Friday Update

Good Evening all.

As with all of my weekly updates my sentiments remain unchanged in that I do sincerely hope you are all keeping safe and well and finding your way through each week whilst we remain under government instruction to stay alert, and continue to stay at home as much as possible in order to control the virus.

I appreciate that the Prime Ministers Sunday evening announcement created some uncertainty and ambiguity, but I do hope that you are all now adapting to the slightly more relaxed guidelines which offer a little more freedom whilst continuing to keep you all as safe as possible. Thankfully, I feel that Jenner were better placed and in a more confident position than many businesses were at the start of the week, thanks to the time we had taken to prepare for our return to work our self-imposed closure created, which meant we could continue with our phased and gradual return to construction activity as planned.

Whilst we now have all sites reopened and almost 50% of the team back to operating duty, this still leaves many of you furloughed and with reports of economic difficulties and recession dominating the news I appreciate that this may have left many of you feeling anxious and uncertain. I would like to take the opportunity to reiterate that the furlough process is in place to safeguard your employment throughout the pandemic and the recent extension until October offers greater freedom for us as a business to strategically work our way through the challenging times we face. I assure you that we are doing everything in our power to ensure we return to good levels of productivity and reclaim our enviable position as one of the most well-respected and leading regional Kent contractors that we were fortunate to enjoy prior to the COVID-19 crisis. At this time we continue to be governed by supply of materials and availability of subcontractors as well as the level of operatives allowed on site at any one time, and the speed at which they can progress has been dramatically reduced due to the social distancing guidelines and enhanced safety procedures. Furloughing staff ensures we keep our overheads as efficient as we possibly can during this time of decreased productivity, and will assist in our futureproofing of the business, so whilst I appreciate this must be a frustrating time for many of you please do remain patient and positive and we will continue to communicate our intentions with you each week as best we can. If you do have any concerns or specific questions please do not hesitate to speak to myself or your departmental Director.

On other matters, it will come as no surprise to you that regrettably the Summer Ball, planned for early June, will no longer go ahead which whilst incredibly disappointing needs no further explanation at this time. The Directors gave serious consideration as to whether we could delay this and host an event for you all later in the year to boost morale and reunite the team, but with the clear message that a certain level of social distancing will continue for most of the year and with levels of infection still remaining high we simply could not entertain this. It would be a dereliction of our moral duty of care to you and your families. We wholeheartedly expect to hold the Summer Ball once again in 2021, at which time I sincerely hope we will be back to some form of normality, in a stronger position and more able to celebrate together.

Finally, following the success of our NHS 1000 Miles challenge which raised exactly £2000 for NHS Charities ♥🌈💙 many more of you are becoming involved in our latest challenge ‘The Jenner (Virtual) Roadtrip’ and keeping active by walking, running and cycling whilst contributing to our mileage tally. Our current mileage of 2819.5miles takes us somewhere into the Atlantic Ocean and well on our way to our desired destination of Las Vegas!!🌍 Well done Team! We still have quite a way to go so please do keep sending in your miles and do get involved if you haven’t done so already.

I think that’s enough from me for today, but it goes without saying that I wish you all a most enjoyable and relaxing weekend in what potentially looks to offer some glorious sunshine.

Kind regards

Martin