Tell us a little about yourself, David
From a professional perspective, I have been running operations for various healthcare and tech companies for 20+ years. Travel has played a huge part in my professional life as I lived in the Netherlands for a few years and ran operations across Africa, India and the Americas. From a personal perspective, I try to keep a good work-life balance. I enjoy reading and I’m very involved with my daughter’s hockey – I recently became a qualified coach.
Your role at B-Secur is Operations Manager, can you share some insight into what your responsibilities cover?
One of the reasons I enjoy Operations is the range of business activities that I get to be involved in. I am responsible for Finance, Legal, HR and Facilities, creating processes and policies to meet our current business needs and support us in reaching our future goals. This means I am involved in everything from developing our strategic business plans, investment rounds and corporate governance, to buying the coffee and organising team building events.
Due to Covid-19, the tech industry will never be the same again, neither will our organisations. What actions have you considered? Will you be implementing a phased approach to returning safely to work?
The tech industry will never be the same again, but that’s almost normal for the tech industry. Disruptors are not always going to be positive for everyone, but they always instigate change. I am using this opportunity to streamline our processes and maximise our strengths.
As for a safe return to the office, we have considered all options from closing the office and working from home permanently, to looking at how we can get everyone back into the office as fast as possible. A phased approach is a part of the plan however flexibility in returning (or not) will be discussed with the teams.
Despite the struggles the pandemic has unearthed, it has afforded businesses time to reflect, what are the biggest positives that have come from the last year?
One of the most positive outcomes is the change in our perspective. Most companies are outward looking, trying to see what the direction should be and where our partners want us to go. This is not necessarily a bad thing although we can lose focus on what we are good at.
During this pandemic we have been able to look inward again and see what works best for B-Secur. Our outputs and outcomes have been re-focused around what we know we are good at (technology delivery, partner relationship building) and we can use our strengths to ensure we deliver for our partners.
What are the biggest challenges B-Secur has encountered in the last year? How have you overcome them?
Personally, the biggest challenge for me is being physically distant from everyone. This is also our biggest challenge as a company. We have a great culture in B-Secur that might have changed a little in lockdown but ultimately remains sociable and supportive with everyone working hard to deliver objectives in a friendly, enjoyable environment.
Despite the challenge of remote working, I think we have managed to maintain a level of communication and support, and that is a credit to the team managers, and our culture. We’ve used social media, we’ve gathered virtually for quizzes and even a virtual escape room, as well as day to day meetings and using the same technologies to ensure everyone is connected.
B-Secur focuses on preventative health measures for the medical industry. How do you prevent employee burnout?
As a company that is focused on preventative care we have regular conversations with teams and individuals to check in with them. We run virtual mindfulness and healthy eating sessions and plan to keep these going virtually and face-to-face in the future. We always put our people first – if someone is struggling, for any reason (overworked, underutilised and bored, feeling lonely or stressed), they can come to any of us and have a chat, we will find a solution (or just listen if that’s what’s needed).
We know that B-Secur is a great place to work because of our people, so we invest in them and try to make sure they have what they need to prevent burnout, whether it’s work related or not.