360 Chartered Accountants is delighted to be welcoming some of its team back to their Hull City Centre HQ in Albion Square this week as well as re-opening the offices to visitors following a period of closure thanks to the pandemic. All visitors will have to complete a Covid health declaration, take a temperature test, wear a mask and adhere to social distancing for the foreseeable future.
MD Andy Steele said ‘The offices have been eerily quiet these last few months after a brief return to semi-normality late last year. We’ve missed the face to face interaction with colleagues and clients and whilst video conferencing for team socials and accounts meetings have worked just fine, you cannot beat a ‘real’ meeting. Most client meetings will remain on line for the time being but it will be nice to grab a (safe) coffee with one or two them over the course of the next few weeks’.
Associate Director Sean Maloney added ‘Working from home has worked really well these last 12 months or so. As a cloud based, paperless business the transition was seamless but some of our new starters and apprentices have found the remote support a challenge so I’m really glad for them that things are starting to return to normal now. I am also delighted that our non-essential retail, hospitality and personal service sector clients are now able to re-open, albeit in very trying circumstances’.
When asked what the biggest challenges have been during lockdown, Andy answered ‘ The most important thing was keeping the team safe and I’m delighted we’ve been able to do that. The next biggest challenge was keeping our clients updated on the various government support initiatives that were available to them and we’ve done this by creating a specialist Covid support team, producing daily updates, watching every single Press Briefing and reporting back on the relevant points, keeping LiveChat open until late each evening and on weekends and creating two WhatsApp support groups which have proved extremely useful to the members. The team really stepped up to the plate during our clients’ hour of need and our commitment from the outset to keep the team intact and unfurloughed gave our clients the reassurance we had their backs and would keep them informed of everything they needed to know. We also made a commitment to help local businesses from outside of our client base as many of them were struggling to get help and information which was a challenge but, again, hugely appreciated.
