This year brought with it much change and uncertainty. ‘You are on mute’ became the most spoken words of 2020, our tea time chats were halted and for many working from home became the new normal. Of course, there were some challenges and obstacles along the way. We are reflecting on a very successful twelve months as a team and looking back on some of our highlights.
Arema Connect’s highlights from 2020 –
Introduction of a new CRM ‘Crust’ – In February we introduced a new omnichannel CRM Crust. This state of the art software provides our teams with access to a knowledge base management system, our clients’ procedures as well as logging and reporting tools.
Moving into our new office spaces – Prior to the pandemic we acquired 2 new office spaces in the Atrium Building. The opening of additional office spaces was to complement our expansion plans and global strategy for 2020. These new spaces gave us the opportunity to offer more of our team the opportunity to work from an office-based setting in compliance with social distancing.
Growing our team by 100% – We have been fortunate enough to have significantly grown our workforce over the last 12 months. Our team has doubled in 2020 to support our clients’ ever-changing needs during the Covid 19 pandemic. We have recruited some highly skilled graduates from the various colleges, who have been a huge addition to our ever-growing team.
Smoothly transitioning our team to both remote working and hybrid models – Over 80% of our team smoothly transitioned to a remote working model. This has enabled us to offer additional flexibility to our clients. In the event of any of our clients experiencing a spike in volumes, our team has the additional flexibility that remote working offers. We have also introduced split shifts which have been hugely successful for both our clients and team members. We offer our team the option of working from home, office or a mix of both.
Shortlisted in the Green Awards – In February we were shortlisted in the Green Awards 2020 in the Category of Green Medium Sized Organisation of the Year. The Green Awards recognised the efforts we had made to date in supporting the environment and fighting climate change.
Receiving the ISO 14001 Certification – Our next Green pursuit was receiving our ISO 14001:2015 certification for Environmental Management. We were thrilled to receive our certification in October. During this time we set various goals and objectives to help in the fight against global warming. Over the past 12 months, it has been fantastic to see so many of our team getting involved and in turn making more sustainable choices. In 2021 we are looking forward to upping our efforts in becoming more environmentally friendly.
Shortlisted in the Customer Contact Management Association (CMMA) Awards – In October we were shortlisted in three categories of the CCMA awards:
- Industry Professional of the Year (Aoife O Mahony Team Leader)
- Best Response to Covid 19
- Team of the Year
The commencement of our virtual wellbeing programme – Throughout the year our management team came up with new ways of keeping our team engaged. In April, we introduced virtual wellbeing sessions with Noella Carrol from Pinnacklo which have been hugely popular with our team. The virtual spin on our wellbeing programme enabled us to continue to support our team while working remotely.
Zoom Quizzes – Our Zoom quizzes have been our new Friday night go to. Over the last year, our Quiz Master Dan Forde has challenged our team and their families. This new tradition is something which we will definitely carry with us into 2021.
While it was not the year anyone had exactly planned, we were delighted to have a very successful 2020.
‘The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new’ – Socrates.
We would like to wish our clients, suppliers and team a very happy and healthy New Year.
