As a firm, Rradar’s services include providing legal and business support to all organisations, in the realms of employment, HR, health and safety, litigation, disputes, corporate, commercial, and other business-related law areas. Founded by Gary Gallen as a one-man start-up in 2012, he has grown the firm into an expanding company with over 100 employees, boasting bases in Hull, Leeds and Glasgow, and still looking to expand its presence.
Like many other businesses across the UK and wider world, Rradar has had no choice but to adapt to meet the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, given its relative youth as a business, Gallen believes it was in an ideal position to be flexible and continue to offer its services to clients.
Speaking to Leaders Council of Great Britain & Northern Ireland interviewer, Scott Challinor, Gallen explained: “We’re continuing even now to adapt to the changes Covid-19 has brought about, particularly with regard to uncertainty. We are a young business formed a few short years ago and are moving from the start-up phase into that scaling up phase. It stood us in good stead that we were agile and are young, because we don’t have legacy systems in place and technology problems. We have cloud solutions, mobiles, headsets and other resources at our disposal, so we were quick and able to work from home and have them engaging with each other and clients quite seamlessly.”
Gallen took the opportunity to pay tribute to Rradar’s staff for the manner in which they had applied themselves during the early weeks of the crisis into helping the firm adapt, for it was their efforts that made his task of leading the business through troubled waters easier than it perhaps could have been.
“I am proud of my staff at every level of the business. Everyone was on board with what had to be done. Training everyone up in using new online tools and platforms to be ready for remote working was a challenge but having newer technology and being cloud-based in our technology made us flexible enough to manage.
“Leading the business from a distance, therefore, became easy. It was integral that I could trust my staff. Personal and professional lives have clashed during this period in an unprecedented way, but now - four months into lockdown - we are starting to look at how the country and economy will look to emerge from this.
“We were in an advantageous position pre-pandemic, not just because of our technologies and framework but also in terms of staff attitudes. We had recently appointed some new people in various director roles, including non-executive, senior and strategic positions and they hit the ground running. Their skill sets were tremendous in managing communication and the transition to remote working. New recruits too have folded into the business seamlessly. Despite having a largely new team to work with right before the lockdown, I was hugely encouraged by how they responded and how quickly we adapted.”
When asked whether mental health and wellbeing was at the forefront of the business’ approach in meeting the challenges of the pandemic, Gallen stressed that it was considered all-important throughout.
“We have tried to be very open with staff and talk consistently with them about their confidence in returning to work and coming back to the office space. This included addressing their anxieties around using public transport and office cleanliness, so we’ve had much communication.
“Keeping connected and keeping people informed helps. Our new people director and HR team have been crucial in keeping communication open at this time and helping keep the leadership team posted on people’s individual circumstances. Trust and communication here are also vital aspects.”
Besides maintaining open channels of communication, Gallen discussed how Rradar had also looked to provide some much-needed social interaction to combat the isolation of lockdown.
Gallen explained: “We have looked at remote social activities too and encouraged staff when speaking to each other and clients during digital discussions to ask fun facts about each other. It is little things like this that help people feel more connected, especially with the loss of that in-person interaction.
“We have also created our own hub to encourage this, and we have staff expertly trained in these areas. One arm of our business is working frontline on these issues and helping clients deal with these changes in their own businesses and maintain good communication and safeguard their employees’ wellbeing.”
Shifting focus to talk about how the pandemic and lockdown may ultimately affect the working practices of firms across the UK, Gallen offered his personal view that a hybrid working system combining the conventional office environment with working from home could be introduced in future.
“I think there will still be some requirement for people to physically come together and socially bond as well as professionally bond. There are many health and wellbeing issues attached to the need for social interaction that we cannot ignore. What the pandemic is doing is accelerating the need for change in our working practices.
