Covid19 is a tsunami of loss and shifting priorities that caught the world off guard. In the aftermath of this event there is no place for “business as usual”.
When asked: “What did Affinity Global do at this time?” our message will be this: We showed care for the people who are part of our community. All of them; our consultants, the customers they counsel, and our clients.
In the early period of the pandemic, many were left in isolation, with only telephones and the web of the internet to stay connected.
We reached out to our employees immediately to bolster them. We reassured them that we planned to redesign the work environment so that they would be able to return to work safely.
We made sure they were managing well with the sudden separation from their friends and routines during the initial isolation period. It was important to us to know that they were safe and confident.
When they returned to work, they did the same for the customers we were communicating with.
At Affinity Global, our task is to convey hope and illuminate a path to the future. To help people dig the steps to walk out of holes they have fallen into. An outcome of this is the recovery of debt.
In helping our client’s customers, we assist the movement of funds through the economy. We are essential workers and we were obligated to remain in operation.
Affinity Global is a bricks and mortar operation with our operations employees usually working in house, but that isn’t healthy in 2020. Once assured that our teams were safe and secure in their homes, we prepared for the new challenge.
Knowing that we can only properly care for others if we are also caring for ourselves, Affinity Global’s Covid19 protocols were designed to keep our consultants physically safe while serving our client’s needs and protecting their customer’s data.
We deployed a hybrid model with over 90% of the employees working from secure remote locations in their homes and the rest working in the office.
Recognizing the need for social contact to both build teams and to maintain mental health, we have used online games and interactive activities to ensure that at least virtually, a close space is shared between colleagues and employees who have become friends at work.
For Halloween we engaged our employee’s families as well, bearing in mind the new dynamic of working from home.
Simultaneous with keeping our employees safe, the security of customer/client data has as always, been at front and center of our operations.
Strict security protocols have been developed. An employee’s home and their workspace must meet company security expectations in order to be considered. Where required by clients, we have CCTV to ensure live monitoring of remote workstations. At minimum, we have daily, weekly and monthly security checks, including video of workstations.
The net result of our Covid Plan and its deployment is that our efforts have been successful. We have had higher than normal levels of productivity and lower than normal attrition, with no security breaches, and no workplace related outbreaks.