Leadership ForumRaising Standards in Customer Operations Join the professional network for industry leaders

n Build collaboration across functions to raise performance

n Develop talent and build effective teams

n Drive improvements that deliver business imperatives

n Create a shared industry vision

n Customer Strategy & Leadership Forum, Thursday 26th September 2019, Blackfriars, London

n The National Conference & Leadership Forum, 5th-6th November 2019, The Hilton, Manchester

n Customer Strategy & Planning 2020 27th – 28th April 2020, Marriot Hotel, Newcastle

Join us for our industry leading national events and conferences

n EE, 13th June, Darlington

n Capita Innovations, 20th June, London

n The Times Group, 18th July, London

n British Engineering Services, 5th September, Manchester

n esure, 26th June, Glasgow

Leadership Site Visit workshops

For Directors and Senior LeadersCall us for your invitation on 0333 123 59 60Email: leadership@theforum.social

www.theforum.social/leadership

Customer Contact Innovation Awards

Digital Transformation Three case studies show how complex, diverse and far-reaching can bethe impact of data and technology today

Innovations help Capita stand out from the crowd

How paperless mortgages impress & amaze at RBS

Driving retention & growth by engaging customers at The Times andThe Sunday Times

Workplace wellbeing: insight & planning Learn about the potential of planning and insight teams and their role inworkplace environment that supports wellbeing

Love to listen: agent-led flexibility and change at Anglian Water

Make it personal: one more thing to help colleagues at EE

A new operating model for workforce engagement at e.on

How MyTime is driving wellbeing & engagement at esure

Making data accessible and engaging at NewDay

Enterprise-wide: beyond contact centresSee how insight & planning join up the business, helping connect andenable across every kind of function

An environment for analysts where success is inevitable at Anglian Water

The power of planning to transform at British Engineering Services

Powerful insight drives a new operating model for field at Capita PIP

Resource planning for Learning & Development delivery at Openreach

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Organisation Date Location Organisation Date Location

EE 13th June Darlington The Times and The Sunday Times 18th July London

Anglian Water (Planning) 18th June Lincoln British Engineering Services 5th Sept Manchester

Anglian Water (Insight) 19th June Lincoln Openreach 17th Sept Leeds

Capita Innovations 20th June London RBS 17th Sept London

Capita PIP 25th June Birmingham e.on 24th Sept Nottingham

esure 26th June Glasgow NewDay 1st Oct Leeds

Best Practice Site Visits 2019

Register now for the visits at http://theforum.social/Awards or email: events@theforum.socialBook now to be sure of your place. Visits are not open to competitors.

For further resources on these articles, visit: www2.theforum.social/CSP2019/Awards Best Practice Guide © Professional Forums Ltd 2019

Award Judging Panel 2019

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Richard Brimble, Director at Understanding &Learning and author of Keeping the Human FactorAlive in the Digital Age. A lifetime achievement

award winner, he has advised companies on improvingcommunication, customer experiences and sustainable

change for nearly 30 years.

Adrian Hawes, Director at Select Planning Ltd workswith businesses that want to transform theircustomer service using exceptional resource planning,

business intelligence and performance management. Aconsistent champion for best practice for nearly 20 years,

He’s a previous award winner, finalist and Planning Hero.

Richard Laidlaw, Head of Planning, MI, OperationalChange and Payment Operations at Sainsbury’s Bank.He has worked in Banking and Contact Centres for

over 20 years, across companies such as RBS, TescoBank and now Sainsbury’s Bank. He is passionate about

excellent customer service and developing people.

Dale Owen, Resource Optimisation Manager atLloyds Banking Group. With 14+ years’ experiencemanaging teams in contact centre, project and retail

resource planning, he’s a firm believer in developingresource planning capability and best practice. He works

across 15,000 community banking colleagues.

James Taylor, Head of Planning at RSA. With 15years planning experience, James is responsible forend-to-end planning of 3,000 FTE front and back

office resources across RSA’s Sale, Service and Claimsteams. A previous award finalist and Planning Hero award

winner, his team achieved Standards Accreditation in 2013.

Phil Anderson, Specialist at The Forum, a highlyexperienced planning professional, supportingmembers with training, benchmarking, facilitation,

consultancy and bespoke work. Phil is always keen todevelop new ideas and develop others.

Leigh McIlwaine, Head of Programmes at TheForum. With 20+ years’ experience in contact centre& back office planning and senior operational &

improvement roles. She’s a recognised Universityteacher, with a passion for professionalism.

Paul Jackson-Moss, Planning & Insight Specialist atThe Forum. With almost 20 years’ experience of endto end resource planning in multi-skilled, multi-site,

multi-channel customer operations across Insurance,Sales & Finance. He’s motivated by a challenge!

Specialist Judgesn Jonathan George, Head of Customer Contact Centre,

Wilko Retail Ltdn Laura Moss, Head of Command Centre, Santander Operationsn David Bruce, FTTP Innovation Principal, Openreachn Mark Blythe, Director of Global Service Performance, Airbnbn Fraser Donaldson, Director of Global Service Performance,

Student Loans Company

Experienced external judges, together with experts from The Forum, visit finalists on-site, to meet with agents, managers and others to individually assess the scope and impact of each innovation.

Rodney Assock, Operational Services Director atGeneral Insurance at LV=. With 20+ years’ experienceleading award-winning operations, his personal drive

comes from creating environments with customers andpeople at the heart of a collaborative business, with the

right leadership, to make a thriving and engaging culture.

Scott Clifford, Senior Leader Global MI & Insights atWorldpay, the world’s largest payment provider. Withover 20 years’ experience in contact centres, he now

leads a team across the UK and US. Scott has worked inSenior Planning & MI roles for over 5 years. In 2017, his

team were winners at the National Insight Awards.