“The element of trust is going to become more important: employers have to ask themselves whether their staff can be effective, happy and healthy if they are not in the office each day. At Rradar, we will honour the trust we have in our staff and give people greater flexibility in their rotas and working schedules. Our working practices will become more dynamic, and more widely we could see the whole perception of set working days disappear. However, it is different for different industries and will apply differently to different business models. We were flexible pre-pandemic, but we are exploring with our staff how we can be even more flexible.”
Gallen also felt that the lockdown experience will also prompt employers to consider in more detail the use of their space and premises, not just in terms of the amount of space that they will need in future, but also in terms of making space more fit for purpose.
“I anticipate that employers will look more closely at getting teams together and working with clients on that face-to-face basis still, but they will seek to make the space they use more welcoming, attractive and purpose built. Having a workspace for the sake of having space is pointless. For example, when we make our staff come to the office in future, they will be coming in to fulfil a specific and relevant working purpose that they cannot do at home, such as seeing clients and engaging with them, rather than simply coming in for the sake of doing so.”
When quizzed by Challinor on where he sources inspiration during testing times, Gallen described role models as hallmarks of business leadership and appealed to any individual that owns or runs a business to seek out external soundboards such as networking groups which one can use to challenge themselves and develop.
Gallen said: “The role of a leader is to continually ask themselves what a leader should be, and role models are hallmarks of leadership. I am fortunate to have met some amazing mentors in my career who are not necessarily from my business background. I do not try to mimic them, but I recognise my strengths and weaknesses and in consulting them I know which aspects of my own leadership model that I can hone and improve.
“As a business leader you’re accountable. I would encourage anyone to seek out soundboards outside their business to challenge yourself, know where you can improve and understand that in some cases there are more effective ways of doing things. You can then reassess, go back to your business and be better as a leader.
“I personally read much of my source material, I access a lot online, and also take part in courses led by entrepreneurs in other businesses to test myself and also share some of my own techniques. One should never think that they know everything and there are plenty of places to learn and improve but you do need to be careful where you look.”
Offering a message of advice to younger generations aspiring to become leaders in business, Gallen said that for all that one can learn throughout their life and career, not losing sight of oneself and remaining authentic should be held in high esteem as a key element of leadership.
“There is always more you can learn. We are never a finished product, but you must be yourself, be confident in who you are and sure of your own style. It is not about mimicking or becoming other people, it is about using their techniques to better yourself. I think if you aren’t authentic, eventually you will be found out.”
Despite the looming uncertainty surrounding the trajectory of the Covid-19 situation as the UK economy bids to reopen, Gallen was optimistic that the future for Rradar is bright.
Elaborating on the company’s future plans, Gallen explained: “We are trying to take legal acumen and bring that together with teachers and technologists and show people what they can do to avoid risk, conflict and crisis and how they can perform and be compliant. As a business, we have doubled in size from 2018, fully repaid the equity investors who helped us scale up, and we are now an independent board of directors that is recruiting, signing new contracts and changing up the business. Having proven our model works, we have to reshape the business again to grow and scale up even further.
“Clients are remaining with us; more are coming on board and we are recruiting more people. That is not to say that Covid-19 has not seen business partners pause some activities with us during this time, because that is a reality. We will begin to see these activities resume, probably this calendar year. There is great entrepreneurial spirit in the UK, and it is a question of time before things return in earnest. For now, there is still a lack of confidence and certainty and it is about waiting for that to return in both our business partners and the wider economy.
“What we will consider a successful year ahead is if we can deliver on our promises to clients and staff that we’ll work with more people and help them succeed. In our profession, dealing with crisis and conflict is something we are used to. It is about delivering on our pledge to share more, learn more, provide more confidence to people, help them grow and be successful and to interpret this new compliance and regulatory world. Brexit will be another challenge to come at the end of the year, and some of our work will inevitably centre around that.
“We want to be a business of purpose and to grow and extend beyond the UK to help even more people. I would like us to continue to be pioneers in thought leadership and to keep reaping the best reward that the team and business can have: positive outcomes for clients who are happy that we have been able to help them.”
