Good Governance Update
It’s unprecedentedly uncertain times for us all in Scotland, the UK and indeed across the world. There is much speculation, worry and in some cases panic. Whilst working towards the completion of the Good Governance Award itself may fall to the bottom of your priorities, which we completely understand, we would like to assure you that for us here at the Good Governance Award, for the foreseeable future anyway, it will remain business as usual and we’re here to help with queries you may have. We are in the fortunate position to be able to continue our assessment and feedback work from our own homes. Government advice as of 17th March is that everyone who can work from home should work from home. We would encourage you to follow this advice as far as possible as part of the social distancing measures coming into force.
We of course cannot predict what the scale of restrictions will mean for each individual organisation, it changes every day. But there will, I’m sure, be at least some requirement to adapt to different ways of working now and in the future.
Working from home for example can be great for some and really challenging for others. We need to support one another more than ever by ensuring communications are open and easily accessible by all. Emotional support is also important, make sure you still talk to your colleagues. Don’t forget, chatting briefly with someone in the office may have been the only daily social contact some workers who are now required to work from home had.
Make sure you have a list of all employees contact telephone numbers, you may need them if key decisions are made in the future regarding building closures etc. Ensure where staff have only personal contact numbers, that you obtain their consent to use them / share them with colleagues as may be appropriate. Do not share personal contact numbers with clients and if having to make a call to a client using your personal phone, please consider anonymising your number.
If you are already using Microsoft Office 365, Teams is a great way of keeping everyone connected using conversational team threads, individual chats, video and voice calling. Other platforms are available for example, skype, slack, zoom, go to meeting, webex to name but a few.
Insurance and working from home – Taken from BBC, full article with advice for employers here
If a business regularly has staff working from home, it is likely that Employers Liability Insurance will already cover staff irrespective of where they work. If home working is entirely new to a company, business owners should check the wording of their policy and amend it accordingly, Mr Medhurst says.
Rather than replicate the wheel, we have provided some links to trusted websites below that will be updated by the respective organisations that you may find useful.
Guidance for Charities
From ACAS – for employers and employees
Take care
Good Governance Award Team