Such situations are overcome only through the joint work of individuals, companies, institutions and organizations.
We talked to Goran Janković, director of Inmold Plast, about how the company organized its business activities during the state of emergency, what safeguards they used in their work, and how much and in which way did the company helped the most vulnerable groups in the society.
How did you organize your business activities and communication with your business partners and clients?
Considering that the health and safety of employees is the most important thing in Inmold’s business policy, we decided to implement all the necessary measures at the outset of the pandemic to protect the safety and health of people. Like most other companies, we had to a certain number of our employees working from home and making more use of video communication. Fortunately, all of our technical, sales and administration staff was already equipped for teleworking, so we didn’t have any additional financial costs. We informed our employees that the current situation is not an excuse to end communication with customers, suppliers and business partners, but rather that such communication needs to be continued to an even greater degree. Similarly, we have decided that developing investment projects should continue and that prudent implementation of planned investments must continue. In addition to measures to protect our business, even more important are the measures we have applied to increase the safety of our employees.
We have set up a washing and disinfection station at the very entrance to the company, with sufficient capacity to ensure that all employees can disinfect their hands when entering and leaving the company, without having to wait in lines. The same applies to footwear disinfection.
After this, we gave all our employees the protective equipment (masks, gloves, visors) and we started disinfecting all surfaces in the company daily.
A ban on ‘third parties’ entering the company premises was introduced, while all our drivers are required to wear protective equipment, to reduce contact with our employees and people they contact in other companies.
We also changed the meal schedule at the company, with the goal of reducing the number of people in one place. Like a number of other measures, new measures are constantly being introduced in line with the measures implemented in companies worldwide.
How important is it for companies to stand in solidarity and help in these extraordinary circumstances?
Such situations are overcome only through the joint work of individuals, companies, institutions and organizations. There are many ways to help address this crisis. We have chosen to help financially by starting to produce visors and donating them to vulnerable people, most notably healthcare professionals, the police and the military.
In only 72 hours, we have managed to build a tool for injection moulding of plastic mounts, purchased the required material and began assembling and donating visors. We can proudly say that we have donated 15,000 visors so far. I would also like to underline that we have also donated over 50,000 plastic mounts to individuals and organizations, who privately made protective visors and who later donated those visors locally. We believe that by the end of this crisis, we will have donated over 100,000 protective visors directly and indirectly.
How do you spend your private time during the pandemic?
In spite of the fact that the amount of work in Inmold is growing, as well as the fact that working in the company still occupies most of my day, I still have more free time than before. The reason for this is primarily the absence of customers and guests at the company and postponed business trips. I strive to spend that this time with my family, read books and devise long-term plans for the company.
What will you do first after the state of emergency is abolished?
Our company’s business is based on customer relations, which we create through mutual visits and meeting at trade shows. Therefore, once the state of emergency is lifted, we plan to immediately begin re-establishing those relationships, which will surely suffer despite the online contact, but we also intend to make more visits to our new customers, trade fairs and industry events for the rest of the year.
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