Ian Gibson, Operations Director at Ingeus Group, whoprovide employability, youth, health and probationservices. He has 20+ years’ experience in customer

service, with organisations such as npower, Vodafone, RSA,Carbon Trust & Orbit Housing. Passionate about excellence,

Ian holds an MBA, is a six sigma black belt and NLP certified.

Zoff Makda, Head of Planning at L&G is a seasonedplanning manager with 15+ years’ experience of leadingon change, driving performance and financial savings. A

strong track record of building, developing and motivatingteams to consistently deliver. Highly motivated and

passionate to succeed and develop teams to succeed.

Lorna Stanley, Head of Planning for Change at BGLGroup Contact Centres, responsible for multisite, multi-functional planning reaching across inbound, outbound,

web chat, digital innovation & AI. A previous winner ofPlanning Manager of the Year in 2016 she also led her

Planning Team to achieve Forum Standards in 2018.

Jas Thiara, Head of Planning & Scheduling at SevernTrent, for contact & field operations. A qualifiedaccountant by background with 15+ years’ experience

within the Utilities and Financial Services sectors he hasworked within planning for the past 5 years. He was finalist

in 2018 for ground-breaking work at Barclaycard, with Anaplan.

Paul Smedley, Founder & Chair at The Forum, chairingthe judging and editorial teams. He established thetraining, best practice, membership & awards

programmes of The Forum, rated for creating enjoyable,interactive events.

Nicola Callan, Director at The Forum, supportingmembers and management of our people. Nicola ispassionate about identifying, building and developing

strengths and in creating the right conditions that releaseour potential and that of those around us.

Ian Robertson, Insight & Quality Specialist at TheForum, supporting members and management of ourpeople. Ian has worked as a quality coach with onshore

advisors as well as offshore outsourcers. He then migratedto a more analytical role, drawing insight from NPS surveys &

comments, then using this to help shape the quality framework.

Alison Conaghan, Planning & Insight Specialist at TheForum. She began as an agent before working inresource planning for 15+ years, experienced in all

sectors, from outsourcing to health and emergency. She’s arecognised University Teacher.

Understand future trends and learn from best practice

Enter now for 2020

www.theforum.social/awards events@theforum.social 29

Our coveted Innovation Awards showcase organisations that are leading the way, engaging customersand creating a great place to work. Let these teams inspire you!

Several innovations take planningand insight enterprise-wide,bringing customer service focus toall kinds of functions and severalfield-based operations. At AnglianWater, an enterprise-widecommunity of insight professionalsis connecting and developingpeople, from Customer Service toWater Maintenance, and building anew Data Science capability. AtBritish Engineering Services, flexibleresourcing and effective planninghelped them stand out in themarket, with sales doubled andservice up. Data, optimisation andplanning at Capita PIP transformeddisability benefit assessment, whileat OpenReach new tools, data andprocesses for planning transformeddelivery of learning & developmentfor field engineers.

Explore strategic aspects of digitaltransformation. See a ground-breaking analytics tool usingmachine learning and public Twitterdata, from the new InnovationsTeam at Capita and their newCustomer Service Alexa skill.

At RBS, learn how paperlessmortgages were rolled out in just12 months and catalysed afundamental change in mindset &culture at the bank. It’s a UK firstand customer satisfaction jumped50% with rapid adoption across allchannels.

Discover a strategic, personalisedapproach to engagement withcontent by subscribers at TheTimes, helping this famous newsinstitution thrive through digitaltransformation and data science.

Focus on the power of resourceplanning or analysis teams totransform colleague experience.Planning has helped employeesembrace the need for change atAnglian Water and reclaim the No:1spot for customer service. A realshift of mindset in Planning teamsat EE means they are deliveringsolutions that, a year ago, manyconsidered impossible. At esure, thequality of analysis, planning andengagement behind MyTime drovesuccess in one of the biggestpeople changes esure have evercompleted. While at e.on, acomprehensive review of workingpatterns laid the foundation for anambitious programme oftransformation. And at NewDay, theperformance scorecard is enablingcolleagues to own their ownperformance and raise aspirations.

Key datesn Award entries in August or September 2019n Shortlisting in October and November 2019n Finalist judging in February and March 2020n Awards Gala on 29th April at Customer Strategy &

Planning 2020

Give your team the chance to shine Reward them for their hard work over the year

n Enter your transformation project or pioneeringinnovation to win one of our coveted 2020 Awards

n Gain recognition for individuals as Rising Stars orDream Teams – in Planning, Insight, Quality orContinuous Improvement

Are you inspiring others or leading the way in making your operation a pleasure for customers and a great place to work?

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Summary

This team at Capita is encouraged to be creative, technology focussed andoutcome-led. An AI engine analyses real-time twitter conversations, whichhas been game changing for both client engagement and the way theywork as an organisation. Everyone’s interested in what customers aresaying, live or in peak periods like Black Friday, and to compare this withcompetitors. As a result, the analysts are no longer in the back room, but atthe forefront. Drawn from a pool of experienced analysts, away frombusiness as usual (BAU) and with a view across all clients, the new teamhas the freedom and capability to be independent, challenging anddisruptive. Crucially, they’ve made the case to experiment outside regularIT constraints and, with a small budget for data & cloud-based tools, theyare able to deliver new tools in a matter of months.

See how the Innovations Team has transformed the role of insight,at pace, with ground-breaking twitter analytics within six months andthe new Customer Service Alexa skill for three clients in just 60 days.

Innovations help Capitastand out from the crowd

Digital Transformation

Key initiatives

Socia-Live: A Social Media Analytics application Socia-Live is a customer insight platform that uses machine based learning(MBL) to analyse public Twitter conversations between consumers andservice organisations. This provides a unique, new source of insight aboutcustomer sentiment, which can potentially be used as a predictor of metricssuch as Customer Satisfaction/NPS or churn/retention. The fact that it seemsto correlate well with the UKCSI (top and bottom) and internal client metricsis a positive sign. You can analyse the causes of a drop in positive sentimentat peak times, like on Black Friday or during a mobile network outage. Youcan even drill down to the individual tweets. It’s also been used to finddissatisfied customers of competitor brands and automatically join theconversation to make offers that attract them. A trial showed 35% responsesuccess rate and provided a way to create valuable sales opportunities. “Wewant to understand the problem better than anybody” “Beware averages,variance is the fuel for innovation” “Compare yourself against yourcompetitors”.

