After the announcement made by Boris Johnson yesterday which revealed the governments roadmap for lockdown to be eased and a view to returning to somewhat normal life, we started to look back at how the last lockdown has affected We Print Lanyards.
No Conferences or Events - Between the months of April and September, we hit "event season". This is a huge time of year for us as we supply lanyards, wristbands, ID cards and holder, visitor security systems to exhibitions, conferences, live events and festivals. With Covid-19 cancelling the majority of events already, this impacted us quite badly. Lets hope people working in those industries can get back to what they do best soon.
We learned we could work from home - There seems to have been a major shift of people no longer having to make the commute to the office. Partially influenced by the need to home school, many employers realised that productivity actually improved when staff were allowed to work from the luxury of their own home. For us, our manufacturing staff still came into the factory but many of the back office staff set up at home and continued to work productively without the need to be at their desk.
Teachers are superheroes! - After the first lockdown and "dipping your toe" into the world of home schooling, this time, things got serious. Teachers were able to teach virtually via Zoom or Teams and a lot of kids were able to have their lessons with the rest of the class albeit from home. However. Not all lessons were conducted virtually and the times where children had to work independently meant that we became the teachers. If you haven't had an important business call interrupted by "Daddy/Mummy?!" a million times, are you even home schooling. This was one of the most trying elements of lockdown and for that teachers across the country, we solute you!
The NHS never stops - Literally never. We are extremely proud to have supplied healthcare lanyards to the NHS throughout the pandemic. We've produced all different varieties including Vaccinator lanyards. We've worked throughout the night to ensure we get the NHS orders out on time and it makes us feel nice to know that we've done our tiny part in helping those frontline NHS workers work safely. Thank you NHS!
Diversify to survive - With so many businesses closing during lockdown, we took an inevitable hit in orders. We hand a think of how we could offer something to not only compliment our existing products but also be sold as a stand alone product. This was where our attachable hand sanitiser bottles were born. We came up with the idea of offering attachable 50ml sanitiser bottles for customers to attach to their custom printed lanyards. The rest as they say is history...
Teamwork makes the dream work - If we've learnt anything throughout lockdown, pulling together and working as a team has to be the main thing. We've had to adapt. We've had to do things we wouldn't usually do. We've had to work harder and for longer just to keep going. And you know what? It's all been worth it. We've shown how we can survive when things get tough and that what a great team of people we have at We Print Lanyards. But I think for the majority, this is relatable. Communities have come together to support vulnerable people. and help their neighbours. The sense of National Pride seems to have returned and people "mucking in" to do their bit to get the country back on it feet again. Lets hope that once lockdown is completely lifted some or these values continue.