COVID-19 Team Blog: Rob Pascual

4 minutes to read.

We’re proud of what our teams are achieving at Carpenters during the coronavirus pandemic. Written by colleagues across multiple divisions of the company, they hopefully provide a small insight into our continuing working practices and values as we all adjust to our new world.

Here is the eleventh in the series from Haywards Heath Head of Site, Rob Pascual.

Lockdown in Haywards Heath

"It is 13 weeks into lockdown, and that means 13 weeks since we have all been adjusting to working from home in what people like to call the new normal.  I don't think any of us anticipated it lasting so long, and it seems to me that the move to working from home for our Haywards Heath office happened overnight.  I could not be prouder of the organisation for the speed and resilience that we have shown to adapt to this change that has had an impact for us all - on both a personal and professional level.

It seems second nature to conduct our meetings and 1-2-1s on Teams now, where once is would have felt so alien, and the teams at Haywards Heath have maintained excellent customer service standards despite the obvious challenges.  The commitment those teams have shown to maintaining high performance is and continues to be really impressive.

For Carpenters Group, collaboration with insurers always has been and continues to be of fundamental importance to the way we operate.  At the beginning, we perhaps feared that the lack of face to face contact would weaken the close working that is so vital to remove friction and achieve an end result that all parties, but most importantly our clients, are happy with.  Despite the initial challenges, these extraordinary circumstances have forced us to innovate, strengthen existing relationships and, perhaps surprisingly, helped us to build new ones.

All insurers that we work alongside have different requirements, and Carpenters' ability and willingness to adapt, tailoring our response to individual needs continues to be key to our success.  This has never been truer than in the current climate.

Resolver, our award winning claims mediation solution, continues to thrive.  Whilst the process we adopt has altered, our focus on the end result has not wavered, and the speed of the service has in fact improved to the benefit of the client, Carpenters and the insurers alike.  So much so, that we will look to keep these changes in place even after we have come out of lockdown.

I know that all of us have benefitted hugely from the regular communications internally, particularly around mental health awareness and advice on maintaining a good work/life balance. It is sometimes the little nuggets of advice that can have the biggest benefit.

On a personal note, whilst I miss the camaraderie of the office, if anything, working from home has given the opportunity to get to know some people better, as you often get a glimpse into people's lives outside of work.  For me, balancing working from home with looking after two children under 3 years old, one of whom is potty training, has not been without its challenges.  There have been many amusing moments when my son, Oscar, has wandered on screen during a work video call, in various states of undress.  I have, of course, enjoyed the extra time spent with my family that the lack of commute has afforded, but I look forward to the time when I can join the team in the office once more.  

The last three months or so of lockdown and working from home has impacted on us all differently and has presented us with a new set of challenges. Given the circumstances, we have done incredibly well together and the fact that we’ve even managed to successfully innovate along the way is testament to the character and quality that we have in our team."