In an update to its COVID-19 Response of 24 March, Total today announced the partial opening of its Kettering and Manchester offices with effect from Monday 29 June 2020.
In accordance with Government guidance, Total closed its offices on 23 March 2020 as part of its COVID-19 response. Following staff consultation and detailed risk assessments, from Monday 29 June Total is opening its Kettering and Manchester offices for a group of staff that have requested office working.
“We pride ourselves on being a very caring business and our people’s well-being is extremely important to us,” explains Claire Butcher, Head of HR and Operations at Total. “We have maintained a close dialogue with all our people over the past three months, and know that some have found home-working very challenging – we want to help them by giving them the option of working in a carefully controlled office environment.”
The decision follows a series of formal risk assessments, which deemed the potential risk of infection too high to open the London office at this time.
Total has implemented a series of measures to facilitate a safe working environment at its Kettering and Manchester offices and these include marked one way routes, socially distanced workspaces, multiple hand-sanitiser points, elimination of most shared resources, an enhanced cleaning regime and the provision of personal protection packs containing face masks, gloves and sanitiser.
“We were fortunate in entering this pandemic with an IT and business set-up that enabled the vast majority of our people to seamlessly switch to working efficiently from home and most will continue to do so,” adds Claire. She concludes, “Come July, I don’t think our customers will be any the wiser as to whether they’re dealing with someone that is home or office based.”