As we continue to knuckle down as a nation, being in lockdown and working from home has become the new normal for all of us but it has also made us take stock and wonder how we could all do things differently in every aspect of our lives when this is all over.

Like most companies in the beginning we took rapid precautionary steps to protect our staff, candidates and clients and we shifted our whole company to working from home in just a few days. The same as most of our industry, we saw our vacancy list disappear overnight and the immediate need for temporary staff dissipate which meant we had to make some very tough business decisions early on. 

But gradually over the weeks as we have all got used to our new normal, business has returned, Life Sciences are continuing to recruit both in the UK and in Europe and we are fortunate to have existing clients that are now directly involved in COVID-19 whether that is the new vaccine, or equipment for hospitals. It feels amazing to be supporting these companies. More locally to us in Horsham, crucial manufacturing is still operating and the need for a flexible workforce is becoming more apparent, and it is great to be fulfilling this with our super bank of experienced temporary workers. It goes without saying that we are absolutely ensuring they are being kept safe and monitoring social distancing whilst in these environments.

Our core team that are still working are putting in huge amounts of man hours and are doing everything they can to support and help our clients and candidates. Although we still have some staff on furlough we are committed to getting these valued members of our team back to work as soon as possible. All our furloughed staff have committed to continuing their personal development and are focussed on up-skilling themselves in this time.

We hope that you are seeing a seamless service from Harris Lord and if there has been the odd glitch I hope you can understand we are working to the very best of our ability, with sometimes limited resources, but always with the very best of intentions.

We would like to thank everyone (there are quite a few so probably too numerous to mention) who have supported us and continue to support us in this unprecedented journey we are on. Let us hope this will all be over soon, and we can all get back to doing all the things we miss and continue to do the things we have changed and started to enjoy!

Harris Lord’s values have always taken centre stage in how we operate and however our “new normal” turns out, because let us face it, who can possibly know for sure what it will look like, you can rest assured we will always stand by these.

• We aim to Lead by example, take responsibility for our actions and be a shining light for our industry
• We work with integrity and honesty
• We seek to nurture relationships with colleagues, candidates and clients
• We invest in training and value the knowledge of our consultants
• We value our family life and the family life of others and advocate a work-life balance
• We view people as individuals and treat them how we would wish to be treated.

Stay safe, take care of your loved ones,

Justine and Tracey