StartUp Croydon Team Wins Award
For anyone who was able to attend the online Business Resilience Awards at the end of last month, I’m sure you will agree that it was certainly a night to remember and also a little reminiscent of lockdown celebrations during 2020. Amid the glitz and glamour of a very well-managed event, some very deserving companies took home a winner’s trophy.
We were obviously thrilled to win an award as Commended in the Outstanding Team category with the following entry written by Saffron, our CEO:
“The pandemic has affected our sector in astronomical proportions. As a flexible office space provider, our tenants are able to offer just 1 months notice to leave our facility. When the pandemic hit in March 2020 and the country went into total lockdown, our staff did their utmost to maintain a service for tenants by still coming in as skeleton staff to sort post and maintain health and safety processes, returning to some level of normality in the summer months. Lockdown 2 was particularly difficult for many businesses and individuals as it was for ours.
Many of our tenants are working in the Care Quality Commission sector and needed to keep coming to the office. Lessons were learnt in lockdown 1 which armed our team with knowledge to keep the building open and covid compliant throughout the winter lockdown and the team maintained a strict sanitisation programme to keep everyone safe. From a training and mentoring perspective, our incubator programme Building Business Horizons has been moved online three times during the pandemic as it has commenced in person in Spring and Autumn 2020 then our facilitation team have had to adapt to online learning with little previous knowledge, this has meant that local people have been empowered with knowledge and hope that they can build their own business and turn around their circumstances.
Our team have streamlined delivery to impact as many people as possible. Our services have been stretched due to the impact of the pandemic on employment and we know how valuable our offering is to local people who find themselves unemployed through no fault of their own. We have also had a change in leadership in the middle of the pandemic. . I started my role on the 1st February when the UK was in total lockdown. The snow was falling and it was very cold, dark and depressing. The team still made it in every day and maintained a brave front for our tenants. I have changed many aspects of the business and their adaptation to new systems and processes has been wonderful to see.
As an organisation that largely worked in silo before – they are now using Microsoft teams, are committed to social media and are taking part in weekly win celebrations to increase morale and support one anothers achievements. Their commitment and resilience to maintain the building during lockdown 2 was absolutely second to none and to be recognised as winners for this award would mean the world to me as their new leader.”
In addition to winning an award we were also delighted to discover that we came 1st in the “Funniest Team Picture” competition – (see photo heading this blog), that was devised by one of our newest team members, Amaris Bentsi-Enchill. Vuyisa Zawidi has recently joined the Company and is also contributing a great deal to the team.
We would like to thank everyone who voted for us. It’s really humbling to know that so many people in our business community enjoy the friendly, welcoming atmosphere at Weatherill House or have benefitted in some way from the services that we provide.
