If ever there was a time to be grateful for technology, it has been during the Covid pandemic. Zoom, Facetime, Teams, Whats app have kept us all connected and feeling less isolated.
Magenta, like most businesses, had to shut the office and resort to remote working. We did this thinking it would be for a couple of weeks. We quickly found out that a couple of weeks was more likely to be a couple of months – and eventually we actually spent almost half of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, working from home.
We were very fortunate that we already had a lot of technology and systems in place to work remotely. Our technology and systems worked well and we were able to still provide the service we pride ourselves on through a remote platform. Some of our clients have told us that they have preferred the flexibility that a video meeting gives them and would like to continue them even when face-to-face visits start again.
We also enjoyed some of the benefits that came with working from home, such as a quicker commute to the “office” but we missed seeing our colleagues and clients face to face. Technology was great for keeping us all in contact, but we missed the interaction being in the office gave us.
The pandemic caused problems for some of our team, those with children, where school closures and the lack of childcare options meant having to have children at home and those who travelled on public transport. The ability to be able to do their job from home during this time was invaluable to them and Magenta.
Covid has had such an impact on many aspects of our lives and the way we work is one of them. We have all had to learn to be adaptable and open to change.
Like many other companies, we have decided to take the opportunity to introduce a more flexible way of working. After consulting the team, we introduced a hybrid working week, part home working and part office-based. The hybrid week gives the team a better work-life balance and also helps keep us safe, with fewer people in the office at any one time.
For our clients, this means our office will be open physically 4 days a week Monday-Thursday and then only a remote team working on every Friday. You can, however, be reassured that the high quality and friendly service we provide will remain exactly the same!
Technology has a huge role to play in how we will all be interacting with each other day-to-day and in the future. As a business, we have learnt to be more agile in working practices and more efficient.
At Magenta we are embracing the opportunities this brings for us all – after all, as the saying goes with every cloud, there is a silver lining (or should we say a Magenta one!)