Phasing back into the office to bring staffing solutions

Working at the Chelmsford office

Realise Futures has been based at our Waterhouse Business Centre for over six years, with their operations manager, Melanie Hercus, citing accessibility, convenient location, and reasonable cost as the company’s motivation for choosing the centre.

Realise Futures provides a range of employment programmes across Suffolk and Essex. Its dedicated team of employment advisors help people learn new skills via a range of support activities, all with the aim of ensuring they find the job that’s right for them. The Waterhouse Business Centre’s easily accessibility coupled with its ultra-helpful business support team have been of the utmost importance to Realise Futures. Melanie comments: “We have always had great customer service from the reception team, no issues with the buildings and maintenance, and no complaints at all about the facilities, which are always well maintained.”

Operating throughout the coronavirus crisis

“We were no longer able to deliver our employment support face to face, so we initially had to change to remote delivery from home,” says Melanie, recounting the challenges posed by coronavirus in the beginning months of lockdown. However, the team has been able to slowly transition back to the office in recent weeks.

“Once it was safe to do so, we then started back in the offices part-time, and we are now starting to see some clients face-to-face in the office,” says Melanie. To ensure everyone remains safe, there are only four people at the unit at any one time – either staff members, or participants in the employment programmes or a combination of both.

Though the company is now back on track, lockdown did pose some challenges for the Realise Futures team.

“My IT skills when it came to getting used to Zoom and working on Microsoft Teams for meetings, have definitely been challenged,” says Melanie. "Adapting my communication skills to support processes remotely rather than face-to-face was a learning curve!”

Business recovery beyond lockdown

As the implications of Covid-19 continue to reverberate, the team at Realise Futures is more determined than ever to help its participants. “Our vision is to continue to deliver employment-support services across Essex. We plan to stay in the current office, as it is Covid-secure and we can ensure both our team and course-participants are safe here. Of the several offices that we as a company rent cross Suffolk and Essex the Waterhouse Business Centre is the only one with Purehold handles and door plates, which are fantastic.”

Lockdown during the coronavirus crisis has created setbacks for many SMEs, but with the gradual growing confidence of our customers, we’re delighted to be welcoming back teams from an array of industries.