Hello readers, I hope you are all safe and well.

We all know that there’s a lot going on right now, most of it not very nice, and perhaps the last thing anyone needs to read is yet another article stating the obvious so I’m not going to go there other than to say that we are here to help, our NHS users are at the forefront of our minds, we are open for business and we are and always have been incredibly proud to serve the wonderful NHS.

In response to our current collective circumstances and to try to genuinely help out, we have implemented some great new features and support strategies and we’d love to tell you a bit about what we’re doing to support our NHS clients as they battle through. So without further ado, I’ll get on with it…

To start with, in terms of the software itself, we have introduced some new functionality, completely free of charge.

  • For users of the ESRconnect Spreadsheet (the payroll checking and reporting tool) we have introduced a brand new report which calculates average pay over a reference period to quickly give users the ability to pay the relevant self-isolating staff at the correct rate.
  • For users of the ESRconnect Timesheet Module, we have included the ability for inputters to record COVID-19 absences on their e-timesheets so Trusts can get an accurate picture of who is off as a result of the disease and employees can be paid accordingly.

We are very open to hearing about any other areas of your work we could help with and will do our best to offer as much support and assistance as we can, whether or not you already use our products so don’t hesitate to give us a try if there’s something you’re struggling with.

In addition to the technical enhancements, we have taken our Tech Support Services online and I am delighted to tell you that this has been hugely successful with our users reporting very high levels of satisfaction and great results. By meeting securely using a platform such as Microsoft Teams with screen-sharing features, we are able to help our users in real time, wherever they are and whenever they need support which is a huge step forward.

This new way of working has allowed us to be even more responsive and agile, and of course it means we can make a much needed reduction in our carbon emissions with reduced reliance on travel so it’s definitely a win-win. It’s comforting to think that a terrible situation can bring about change for the better and we will continue to offer this service even when things return to normal.

We have also introduced an anonymous online feedback form following a support request so we can see what’s working and hear about anything we need to improve on. The feedback has been extremely positive so far with all respondents reporting that ESRconnect Tech Support offers ‘very fast responses’ and is ‘generally better than that of other systems used’ among other things which is really great to hear. We will be producing regular reports on this data as it builds up so watch this space.

We are still very much open for business and are fully set up to offer sales demos, software installations and training online so COVID doesn’t have to stop you going ahead should you wish to get started with our products, especially if any of the new features would be useful for you. We are also in the process of developing an online clocking system which integrates with our existing Timesheet Module and some major enhancements to import speeds which will make things much quicker and slicker so there’s a lot happening!

If there’s anything at all we can do for you or you’d like more details on any of the above, we are here and all the normal contact details for us are active so don’t hesitate to get in touch any time, we’ll be delighted to hear from you.

Wishing everyone happiness and health, and fingers crossed we can all be back into our normal routines very soon.