New Shropshire training company helping to ease workers back into the workplace post lockdown
Staff at Shrewsbury's Cote Kitchen Cafe have become the first in Shropshire to benefit from a new service designed to help manage the transition back into the workplace for furloughed employees and those whose hours of work may have been changed.
The service aims to address some of the potential anxieties of people returning to work and any potential issues arising from the sudden re-integration of colleagues for those who have remained in place throughout the pandemic.
The team at the Cote Kitchen Cafe, which is part of the Churncote Farm Shop and Butchery at Bicton Heath, Shrewsbury, were given the opportunity to attend a one-day workshop ahead of the cafe's reopening on Monday, May 17.
It was delivered by Sam Rogers and Michelle Ede from a newly formed training company, Team First Support, based in Shrewsbury, which has been created specially to address post-lockdown workplace training issues.
Said Sam: "We believe that strong people help build strong businesses, but we know the pandemic and the disconnect caused by lockdown has affected people's mental wellbeing and their confidence ahead of a return to work.
"It is said that more than 90 per cent of employees are concerned about returning to work after lockdown and that many furloughed workers are worried about losing their jobs.
"We offer a range of courses to help people rebuild their resilience, to reconnect with their colleagues in order to build better teams, and to look after general mental wellbeing."
Cote Kitchen Cafe staff were the first to be offered the service thanks to a mutual connection between Sam and Sue Clarke, who has owned and run Churncote with her husband, David, since 2003.
Said Sue: "We have a mixture of furloughed staff - particularly front of house in the cafe - and people who have kept us going throughout the pandemic when, because we're selling fresh produce, we've probably been busier than ever.
"Some of them won't have seen each other for months, so when I heard about Team First Support and the kind of training they offer, it seemed to fit well with what we were planning around at Churncote."
One of those who took part was Alice Goodwin, part of the cafe's front of house team. She said: "The workshop was thoroughly helpful and insightful and delivered in a friendly way. It was very revealing to see how different, and how similar we are - and how we can perhaps resolve conflicts in a different way."
Chef Andrea Birch was another who found that talking about potential issues revealed that a number of her colleagues were experiencing the same return-to-work anxieties: "It has made me feel much less apprehensive, knowing that everybody else feels the same," she said.
