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The tale of our two homes

As our business now plans for the emergence from lockdown, it feels timely to reflect on the achievements by 350 PMC employees, located across two continents, and separated by 4,000 miles.

On March 16th in the UK and a week later on 23rd March in India, a swiftly implemented business continuity plan transitioned employees to working from home. With the imminent Coronavirus crisis, PMC ensured that its employees, customers, partners, and vendors are safe. PMC works on the motto of One Office, Two Locations. Under new and unexpected circumstances, PMC is now working as One Office, 350 Locations. Our strong PMC culture unites us. Even though our teams are on different continents, ‘working from home’ was a shared experience.

Richard Lowe, CEO PMC while talking about the essence of one company, 350 locations adds “Doing the right thing for our customers, our people, and their families is important to PMC. We derive loads of energy and motivation from this alone. Our employees ensure that no one is left out by consistently staying in touch, both at a team and an individual level.”

The lockdown in India was implemented on 25^th March 2020. It is considered the biggest lockdown by limiting the movement of 1.3 billion people. Talking about the lockdown, Nirali Patel, Team Lead – Operations Support from our India office explains, " This lockdown has given us a chance to spend quality time with our families. Our streets are empty, but the air is cleaner, and the roads are greener. All of us are not only working from home but also working for home. The transition to working from home was seamless with the support from our Internal IT and Head office team. We use Microsoft Teams to stay connected and ensure that our teammates from Akshar Trust are also involved and updated with what is happening in the company.”

Images shared by Nirali Patel of Baroda’s empty streets and video calls with colleagues

Sharing the same sentiments, Paul Bibby – Project Manager, from our Abingdon office, added, “A 2- metre rule guides everything that we do now. There are now no weddings, no pubs, no bars, no restaurants, no salons, and no church visits. Roads look strange without the traffic. I do not miss driving to the office, but certainly, miss having the whole family together. I have worked from home for a long time, so I was set up for it. For communications, I have been using Skype, Teams, Zoom, and now Yapster to stay connected, because when you don’t meet your colleagues you don’t have the conversations that you generally have in the office."

Paul Bibby shared images of his ‘working from home’ life

Team engagement and communication has always been core to PMC. We implemented Yapster- an exciting new social media application - when we moved to work for home. Yapster is a fast and simple workplace messenger app, allowing colleagues to send text, photo, and video messages in a safe online workspace. It is a place for PMC employees to take part in social events & activities, share positive messages, and celebrate success.

Talking about Yapster, Carl Haggas, HR Director, and Managing Director PMC India adds, "PMC’s culture and values underpinned our successful transition to home working. We have focused on clear, regular, and open communications so that our teams feel updated and understand the actions we are taking as a Company. Implementing Yapster as a new communications platform has been great – enabling our teams to connect and engage socially in all aspects of work from home life."

PMC core values rest on the foundations of openness and honesty. We believe in doing the right things for each other, for our customers, and families. With our values as a guiding light, our close-knit family across two locations continues to operate successfully across 350 locations and will be equally ready for the challenge of the recovery from Coronavirus.

About The Author

Maulee Chainani is the digital marketing specialist of PMC based at our India office.