How entegro has adjusted to COVID-19 with our new way of working

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, our top concern has been the health and safety of our employees. Significant investment has been made in safety measures and infrastructure to ensure we comply with COVID-19 guidelines.

We have provided office-based employees with remote desktops, ergonomic chairs and training in risk and ergonomic assessments to work safely from home. Throughout this period, we have also taken on new employees, several of whom were to relocate to our Design Centre, Kilkenny City, Ireland. Many have begun working with us remotely and remain in their home countries; Portugal, the Philippines and India to name a few, until travel restrictions are lifted. This is an entirely new capability for entegro, and indeed depicts us as a truly global company with a dynamic, competent skilled workforce working in different time zones.

We have supplied additional PPE for our field staff who work on site on a daily basis; from enhanced cleaning of vehicles to social distancing measures while on site.  Existing processes have been adapted to ensure adherence to HSE guidelines. This has allowed our field surveying teams throughout the country, to continue working providing an essential service safely while keeping Ireland connected.

During May and June and ongoing more than 20 field surveyors went through induction and health & safety and practical training courses for wholesale networks in a custom designed large base in Johnstown, Kilkenny which complied with social distancing requirements. Our newly inducted field surveyors have been surveying in parts of Carlow and Tipperary as part of the National Broadband Plan (NBP) rollout with National Broadband Ireland.

With the restrictions that followed COVID-19, communications with clients and employees have been more important than ever before. Weekly reports on locations and team setup have been communicated to clients, outlining the current number of people in the team. A COVID-19 community liaison officer was appointed and delegated to ensuring COVID PPE is in place and CIF-19 course is completed by all involved on projects. A weekly status is sent to each client per program and early identification of program risks due to COVID-19 restrictions highlighted including weekly site audits ensuring all employees are complaint with COVID-19 measures.

As a result of the changes made we have ensured that our client expectations; Virgin Media IE, SIRO, Fibrus, CityFibre, enet, CTL and NBI are met through hard working employees and their continuous commitment while working from home, in conjunction with our critical workers in the field meeting client objectives while maintaining social distancing and protecting themselves and the public.

At entegro, we feel it is very important to support communities and charities in Ireland. This year, we proudly supported Pieta House in their special appeal to help those at risk of or bereaved by suicide during COVID-19. The charity provides free therapy to those engaging in self-harm, with suicidal ideation, or bereaved by suicide. As the traditional event, Darkness Into Light could not take place this year, we encouraged their message company–wide in addition to our generous donation to Pieta House.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the hard work of all our employees in recent times in adjusting to the new way of working. We acknowledge the fantastic endeavours and supports made by our COVID-19 Response Team, all of whom made significant efforts to ensure safe working practices and processes as we transitioned from office to remote working. We look forward to the gradual return of our office-based employees in the near future to our Head Quarters in Kilkenny and additional offices in Baldonnel, Dublin.