The advantages of social media analytics The team was able to build on engines used for speech and text analytics,developed in areas where they could correlate against internal operationalor customer data for their clients. This layering of knowledge, building onetool upon another, is a key opportunity for Capita, with its wide client base inmany sectors. It’s also useful that Twitter conversations are already textbased and typically less data needs to be processed because conversationsare shorter. Perhaps the key advantage, however, is the ability to access thesepublic conversations instantly, a big bonus for an outsourcer, where aligningand accessing multiple databases is always an analyst’s nightmare.Furthermore, the data has an intrinsic breadth, because people can useTwitter for any kind of comments, from the quality and features of a productto what happens in store or in advertising. “It’s real-time” “It’s actualcustomer conversations” “It’s fact based, not opinion based”.

“Social media gives the consumerthe power; if enough people feelthe need to tweet we have anobligation to act.”James Diamond, Innovation lead

“The ultimate goal is process datafrom many different channels togive a holistic view.”James Brooks, Innovation lead

“The conciseness of a tweetmeans the customer gets straightto what matters.”Keith Hollingsworth, Customer Journey OptimisationManager

“These guys aren’t consultants,they are practitioners, whichgives them a real understandingof the environment.”Neil Miron, Business Development Director

Look online to see the full case study & conference presentation video

A game-changer for client engagement While other insight teams are focussed internally, helping operations collect andunderstand information to make better decisions, the Innovations Team focusexternally on providing solutions to industry problems.n Socia-live has already transformed client engagement, in just the last six

months, so that engagement with clients and potential clients is now‘insight-led’. No longer ‘suppliers’ they are ‘value-add’ in demand from clients.

n From a sales perspective, engagement becomes much more meaningful ifyou can bring something that is new information for people. It makes itpossible to be laser-like in finding out what really matters.

n A digitally enabled collaboration suite, in the heart of London, is a symptomof this change but also amplifies the waves of transformation. It is fullybooked every day for weeks ahead.

“This knowledge base provides us with credibility” “The whole landscape aroundclient engagement has changed” “This tells you what the pinch points are” “If wedon’t get on the front foot others will”.

The new Alexa Customer Service Skill Another innovation was development of the Customer Service Skill forAmazon’s Alexa, within 60 days for three major clients. This solution makesit easy for customers to get through by phone to the right place in anorganisation, from their smart speaker. It allows the reason for contact tobe understood and, using this, the call can be routed appropriately(removing the need for an IVR). The system can even provide wait timeinformation and suggest a call back if necessary. This is just the start ofthings, with incremental value to be delivered through AI providing directself-service for customers. “Alexa is the most exciting for me”.

Future opportunities In their first year, the Innovations Team has demonstrated how investment ininnovation can help Capita stand out within a busy outsource market place. Thechallenge now is to nurture what they’ve created and find new ways to help thebusiness. Another step for Socia-Live is identifying what the main causes ofnegative or positive sentiment are, so that businesses can work on what is mostvaluable to them. Additional social media channels, such as Facebook, will alsobe added. Such is the success of projects so far, there are already plans todouble the size of the team this year and some big new things on the block.“There are lots of problems in our industry that have never been solved”. “Weneed to think differently” “It’s an extraordinary pace of change”.

Capita Customer Management handle more than 100 million customer conversations each year. The multidisciplinaryInnovations Team have a range of skills covering software development, insight, CX and data science. The team aretechnology agnostic currently utilising Power BI, Hypercube, Azure, AWS and TWILIO.

Best Practice Guide © Professional Forums Ltd 2019

“The ability to analyseunsolicited customerfeedback in real-time, anddrill down to an individualtweet, presents a wealth ofrich, actionable insight.Now consider that you cancompare yourself directlyagainst your closestcompetitors and you’ve gota real advantage.”Alan Linter, Innovation and Data ScienceDirector

“We’re finding the wholelandscape around clientengagement has changed.Clients like to bechallenged, take it backand raise it with theirboards.”Steve Davies, Solution ArchitectGovernment Division

“Customers like to compare on socialmedia, they talk about features andwhether they are worth the money.” Noel Jepson, Client BI Insight Analyst

“Socia-Live isn’t about social media itis about customer experience.”Andy Moore, Business Intelligence Director

“You don’t need to wait for others toprovide data to provide Insight.”Michelle Winter, Head of BI and I Tools

“Our relationship has changedfundamentally, through the work ofAlan’s team and the thinking he hasintroduced to the business.”Oliver Bareham, Digital Improvement Director

“Socia-Live has replaced hours ofresearch time, and often you didn’tget anything like the kind of insightwe get now.”Robert Morrisson, Solution Architect

Resultsn Socia-Live deliveredwithin 6 months, proving agame changer for clientengagement

n 35% response rate forproactive Twitter contacttargeted at competitors’dissatisfied customers

n Customer Service Alexaskill rolled out to threehigh profile clients within60 days

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Summary

The first end-to-end paperless mortgage applications in the UK achieved92% customer adoption in just a year at the RBS Group. It was developedand implemented in collaboration with Vizolution, bringing togetherfunctionality and departments that had hitherto not worked closely, whichwas itself transformational. They were given almost free rein when the MDof Home Buying & Ownership challenged them to make the customerjourney easier and more consistent across any channel. Engagement withcolleagues both in the contact centres and in branches has been key tosuccess. Above all, customer satisfaction is up almost 50%, NPS jumpedfrom 53 to 79 and it’s been advertised on nationwide TV! Colleague jobroles were enhanced, not lost, and organisational structure is beingdesigned around the new end-to-end customer journey.

