Daniel Pillai first realised that life was about to change when he arrived at San Francisco airport on a business trip in February. Queuing at passport control, he noticed masked biosecurity staff checking the temperatures of incoming passengers. “I realised this thing [coronavirus] was about to hit us, and it was only a matter of time,” says the CEO and co-founder of BIPVco, a Welsh solar roofing company. “Our business had all sorts of contingency plans, everything from fire to worst-possible scenario. But a health pandemic? That wasn’t even on the radar, especially not for a company of our size.”
As at many small businesses across the UK, the Covid-19 pandemic forced BIPVco to reconfigure. The company had been manufacturing solar modules from its Newport factory since 2015, and currently employs 16 people. On 16 March, when the government advised that all non-essential businesses should cease activity to limit contagion, Pillai phoned his staff to tell them not to come to work the next day. At the same time, worries about his business started gnawing away. “We had many concerns: the welfare of our staff, letting customers down, plus the long-term viability of the business given that orders could disappear.”
Two months on, BIPVco has a skeleton team of six staff working on essential projects for the Welsh ambulance service and a local hospital. The rest of the team have been furloughed, with their jobs remaining safe until at least October, through the government’s multi-billion pound job retention scheme, which has protected 7.5 million workers and 1m UK businesses. These measures came four days after the factory shuttered its doors, and are described as “a massive relief” by Pillai.
The biggest boon of the furlough scheme for Pillai is that it enabled BIPVco to retain experienced staff: the manufacture of photovoltaic solar modules for buildings and vehicles is a complex job requiring expert knowledge.
“If we hadn’t been able to afford [to retain] our small, but specialised, staff, we could have lost them,” he says. “It would have put us back months, if not years, as it takes time to recruit talent with that level of skill.”
The employment package has also kept corporate coffers topped up. “Cashflow is the biggest issue for SMEs; even if you’re profitable, [lack of] cashflow can kill you,” says Pillai.
Under the wage subsidy plan, employees get 80% of their salary (capped at £2,500 a month) and bosses are given the option to make up the 20% difference; something Pillai has done with furloughed employees.
Had the scheme not been introduced, Pillai says former industrial heartlands such as south Wales could have suffered millions of job losses. “From a societal point of view, this scheme has been important as it’s stopped many people going on the dole.”
One week after placing staff on furlough, BIPVco reinstated six workers when a pre-existing contract with the Welsh ambulance service (to fit solar panels on 40 ambulances) was declared “essential”. In April, the company started work on another contract: making solar panels for the new Grange University hospital, near Cwmbran. Working on such essential projects gives staff a “sense of pride”, says Pillai.
Their workplace safety, however, is paramount. Face masks and goggles are now a common sight at the factory, staff use individual spaces rather than communal areas, and all jobs are undertaken standing the mandatory two metres apart.
Ensuring that furloughed staff are adjusting to life at home is also critical. Although employees are forbidden to undertake any work for their company while under furlough (including checking emails), they can speak with employers. “I call our staff once a week,” says Pillai. “We talk about their wellbeing, never work. People have been unbelievably understanding.”
BIPVco has also applied for a business support grant, part of £730m worth of national funding pledged to the Welsh government, and Pillai has welcomed the extension of the furloughing scheme. “Being an eternal optimist, I’m hoping we won’t need it and business will be back to normal soon. But in the eventuality that social distancing prevents firms returning to work for now, it’s good to know it’s there.”
Aside from the financial assistance that the employment package has given small businesses (the government has received £10bn worth of claims so far), Pillai believes it has helped in other ways too: “The fact the government has stepped in to support business in such an unprecedented way [makes] everybody feel it’s a shared problem. We’ve all got a common enemy in this virus; everybody has to do their individual and collective bit to overcome it.”
The government furlough scheme: key facts
The UK government has extended the furlough scheme from the end of June until the end of October.
7.5 million workers and 1m businesses have been protected.
Since the scheme was announced on 20 March, the UK government has received claims for more than £10bn.
The UK government has also provided the Welsh government with £730m to help fund business support grants and £635m for business rates relief.
This advertiser content was paid for by the UK government. All in, all together is a government-backed initiative tasked with informing the UK about the Covid-19 pandemic.
