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As Governments in countries around the world are starting to vary their approach to lock down and the commencement of business, as usual, Colart remains consistent in its approach delay home working people to return to the workplace and focus on manufacturing and logistics as the priority within clearly specified protocols. Servicing our customers can only be sustained if we can maintain the protection of our people. On this subject, we are proud to report that of our four colleagues in the US who were suspected of contracting or had the virus, only one remains off work but thankfully she is progressing well.
Developments on the manufacturing and logistics return
Phase 3 of the Le Mans return is running as planned and we have about 190 people back at work with 3 shifts forecasted in production to start on Monday 18 May. The logistics operation in Le Mans is already operating on a 3-shift basis and whilst orders are evidently waiting in the system to be satisfied it is good to hear the recognition across the business that every effort is being made in response
For UK operations, Minehead’s return was met with some positive Amazon orders and in Lowestoft, despite challenges linked to the necessary safety protocols, Mark and the team showed great ingenuity to ensure safety and productivity. Check out the post Mark Brindle placed on the Wall with some great photos. Kidderminster and Piscataway continue to drive performance for the UK and US markets and Tianjin has recovered service levels for the Chinese market whilst maintaining adherence to the very strict Chinese protocols for COVID-19.
As the ramp-up plan for operations and logistics progresses, we will review the continuation of our remaining colleagues who are furloughed. We will, of course, communicate what is happening as appropriate as we appreciate this is not an ideal situation. In terms of our colleagues working remotely, as Dennis mentioned in the Town Hall, we expect remote working to continue for the most part until at least the end of May.
It is important to remember that any return before that date will be on a phased and planned basis led and communicated by each Business Unit lead with the support of HR and Health and Safety. An area that we are keen to explore with all of you working remotely is your ability to return – of course, this can be impacted by needs outside work, the ability not to take public transport, our ability to ensure social distancing in the office areas and your preferences. Clearly a multi-layered process so we will be conducting questionnaires by business unit to gain clear insights. A survey was distributed in France this week and we will look to replicate in other areas.
The webinars being conducting linked to the recent employee survey (last week for the US, this week for Northern Europe and next week for the UK) are also helping us gain insights to your thinking about this return as well as helping us explore the idea of the “new normal” at Colart. It has been good to hear the positive response from people who have attended these virtual meetings as a way to address current issues and future priorities whilst engaging everyone in an informal way.
Avoiding the cyber scammers
During this week’s Town Hall with Dennis, Toby Russell our CTO gave a very clear overview of the challenges that we are facing with respect to attacks on our security systems. Whilst cybersecurity is always something that we need to have a keen focus on, Covid19 has presented an opportunity for attackers to exploit our collective separation to scam, defraud and trick us with all kinds of naughtiness. For this reason, we need to be doubly diligent at help defeat these attacks.
Here are some tips:
1. Create secure passwords for yourselves and don’t use the same password in multiple places. The reason for this is that attacker will often use known passwords to try to break into your account and if they are successful that password will be added to a list of compromised accounts that other attackers can buy on the dark web to attack further online platforms that you are using.
2. Use multifactor authentication in both your work and your home life. This significantly reduces your risk of being broken into. Most major platforms such as Facebook, Paypal, Google offer this protection and whilst it adds an extra step in signing in, the benefits of being secure far outweigh the inconvenience.
3. If you receive any requests via telephone or email asking for a financial change, the sending of money outside of the normal process, change of address or email be immediately suspicious even if it comes from what you consider a trusted source. Some attackers are very good at writing convincing emails which often contain a sense of urgency to trick you into making a change. Always confirm a change by directly contacting the person using a known telephone number (i.e. not the one at the bottom of the suspect email!) and be 100% sure before actioning anything.
4. If you do get compromised or get sent a blackmail/extortion email, don’t panic, or try to conceal it. Tell the tech team, they are there to help you and fully understand how easy it is to get tricked. They will work with you, in confidence, to solve the problems; get you secure again and protect the business from harm.
The final word as always is that we cannot stress enough the importance of following the safety protocols for everyone in Colart and your families: As a reminder please visit this site for further information on how to ensure protection against infection.
STAY SAFE, and if you have any questions on this update or any other subject you have a number of routes to take: –
1. Your line manager
2. Your local HRBP
3. The Q&A platform on the intranet
Regards,
Jane Beeston
Chief People Officer