See how digital transformation creates change in mindset & culture. It’s a UK first, with fast offers that amaze customers, some in 24hrs.Satisfaction jumped 50%, with rapid adoption across all channels.

Changes amaze customerswith paperless mortgages

Digital Transfromation

Key initiatives

The reason for change, people who made it happenThe paperless strategy began in 2016, when Ian McLaughlin, divisional MD,asked: how can we make life easier for customers, no matter what channelthey use? The project brought together disparate people from different areasof the bank, some of whom had difficult relationships in the past, whendifferent areas of the business each made changes to process. People just‘threw them over the fence’, working in a siloed way without awareness ofimpacts across the bank. Today, the team is very proud of working togetherand learning from each other’s ideas and opinions. What’s more, theirapproach was to ‘build a team that asked for help’ – a simple phrase but itchanged attitude. And there were shared goals and a common mindset:“There is a customer at the end” “We got excited” “We trusted each other”“I’ve increased my resilience” “Some of this was very difficult”.

Paperless proved the best of many optionsThe project team was initially formed for six weeks, to come up with ideas.They reviewed with senior management fortnightly and talked withcustomers and colleagues to get feedback along the way. Crucially, agilethinking meant that ideas were tested. No idea was rejected out of hand,only discarded after evaluation. One idea was to introduce video calls intothe contact centre. This was rejected when it proved unpopular withmortgage customers, it was also costly. Then the idea was to try paperless,which hadn’t in fact been suggested at the start, but came out of the group.At this point, they investigated the technical options and evaluatedVizolution as it was being used elsewhere in the bank. Two differenttechnologies were brought together. vScreen to talk customers through theprocess visually and vDoc to upload paper work digitally. What’s more, thetool was easy to use for both colleagues and customers; you just need asmart phone, a mobile number and an email address. “It’s the same serviceno matter which channel” “Think big & bold” “Little steps, big strides”.

“It is great to see the impact onfront-line; they are working adifferent process that is mainlydesigned by them.”Ian McLaughlin, MD, Home Buying & Ownership

“Now we are a team and workingon the whole end-to-end processfor customers.”Steph Lowes, Scrum Master

“It’s not been built for the people,it’s been built with the people.”Julie MacDonald,Mortgage Customer Contact TeamLeader

“It is a culmination of personaland professional experience.”Donald Sweenie, Change Lead, Mortgage Operations

“1st stop of culture change wasthat when we launched, we askedfor feedback from customers andcolleagues.”Joe Knowler, Scrum Master

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Look online to see the full case study & conference presentation video

Communication with all front-line staffCommunication with teams who engage with customers was a veryimportant part of this project. As they progressed, the team set up two-weeksprints for different parts of the project and ensured that people from allareas were involved so they could provide feedback. They used Workplaceon Facebook to ensure that everyone was aware of the project and couldsee updates. All front-line staff were taken out for a day and a half to learnmore about paperless and to build their confidence. The project teamemphasised that they wanted to hear emotional feedback as well astechnology feedback. They worked very hard to reassure staff that this wasnot a new technology that would mean they would lose their job, but itwould be a tool that would make it easier. As a result, many changes weremade, such as clarification on the paperwork that customers need to provide,reducing follow-up contact and frustration. “This was implemented veryquickly” “Conversations are open” “We feel listened to”.

The whole process is easier for colleagues and customersThe team set out to ‘make things easier and better’ and they havesucceeded. It is the first and only end-to-end paperless mortgage journey inthe UK, even simplifying the transfer of title journey which can be acomplicated and emotive time for customers. This is one single process, nomatter which channel the customer uses to contact the bank. Theyimplemented some other great ideas too, for example, using selfies toconfirm the identity of the customer, with time-out checks to prevent fraud.Due to all this, time from application to offer is now 10 days less, onaverage, and completion rates are up.

What’s more, everyone is learning more and roles are evolving, with newroles for some in the mail-room and fewer errors, which were timeconsuming to fix. People who book the appointment now understand andexplain what a customer needs to upload beforehand. Mortgage advisors cancheck payslips and documents, before passing to the underwriter.Significantly, some contact is automated, so emails and texts are sent toremind customers to upload their documents. This makes life much easierfor colleagues and saves time. No longer do they chase the mail room andhope the document is uploaded – now they can see it within minutes of thecustomer uploading.

Furthermore, this is now a platform for ongoing simplification. Crucially jobswere changed and enhanced not lost. “Ongoing simplification” “Enabling thebank to redesign itself around customers” “I am not going home worryingabout what I need to do tomorrow”.

RBS operates through the brands RBS, NatWest & Ulster Bank, serving 18.9m customers globally, including 1.2m mortgagecustomers. There are over 650 mortgage advisors and a 1,200 operations team based over two main operational sites:Birmingham and Greenock. Vizolution, a market-leading CX technology provider, powers the paperless journey.

Best Practice Guide © Professional Forums Ltd 2019

“Our customers are tellingus that this is very easy.”Donald Sweenie, Change Lead, MortgageOperations

“Now I am not going homeworrying about what Ineed to do tomorrow.”Fraser Andrew, Direct Mortgage Advisor

“I feel empowered. We allhave a clear goal andvision.”Debbie McShane, Team Manager, MortgageOperations

“What the team has done is changeone of the biggest banks in the UKand make it work differently.”Ian Mc Laughlin, MD, Home Buying and Ownership

“It is no longer ‘this is my bit and thatis your bit’. We work together. Whatcan I put off until tomorrow so I canhelp you today?” Steph Lowes, Scrum Master

“We are still making improvements tothe paperless process. It is evolving.”Thomas Clarkson,Direct Mortgage Advisor

“It was a mess before with lots ofpaper. If a customer called to see ifwe had received documents, wewould say that we will calltomorrow.”Jonathan Hendry, Indexing, Mortgage Operations

