COVID-19. TAKING RESPONSIBILITY IN CHALLENGING TIMES – How do you deal with the unprecedented situation of a global pandemic? For us, the response to the pandemic was to consistently move employees over to working from home. And this independent of the relevant legal guidelines in place. As we had already begun to implement the Future Desk principle, we had fewer technical problems with this than other companies. We also ensured that free lateral flow tests were available for our employees at all times, so that they could test themselves as and when necessary, quickly and easily. For optimal protection against the virus, we also ensured a constant supply of fresh face masks. As the pandemic progressed, our hygiene concepts were also constantly updated. This enabled us to respond to the ever-changing legal and social requirements accordingly. Of course, even in a pandemic, it is not possible to do all work remotely. In order to protect as best as possible those employees who needed to be on site to do their work, segregated workstations were set up. Particular attention was paid to this in the warehouse, because working from home is unfortunately not an option for warehouse workers. A great deal of compromises and solutions had to be found to deal with the various problems we encountered along the way during the pandemic. In particular, we communicated far more closely and far more frequently with suppliers during this time. We had to use other shipping methods, which, in some cases, led to huge cost increases, which in turn had to be passed on to our customers. As a result of reduced working hours or full-on lockdowns in production plants, the quality of the articles delivered unfortunately often left much to be desired. Here, it was important to be understanding, especially when dealing with suppliers who were normally known for their reliability. So as not to burden suppliers with major complaints, we instead got creative and included products that had not been produced correctly in line with their design in our range under a different item number. This meant that we only had to pass on the costs for the additional personnel outlay incurred. 16 CYBERGROUP
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