our clients and visitors.

We kindly ask the following:

• All visits to gbac office must be made by appointment. This is to ensure that we can adhere to social distancing measures. We have limited meeting room space and we cannot always guarantee that you can be seen, under COVID secure guidelines, if you turn up without an appointment.
• Once you arrive at the office, we have hand sanitising stations placed outside the front door and in Reception, it would be greatly appreciated if you could sanitise upon arrival.
• In line with updated Government guidance, face coverings must be worn by visitors entering our office. Therefore, we kindly request that you adhere to these rules to keep yourselves and our staff members safe and reduce any source of transmission of the Covid-19 virus. If you cannot wear a face covering due to medical reasons, please let us know in advance of your meeting.
• Face coverings must be worn throughout the duration of your visit.
• In line with Government guidance we will ask you for your contact details which we will hold on record for 21 days in respect of the track and trace programme and in line with GDPR regulations. The 21-day period reflects the incubation period for COVID-19 (which can be up to 14 days) and an additional 7 days to allow time for testing and tracing. In the event of a Covid-19 outbreak at the office, we will contact you to alert you using the contact details you have provided us with.
• All meeting rooms have been re-designed with social distancing measures in mind and a one-way system is in operation around the office. However, we do ask clients to go no further than our Reception desk.
• At this moment in time we will be unable to offer hot drinks. However, bottles of water will be provided. We ask that you dispose of these yourselves upon leaving the office or in the waste bins provided in the meeting rooms.
• We will be leaving 30-minute gaps between meetings to ensure that each room can be thoroughly cleaned and there is no cross-over between any two parties to limit any unexpected interaction with any other individuals.

We are grateful for your support and understanding during this phase which sees us start to welcome back clients to our office for physical meetings. Your safety and that of our gbac team and their families is at the forefront of every decision made. If you have any queries about our COVID-19 secure plan or wish to discuss any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact Charlotte Ward on 01226 298 298.