Resultsn From 100% paper to 92%digital in 12 months

n One process, regardless ofthe channel of origin

n 7m fewer documents pan Average journey cut by 10 days

n 74% of offers issuedwithin 14 days

n NPS up 26+ points, to 79for Q1 2018

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Summary

At The Times and The Sunday Times, customer experience for digitalsubscribers is optimised by data science, tailored using insight about whatsubscribers are responding to. This is delivered in a joined-up way by theentire organisation, from digital marketing specialists and data teams tojournalists and creatives. Multi-channel prompts and offers increase thevalue that subscribers see in the content. There’s also a new data-driven,personalised welcome journey. Much of this is automated in digitalchannels, but the same approach is integrated with the human factor inthe outsourced contact centre teams. The results are exceptional: 11%growth and 16% less customer churn year-on-year, with 320% ROI in justtwo years. All this for a premium product in a market with a double-digitdecline in print subscribers.

See how these famous news institutions thrive through digitaltransformation, strategically deploying data science anda personalised approach to engagement with content.

Fully engaging customersdrives retention & growth

Digital Transfromation

Key initiatives

Why the new customer engagement strategy?In 2010 The Times and The Sunday Times was the first news website tointroduce a paywall and these subscribers became the first direct customersin the paper’s 200-year history. Competing with cheaper and free services,leaders quickly recognised the importance of a premium customerexperience. Customers need to see the value. Significant investmentfollowed in technology, people and process changes, resulting in customerchurn that’s at the lowest rate ever (within the News Corp group).Incremental revenue and subscriber engagement are rising too, playing apivotal role in double-digit growth. All this in a sector where major digitaldisruption has seen ‘free news’ become the norm. “Our first pound directfrom a customer came on the day we started the paywall”.

Using data to understand churn and conversionSince 2011, marketing and data science teams have used customerbehaviour and demographic data to better understand why customers leave(churn) and why they stay. The signs and causes are captured in a uniquecustomer engagement metric, the ‘CE Score’. This aggregates the four mostimportant digital behaviours that reduce churn and has become an accuratepredictor of whether subscribers will stay or go. A customer’s score is used tosegment, based on risk of cancellation and propensity to upgrade, withdifferent action plans for each segment, which may include offers ofadditional products and services that will provide value for customers.Furthermore, the powerful new metric is used in tandem with otherengagement information and fed directly to editorial teams to understandthe impact of their content in real time. “We’ve moved from using instinct tousing insight based on data”.

The new lifecycle and operating modelAs a result of investment in collecting and understanding data, themarketing and engagement teams have created a really effective customerlifecycle plan that is both proactive and reactive (see diagram). While it’scommon to focus on acquisition or leavers, the operating model at

“Content led customer discussionscreate a 3 point uplift incustomer engagement scores.”Peter Evia-Rhodes, Director of Customer Value

“Journalists comment on articleson-line, it’s part of what makesour subscriber community sogreat.”Michael Migliore,Head of Customer Value

“Customers come for quality andstay for habit because they valuewhat we do.”Chris Duncan, Managing Director

“What does good look like for theoutsourcer? A relationship that isopen, we trust them, they arepresent.”Matt Hutson,Head of Operations

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Look online to see the full case study & conference presentation video

“We have a responsibility toour readers for qualityjournalism we never forget.”Catherine Newman, Chief Marketing Officer

“You are 90% more likely tointeract later if you did itin your welcome journey.”Tilly Tang,Account Director, Pulse

“By 09:30 on my first day Ihad met the Red Box Editor.He comes up and I use himon my calls when I’mspeaking to someone wholoves politics. He even satwith me and took a call.” Bruce Pool, Agent, GFM

“I use Tableau on every call.I can put the numbers infront of my corporatesubscribers, how manypeople in their companyare reading the app, whatare they engaging with.”Tom Brass, Agent, GFM

Resultsn 11% year-on-year growthn 16% year-on-yearreduction in customerchurn

n Save rates for theretention team increased11% without the need forsubscription discounts

n 320% ROI in 2 years (on 4 years of investments)

The Times and The Sunday Times is about engaging all subscribers, at everystage of the lifecycle. By adding value, they retain subscribers, who are notactively engaged in the app or responding to email, resulting in a 16% reductionin churn. At first, communications were sent by direct mail, email & text. Then,other digital channels were used to raise effectiveness, eg website, apps,smartphone push notices, paid social advertising and search advertising. Forinstance, Google ads may offer suggested content from The Times and TheSunday Times to their own subscribers. The new welcome journey for digitalsubscribers is also exceptional. Some communications are based on a scheduleand others are triggered by events (dynamically data-driven). For instance, anautomated email may encourage customers who haven’t yet downloaded theapp. “We try to put moments of wonder into the customer experience”.

The contact centre retains the human factorThe contact centre is integral, helping callers realise more value from theirsubscriptions. Dashboards show advisors about customers’ subscriptions, CE Scores, reading habits and offers they’ve taken up. They have intelligent‘content-led’ conversations (recommending journalists and articles) and proposeways to get the most value from their subscriptions. A printed playbook supportsthem with information about journalists and articles on every subject frompolitics to sport. They attend customer events and regular Q&A sessions withjournalists, experiences that are frequently referenced during interactions withcustomers. “Calls are played in conference every week, editors listen to them.”

Moving from segmentation to personalisation The ‘front pages’ of news editions are standard, allowing people to come acrossall kinds of material. Alongside this, specific content is offered, so peopleengage with editorial they truly value. What’s more, individual experiences cannow be dynamically provided, not just tailoring by customer segment, throughJames, the ‘digital butler’ or concierge. James is the fruit of a global AI &machine-learning project, funded by News Corp and the Google Digital NewsInnovation Fund. Due for full launch in May, early trials have shown the powerof this new approach, with churn cut by a further 13 pcp. James learns fromsubscribers and suggests the right content for them, at the right time, in theirpreferred channels. This AI engine powers the same strategic approach, butradically increases the speed and granularity with which personalised contentand offers from Times+ (The Times and The Sunday Times loyalty programme)can be offered. “Digital content can be cleaned up later, like muddy footprints ona lino floor” “We can try new propositions quickly”.

