Berwick @Home – One year on…

When Boris Johnson first announced that we would be heading into a national lockdown on 23rd March last year, few of us imagined restrictions and the impact of the pandemic would see us in this position a year later.

We have experienced the most significant global event of our generation. Nothing in living memory compares.

Pre-COVID, ideas such as a national lockdown, social distancing and ‘R numbers’ were, for most of us, the stuff of dystopian fiction. A year on, restrictions, vaccines and variants dictate what we can do, where we can go and who we can see.

In the first edition of our ‘Berwick @Home’ series we spoke about how 20 million new ‘Teams’ accounts had been created within a week. Now, with the real-life office a distant memory, it is hard to even remember a life before Teams calls and Zoom meetings.

Along with the challenges and difficulties, there have been many positives; I am incredibly proud of the resilience our people have shown and the way in which they have adapted and pivoted.

Over the last 12 months in Berwick Partners alone we have:

– Held over 130 online events and forums, connecting us with more people than ever before

– Written and produced over 220 pieces of content

– Launched our ‘Berwick Live’ series: a range of video interviews and digital thought leadership pieces

– Rolled out a new CRM platform

From a people perspective, we have:

– Onboarded two new members of staff entirely remotely

– Saw the return of five members of the team from maternity leave; coming back to a very different Berwick than the one they left

– Welcomed five Berwick lockdown babies

– Hosted two virtual away days

– Held our Christmas party online for the first time

We have learned much and have experienced positive changes as a result of the pandemic – from the ease of connecting with our colleagues without the barriers of location, regaining the hours spent commuting, the improved work-life balance and the positive environmental impact, I am however, looking forward to life post-lockdown and us finally being able to reunite as a firm face to face.