Q&A with Tim Drake
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Q&A with Tim Drake Chief Risk Officer - Paragon Customer Communications Tim Drake is PCC’s Chief Risk Officer, reporting to Jeremy Walters our CEO. He leads the Governance, Risk, Compliance and Safety teams within our business. He has always been in no doubt about his responsibilities to protect our people and our business on a daily basis, but the emergence of the COVID-19 threat in January crystallised that for him as he and his team executed the Pandemic Plan to guide the business through these very difficult times. We asked him to explain some of that journey so far. How have you ensured the safety of • Employee support for mental health and the availability of company employee assistance your staff? schemes. The health, safety and welfare of our people is always We are also using our internal training system a priority at Paragon. The commitment from the CEO to reinforce this key information and associated and the Board has set the standard and the tone for training. In addition to regular communication with our approach. our employees, we have created and implemented a series of initiatives to protect our employees. These Ongoing regular and relevant internal communication initiatives include reducing footfall at our sites, working is key to protecting our employees. We use multiple from home, and splitting working patterns, as well channels to do this, including internal announcements as identifying and advising at-risk staff. We have and newsletters, emails, noticeboards, face-to-face increased cleaning and instigated a range of other briefings and signage around our business. We policies across our sites that enable safe distancing continue to do this to ensure we keep our employees and reduce contact between our staff and hard up to date with company and external guidance. surfaces which may carry the virus, such as door The ongoing communication covers the cascade of handles, biometric systems etc. guidance around various key topics, such as: Our Health & Safety teams have created an audit to • NHS/WHO/Government guidance and instruction centrally verify that these initiatives have been fully • Social distancing rules and guidance implemented and, where a shortfall is identified, corrective actions are issued and chased until • Hygiene best practices compliance is verified. Additionally, in collaboration Q&A with Tim Drake Chief Risk Officer - Paragon Customer Communications with our site operational teams, a daily departmental authorities, which are being coordinated by our shift checklist has been created and implemented to business support functions and Operational Directors, further verify that these best practices are in place and with guidance from the Leadership Team. being enforced every day, for every shift. Have any disaster recovery exercises How long have you been formally been conducted? monitoring the COVID-19 situation? The business conforms to BS 25999 and ISO 22301 Our Health and Safety and Business Continuity/ Business Continuity standards. As such, we undertake Disaster Recovery functions have been tracking the resilience exercises, including both physical and escalating COVID-19 scenario since January, via desktop rehearsals, as part of these rehearsals our various information sources including the World Business Continuity Plans are reviewed and updated. Health Organisation, Centre for Disease Control, the UK We have a mature Pandemic Business Continuity Government and media sources. Plan, supported by a dedicated, BCM-certified team. We established a formal Incident Management Team Our Pandemic Plan has been developed over several (IMT) on the 12th of February and since then we’ve years in response to historic incidents, including Ebola, been holding daily calls. The core members of the SARS, Avian Flu, Swine flu and the new Coronavirus. team include representation from several business As part of the Pandemic Incident Management Team support functions, including HR, Business Continuity, invocation on the 12th February, the PCC Production GRC, Health & Safety and the CRO. Chief Operating sites’ desktop exercises were initiated against the Officers and Site Directors then joined the core IMT in COVID-19 pandemic scenario, with agenda items that March. included: The daily IMT calls are key to our ongoing COVID-19 (i) modelling a response to the loss of staff and strategy, as well as our overwhelming desire to protect impacts at 20%, 50% and 70%. the health and safety of our employees. The team (ii) Critical third parties and the PCC supply chain. have the skillsets, functional knowledge, experience (iii) Mitigating actions to be taken at site and client and authority to make instant, informed decisions, level. provide guidance, and instil proactive best practices via internal communications to our employees and (iv) Alternative working strategies. business leaders, with the aim of protecting our (v) Security risks, actions and mitigations. employees and the business as a whole. (vi) DR Site activation triggers. Regular two-way communication with our clients and supply