Started in 1755 and 1821, The Times and The Sunday Times are two of the UK’s best known quality news titles. Customerengagement is multi-departmental with key contributions from data science, creative, marketing, editorial & the contactcentre. Technology used for data analysis includes Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery

“We’ve moved from using an editor’sinstincts to a collective consciousnesssupported by data and insight.” Chris Duncan, Managing Director

“We’re in a position where wecompletely trust each other.” Parm Atwal-Uddin, Head of Campaign Operations

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Best Practice Guide © Professional Forums Ltd 2019

36

Summary

At Anglian Water, the Customer Service operation has put customers at theheart of what they do and focussed on employee wellbeing and goodwork/life balance. The experienced planning team sits at the heart of thistransformation, leading cultural change and connecting people across thebusiness. Planners have found new ways to be more people-centric. They lead the delivery of change from ‘Love to Listen’ survey feedback,including initiatives on work-life balance, communication and personaldevelopment. Customer Service staff are truly empowered to go the extramile for customers, with a proactive strategy that is popular withcustomers and has cut both inbound contacts and complaints. Customerand colleague satisfaction scores are up, whilst 40% of staff are on theirpreferred shifts.

See how an experienced planning function joins up the business,helping teams embrace the need for change and reclaim the No:1 spot for service in the regulator’s ranking.

Love to Listen: agent-ledflexibility and change

Planning and wellbeing

Key initiatives

Love to listen reps There are amazing levels of engagement in the planning team and brilliantrelationships across the business, from field engineers to the contact centre.This perhaps made it unsurprising, if unusual, when their manager was askedto lead the Love to Listen programme for colleague engagement. The surveyis essentially a temperature gauge for how everyone is feeling, but it’s led byfront line leads and has already generated three main initiatives –communication, career development and work-life balance. The planningteam moved in to Customer Services and, almost immediately, the team weresat in the contact centre, driving cross functional alignment and supportingeveryone to work as one team. Real-time was brought in-house and new OpsDelivery Leads were created to balance service across the business. Keysteps included recruiting L2L leads from across the business and drivingactions from the survey feedback to help colleagues feel supported andlistened to. “Planning has been key” “They are integral to how we work”.

Joined up thinking: agent-ledA fantastic illustration of their approach is demonstrated in the way theyresponded to requests for extended opening hours. Firstly, the need wasrobustly analysed so that everyone impacted was totally clear about why itwas required. A rise in contact out of hours combined with a strong desire tobe accessible for customers. The challenge was to deliver this with no forcedcontractual changes and at zero cost. Secondly, they saw that L2L surveyfeedback showed that colleagues wanted flexible working, making this agreat L2L initiative. As a result it was an agent-led project and, through aseries of soft launches and tests, these changes have been delivered as one,with no impact to service while colleague engagement has rocketed. “We’vemade people’s lives different” “It really is flexible working”.

“We said to Planning: make uswork as one and put peoplewhere you can get the best out ofeveryone.”Jane Taylor, Head of Customer Services

“Agents think the new shifts arefantastic. We now treat people asadults and understand them asindividuals.”Ellie Thomas, RP&D Team Manager

“We’re putting the customer at theheart of every decision. There’sbeen a real shift in how proactivewe are with customers to get firsttime resolution.”Laura Frost,Customer Relations Manager

“You can’t empower people if youtell them they are wrong. Thewhole business has beenengineered to support thecustomer centric approach.”Sam Ross,Customer Insight & Audit Manager

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“With flexible working, theeffect was massive. You seeit in the stories you hear,the difference it’s made.”Jeff King, RP&D Manager

“If you believe in whatyou’re doing, it’s no effort.”Mandie Gray,Capacity Planner

“I want team members tobe the best possibleversion of themselves.”Sharon Martin,Team Leader

Resultsn Anglian Water hit thenumber 1 spot again inOFWAT’s SIM score

n 59% of agents gave work-life balance 5 out of 5

n 20k more calls answeredsince changes in openinghours

n Wait time for customers isdown 5 secs from 18 to 13

n 2% rise in Schedule Fit(July 18 year on year)

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An agent-led approach that involved everyone The project team included front line teams, so that all shift conversations were‘agent to agent’, through L2L leads, who led the shift design. Everyone had adefined role and planning analysts helped see what was feasible. The projectwas developed over eight stages, from baseline forecasts and a 6-week trialusing overtime, to preference surveys and requests for volunteers and thenstaggered advertising of new opening hours and a 3-month trial of the newshifts. There was constant engagement throughout with L2L leads and it’s beena very smooth transition. As a result, 5-star satisfaction with shifts has doubledto almost 60% of agents. “Trust was very important”.

Focus on workplace wellbeing 92% engagement in the Planning Team is seen as a role model, so ownership ofLove to Listen was a natural fit, if unusual. With 80 actions raised in the L2Lresults feedback groups, a sustainable and simple process was needed, to deliverincremental change. So, L2L leads were created; all agents, all volunteers.Planning commits to act upon the survey, with L2L leads responsible for actionsand feedback. They have the trust of the teams and so far there have been threemain areas of change:n Delivery of an agile and flexible workforce – preference shiftsn A regular CS wide communication channel – including leadership coffee

morningsn A framework for fair and equal access to development opportunities“There’s a deep human factor here” “It’s a catalyst for a new way of working”.

