Overview
London Stansted Airport is one of the busiest airports in the UK. Annually, more than 18 million passengers arrive or leave the airport across 147,500 flights to and from 30 different countries, with more than 214,000 tonnes of Cargo following travelling with them.
Such a vast level of activity is supported by a highly skilled and well organised workforce but, in 2010, high levels of absence remained a key issue that needed to be tackled. Looking at the Terminal division, as of December 2010 the average full-time employee was losing 24 days a year due to sickness absence and a further 6 days due to non-medical absence. To cope with such productivity losses more than 60,000 hours of overtime were granted, requiring significant costs to be incurred.
The airport therefore took the decision to work with GoodShape to reduce absence and have since become one of our most proactive and successful clients, with the average days lost per employee falling to just 10.1 days per employee as of May 2014, with the number of overtime hours required to cover absence falling to just 15,000 annually.
Several initiatives have contributed to such a significant reduction and have included:
- The appointment of an Attendance Manager as a key, central contact for coordinating all activities geared towards reducing absence;
- Integration with Occupational Health and the development of an online, real-time OH referral system;
- A shift to online return to work interview completion with line manager training and support.
- Online tracking of employees through the attendance management procedure.
Finally, Stansted Airport continue to be one of GoodShape's most vocal clients, challenging us to find new ways to tackle long standing problems, or develop new tools with which to uncover hitherto unforeseen issues, with this partnership approach proving the key ingredient in our continued efforts to manage and reduce absence.
What the client said
“If you expect your employees to go the extra mile for your customers, you must prove that you are willing to go the extra mile for them! Our partnership with GoodShape has enabled us to focus on the long term benefits of improving attendance, rather than the short term challenge of managing absence. The GoodShape partnership has enabled managers to focus their support on their colleagues, by reducing the time needed to manage the data. For our business, it’s about attendance now, not absence, and that enables us to devote our energies to investing in our people, now and in the future.”
Calum Anderson, Operations Planning Manager
Results From GoodShape Service
- 58% Absence Reduction
- Reduced overtime – 45,000 less overtime hours annually