chain are another key aim of the IMT, as this The results of these workshops have enabled PCC to is an essential enabler for the business to maintain review our central Pandemic Plan and deploy effective BAU as far as is reasonably possible. Our planning working practises tailored to the individual site’s needs, and modelling was shared and in some cases we with the aim of supporting the critical needs of our have been able to help our customers with additional clients. workload or additional digital delivery of their communications. This regular dialogue is crucial if we What is the current operational are to continue to meet client SLAs and nurture the availability? long-established working relationships we have with our clients and suppliers. The base level PCC Pandemic Response Plan is in line As the global pandemic escalates, the IMT continues with the current government Covid-19 guidelines of a to monitor the changing situation to ensure we follow one in five absence forecast - a potential loss of 20% of all guidelines communicated to us by the relevant our staff at any one time. Q&A with Tim Drake Chief Risk Officer - Paragon Customer Communications By invoking our pandemic IMT and workshops in good had our challenges and worked hard to control risks, time, we have been able to apply personnel mitigations increase hygiene measures and constantly review reducing the impact to our business and apply the best practice and guidance we’ve received. As a resource controls. These mitigations have enabled supplier to a number of essential service providers us to remain at full operational capacity and provide including the Government, our ability to provide a new resilience services to clients in need of alternative continuity of operational delivery to our customers, manpower solutions. while recognising and minimising the uncertainty and anxiety in our workforce, has been challenging. How have you continued to meet The Paragon Board have been very clear that the decisions and actions that we take during these client SLAs? unprecedented times will define our legacy, individually To date, our COVID-19 related absences across the UK and collectively with our people, their families and our sites have not had any adverse effects on our ability customers. We want to do right by them all. That being to meet customer SLAs, or to meet requests to assist said, my next challenge is to build the ‘back to normal’ them with additional work. We run a complex daily plan. This is an inspiring opportunity to look at how tracker by site and separating operational absence the business returns to the new norm and what the from ‘Other’. As a general note, our total COVID related opportunities and lessons learned are that might drive absence is relatively consistent between 5% and 6% change and different ways to deliver for our customers. and well below the 20% first stage modelling that we have used in our Pandemic plan recovery scenarios, How do you manage your own time which also demonstrated an ability to meet our SLA having been on call 24/7 for the last commitments. month? We have also confirmed our position as a provider of key services and have accordingly issued letters to I often describe myself as ‘always on’ and I know that that effect to relevant employees, as per Government many of us are too in normal circumstances, let alone guidance. We have reached out to the Financial in the midst of significant disruption to global BAU. Conduct Authority, OFWAT and OFCOM to understand So honestly, it hasn’t phased me at all. The burden of their position regarding regulatory response and SLAs responsibility certainly has but putting in the hours if clients are significantly impacted, and we continue to really hasn’t. My family are incredibly supportive and monitor their positions and guidance. understanding of my commitment to the business, and We are in open discussion with our critical suppliers they’re used to seeing a headset in my ear and a phone to discover any impact on their businesses and to in my hand. The kids have grown up with that...but of understand their own pandemic response plans. course the payback is they think it’s ok for them to do Additionally, we have confirmed that they have it too! completed the Cabinet Office pandemic guide questionnaires, reviewed their responses, and ensured What would be the biggest positive they have implemented their own pandemic protocols. you could take from this if any...? There is currently no interruption to supply or our capacity or ability to meet our customers regular I was speaking with our CEO Jeremy Walters only this requirements or additional needs. morning, and we were discussing how humbling it is to see people that we work with, who work hard every What has been your biggest day anyway, working longer and harder – stepping up and doing more, doing things differently, offering to challenge? help in different ways than usual, sacrificing their time, Without a doubt, the heaviest responsibility that I and some coming to work when others have the ability to all of the Board feel is ensuring the health, safety and work from home.