Colleagues are engaged and empowered Engaged agents are empowered to challenge processes and make the rightdecisions for customers. Managers focus on removing red-tape and encouragingcreative thinking. Time was invested in training the whole business on newbehaviours and skills called ‘Make Today Great’. Customers are now pre-warnedand talked through large increases to their bills. Supply interruptions are pre-communicated. A focus on vulnerability and affordability of the service seesagents go ‘above and beyond’, such as helping to find a plumber when acustomer has a leak. What’s more, agents have autonomy to use a personalisedgift service to recover situations or wow their customers. “It’s your customer, it’syour decision” “We don’t micromanage, we reassure”.

Anglian Water is the biggest geographical water and water recycling company in England & Wales supplying over 6mcustomers. Their contact centre operations consist of 350 FTE across 2 UK sites plus 100 FTE offshore, covering all contacttypes, including digital, for customer servicing, billing, metering, debt collection, back office and complaints.

“We’ve broken the myths that peopledon’t want to work weekends andevenings.”Debbie Hill,Team Leader (Lincoln Billing)

“The project was driven by how do weservice customers when they needus.”Martyn Rushin,Billing Care Centre Manager

“No-one in Hartlepool would workSunday! It now turns out morepeople work on a Sunday thananywhere else.”Nicola Gelson,L2L Lead

“We now have routine. I love it, weare always kept in the loop andnever tied down.” Michaela Jones,Agent (Debt Recovery Lincoln)

“There’s no quibble about what we’retrying to achieve – we’re all workingto the same goal. Everything isstacking up behind customercentricity.”Jon Leggate,RP&D Team Leader

“It’s not forced upon us, it makes usfeel in control.”Sarah Angel,Team Leader (Hartlepool Billing)

Summary

See how a clear vision and inspiring leadership created the platform forfurther transformation at EE, with a consistent focus on behaviour change,frontline engagement and simple communication. Seeing the frontlineteams championing the new corporate values, the Planning Teamrecognised they needed to think differently – asking ‘how do I do onemore thing to help?’ Four initiatives linked to being ‘personal’. IntroducingFlexi-time and Flexi-breaks has been a massive success, giving 5,000+advisors greater control, certainty & choice. Regional routing has raisedNPS 15 points, when a call is local and therefore more personal. IRISprovides real-time communication between Incident Management andfrontline teams, whilst a new, dedicated Single User Fault Team nowproactively manages the timely resolution of issue escalations.

A real shift of mindset in Planning means they are delivering solutionsthat, a year ago, many considered impossible. This comes from placing‘personal’, a key company value, at the heart of their thinking.

Make it personal: one morething to help colleagues

Planning and wellbeing

Key initiatives

A change of mindset: personal and collaborative A real shift of mindset in Planning comes from placing ‘personal’ at the heartof their thinking, one of the new corporate values: personal, simple &brilliant. As a result, they are delivering solutions that, a year ago, manyconsidered impossible. They ask themselves how can I ‘Do one more thing tohelp’ frontline colleagues’? It’s a closed loop: listen to frontline colleagues,act on feedback, design solutions to meet their needs. An agile approachencourages experimentation. Learning fast helps implement changes quickly.Great leadership has been key to success, creating an environment in whichplanning teams have truly stepped up, with confidence and bravery increating these four, bold, pioneering solutions – all delivered at the sametime. They created a ‘crazy list’ of future ideas to pursue. Advisors feel valued,informed and it’s a great place to work. Attrition is down 4%, staffengagement up to 95 and NPS is also on the rise. “It’s a big shift in thinking”“Personal is what we do” “Go give it a try”.

Pioneering solutions transform work life balance Team shifts were changed and improved with frontline team input, butPlanning truly listened, taking two bold steps that far exceededexpectations. Firstly, flexi-breaks let advisors move breaks on the day to suittheir needs. Planners learned how to automate this process, with coachingfrom their WFM provider NICE, as the tool hadn’t been used in this way byother clients. Next, flexi-time gives advisors freedom to work extra hourswhen the business needs them, bank those hours and take them back whenthey choose. Now that advisors can bank a week’s working hours, they canrebuild their shift pattern to make it truly personal. With a diverse workforceof 5,000+ FTE across many sites, time in vs time off balance well. This is arevolution in working life for many; engagement has rocketed as a result. “It’sa game changer for us” “Makes such a difference to work/life balance”.

“We’ve turned a corner; we nolonger think large scale has to becomplex. We treat changes witha small-scale mentality. We’vegiven everyone permission tobring their best self to work.”Nicola Black, Director of Planning

“We have a ‘crazy list’ inscheduling, things we’d like to try.Previously if someone had saidour shifts weren’t very good, I’dhave taken offence. Now wethink: we can try somethingnew!”Liz Gorman, Planning & Scheduling Manager

“Relationships matter. We’re allopen and honest, even whenthings aren’t going well.”Al Grant, Senior Routing Developer

“It felt that Planning really tookfeedback on board, like theyreally listened. People feelempowered.”Charmaine Hyatt, Operations Manager

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How regional drives NPS improvement Calls are now routed to the nearest local contact centre (where possible),making it personal and local. The team were sceptical at first but, persuadedby the MD and true to their new, open mindset, they embraced it and gave ita go. Routing was already complex, with nearly 300 routing decisions everycall, but they overlaid customer’s postcode and the results speak forthemselves, with NPS up by 14%. What’s driving this is a strong emotionalconnection. After experimentation, they now try to route 15% of calls in thisway, as not all callers live near a centre. Calls wait at most 10 secs beforerouting reverts to normal. Over 200k calls have been routed in this way sofar, with a 50% success rate, with even greater potential to come via themerger with BT. “It’s personal” “It feels local”.

IRIS: opening up direct advisor communication Working with technology teams, the Incident Management (IM) team built atool (IRIS) that enables two-way, real-time, dialogue direct with 5,000+advisors across every site. This gathers information to support impactassessment, replacing manual data collection by duty managers. Simple touse and engaging, it’s paying dividends. Triage is far faster and the IM teamcan more quickly create briefings around incidents, instantly distributing toeveryone who needs it to inform customers. Response is already 18 minsfaster. Part of the core advisor system, IRIS identifies them by queue, siteand login, so they get the right alerts. It differentiates urgency of messagesand gives single clicks for advisors to respond, capturing data from systemsautomatically. Already there are many requests for wider use of thisunprecedented communication tool. “It’s so simple” “Just a couple of clicks”.

