As the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in 2020, it brought about a considerable degree of anxiety within populations across the world, and the effects of lockdowns, quarantines and curtailments of social freedoms have only exacerbated the issue by causing major disruption to people’s daily activities, routines and livelihoods and fuelling loneliness and isolation, depression, and other mental health concerns.
On The Leaders Council podcast series, we recently spoke with two business leaders who discussed their experiences of managing through the Covid-19 pandemic, candidly sharing some of the steps that they have taken to keep their workforces and clients in a healthy state of mind during the crisis.
Hair Development UK
Janis Levy MTTS is the creative director at Hair Development UK, the longest-established human-hair extension and replacement experts in the country, having been active since 1960. Sitting down with The Leaders Council’s Scott Challinor, Janis highlighted how the closure of self-care venues across the country saw communities immediately lose access to much-needed social hubs.
Janis explained: “In times of recession before anything like Covid, businesses in the self-care and food industry always seemed to be okay. However, the pandemic hit everyone in these sectors terribly with venues having to close, but luckily the UK is emerging from the abyss like a phoenix now.
“It has always been known that people go to their local hair salons and like to have a chat, but perhaps unbeknownst to many businesses, this interaction actually functions as a type of therapy, and we are realising that more now. My late father, Stanley Levy [who founded the company], always said that our business has the ability to restore people’s self-confidence and make them feel good, and we have had people contacting us during the pandemic when we have and haven’t been open who have been beside themselves.”
To help clients in need during periods of closure, Janis revealed that she and the company’s managing director, Mark Burns MTTS, decided that they would send essential products to clients free of charge that they could use at home.
“We took the decision to send our essential products without cost to help our clients get by until they could come into us again. We hear about mental health all the time, but with hair it is especially important given the many conditions relating to hair that can affect people.”
Significantly, consideration of people’s mental health and wellbeing within the business did not extend solely to Hair Development’s client base. For Janis, ensuring that her colleagues were able to feel safe and reassured about income and job security throughout the health crisis was paramount.
She explained: “Within our industry, the government generously funded 80 per cent of staff salaries through the furlough scheme, but we as a business decided we would contribute the remaining 20 per cent so that staff received 100 per cent of their salaries. We wanted them to feel safe, not have to worry and reassure them that they would have a job at the end of this.”
With self-care venues having been open again since April 12 in accordance with the government’s roadmap out of social restrictions, Janis remains optimistic that the sector can play an integral part in helping the country heal in the months ahead.
“Since April 12, we have been back together and very sadly many we knew in the industry have closed down. However, the upside is that we are very busy with more people coming to us who know that we are one of the very few who can get hair replacement goods and other key products to them. There is a longer wait than usual at the moment owing to shortages in stock, but we are beginning to get our deliveries back each day and we want everyone to know we are here for them as we have been over the decades.
“It has been a tragic time for so many, but hopefully as a nation we can come together again and heal and help each other along the way.”
Upturn Enterprise
Multi-award-winning social entrepreneur Anwar Ali, CEO of Upturn Enterprise Ltd, spoke truthfully to The Leaders Council on our podcast series about the detrimental effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on mental health within his business and the wider community. Yet, to properly address these issues, Anwar explained that it took a great deal of personal determination to remain positive and lead by example through the crisis.
Anwar recalled: “We were affected from day one of the lockdown by the uncertainty, and indeed, in places like Oldham in Greater Manchester where we are based, we haven’t really been out of lockdown in the same way as the rest of the country. Cases of Covid have been running rampant and the new Delta variant has been spreading on our doorstep in neighbouring towns such as Bolton and Blackburn. Lasting restrictions have had a real effect on morale within our business and the community.
“It has been a worrying time for staff members. Various people we work with have come down with Covid and we were not too sure how they would be affected in the long run, so we have had to show a large degree of flexibility to keep the business operating which has been a challenge. As leader of the business, I try to keep a handle on mental health within Upturn as much as possible by being there with other people and leading by example in conducting myself positively in my leadership. It has, however, been a real challenge staying positive amid all of the strife.”
Anwar went on to say that much of his crisis management approach involved taking the action that he believed to be right at the time, and then using the benefit of hindsight to gauge whether his course of action was the right one to take.
“The key is to just get on with what we are doing and hope we are doing the right thing until the consequences become obvious. Even now with the government’s roadmap out of restrictions, we are not too sure on whether we are doing right by unlocking at the rate we are. But you can only roll your sleeves up and do your very best in the circumstances at the time.”
Anwar expressed his gratitude to the government for extending support measures such as the furlough scheme to his social enterprise, in the same manner as any other business, before warning that the full human cost of Covid may not be fully understood until the pandemic has reached a decisive end.
“Some of the stories we have heard from people who we have worked with in the community are harrowing, and it is difficult for one’s morale seeing the levels of issues coming to the fore because of Covid that people have to deal with. We have fortunately been treated like other businesses by the government in terms of the level of support we have been given, and that has enabled us to carry on doing the good work we do in the community. However, I do not think the full human cost of the crisis at large will be fully understood until we emerge from the pandemic, and we will eventually have to face up to that cost.”