Dragging single-user escalations out of a black hole Single user faults were a key pain point with advisors feeling that theydisappeared into a black hole. These are issues that can’t be resolved on thecall for individual customers and require escalation. 65% of tickets werebreaching SLA, leading to eight calls per customer. Doing ‘one more thing’ forfrontline colleagues, a dedicated team was set up, using three secondedadvisors, to oversee the process: removing accountability from advisors,bringing support teams together and holding IT to account. They even textcustomers directly with updates to save advisors time. It’s deliveredextraordinary results. Average time to fix is down to 3.5 days with breachedtickets down to 12% and calls per customer now at 3.2. Advisors’ lost hoursare down by 2,000+ each month, giving a £0.5m annual saving. “It’s a milliontimes better” “We know it will get fixed now”.

EE is the largest and most advanced mobile operator in the UK, delivering service across multiple channels from severalsites and more than 600 shops across the UK. They use NICE WFM, call recording & analytics, Genesys telephony withLiveperson & Lithium for social media and Clickfox for journey analytics. The IRIS system was developed in house.

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“We have a relationshipwith Planning that worksday in and day out. If onefails, we all fail. They lookat the wider picture ofwhat they can do for theoperation.”Jonathan Warne, Head of Contact Centre Ops

“We’re a massive companybut now it feels like we aredown the road; a personallocal service. It’s a goodnews story all round forpeople, it sold itself in fact.”Edd Hamilton, Operations Manager

“We’re more in controlrather than having to ringup and ask.” Claire Jeary, Advisor

“We needed to do one more thing forpeople, go one step further.” Lynsey Walker, Incident Manager

“It’s lots to do with confidence andbravery. We’re challenging people tothink differently.”Jon Hawkins, Incident Manager

“They want you to be the best versionof you. It’s about being a role modelto other people.”Jen Nicholson, Resource Scheduling Analyst

“We want to make the call personal,this really helps.”Curtis Campbell, Advisor

“When Planning told us, we thoughtthey were a bit crazy.”Paul Harrison, Operations Manager

“Making discretionary effort on top ofa normal day job makes adifference.”Kev Horan, Senior Real-Time Manager

Resultsn 4% drop in attrition (200fewer leavers)

n NPS +15 when answeredin local area

n Rolled out Flexi-Time andFlexi-Breaks to over 5,000FTE

n 2,000 hour reduction permonth is advisor losthours

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Summary

Colleague working patterns have been transformed, cut from 2,000 to 27,making planning simpler and quicker, hugely improving service at eveningsand weekends. It’s been a massive win, creating confidence and credibilityat all levels, a foundation for the new target operating model. In the faceof market changes, a transformation strategy is delivering an omni-channelGenesys platform, across front and back office, with a single view of thecustomer and better use of data from SMART technology. 100% ofCustomer Service Advisors (CSA) have been impacted by the new patterns,including all part time colleagues and those on flexible workingarrangements. It’s been an immense change. Working principles were putin place to deal fairly and consistently with exceptions. Extensivecommunication was carefully planned and implemented.

See how a comprehensive review of working patterns laid the foundationfor a transformation that’s been designed to drive better experience forcustomers & colleagues at a lower cost, across all channels.

A new operating model for workforce engagement

Planning and wellbeing

Key initiatives

Review and consultationThe energy market is changing with new, smaller, agile competitors and theintroduction of SMART meters. Customer expectations are rising and arrivalpatterns are changing too. At the same time e.on’s Customer ContactPlatform (CCP) was approaching end-of-life. In response to today’schallenging market, a three-year transformation programme was put inplace. The existing working patterns approach was refreshed to enable thetransformation, and it was decided to put a dedicated project team in place,as there was a tight time frame in which to complete the work. While thePlanning Team offered specialist support as part of this team, they remainedfocussed on business as usual (BAU) and getting ready for implementation ofthe new CCP. The project team included people with a wide experience ofengaging the key stakeholders, including HR and Trade Unions as well as theboard. “This gave us permission to be brave”.

2,000 working patterns created unfairnessWhen the project team analysed current working patterns, several key issuesemerged. For 4,000 CSAs there were 2,000 different patterns – many agreedby Operations with little input from Planning. There was a feeling ofunfairness, because so many people had to work “unsocial” hours to providecoverage around these legacy working patterns. There was no consistentpolicy for agreeing changes; with some people perceiving that it dependedon who you spoke to. Evenings and weekends were very busy and somecustomers experienced much longer wait times. In addressing these issues,the first step was to engage with the board and get their backing to initiatethe project. Several options were put to them about how the project wouldproceed and it was decided that every CSA would be included in the workingpatterns review, including the half who were currently on bespoke patternsor flexible working arrangements. “Lots of stakeholders were worried aboutlifting the lid” “Some people had worked these patterns for 20 years”.

“Lots of stakeholders wereworried about lifting the lid onworking patterns – worried aboutthe impact on the people.”Chris Giles, Senior Project Manager

“Good experienced people thoughtit could not be done. People hadworked these patterns for 20years. The board gave uspermission to be brave.”Alison Perkins, Business Lead

“Some people felt it would be toodifficult but being part of atransformation programme pavedthe way to success.”Sam Marshall, Transformation Manager

“We’ve worked hard to build andmaintain the trust with the TradeUnions. Not an easy journey butwe have a good workingrelationship.”Charlotte Lack, HR Lead

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Design, communication and feedbackSurveys and working parties were put together to get feedback from theadvisors on what options were most important to them. Was an early finishmore important than having weekends off? People were also asked if theywould like to increase or decrease their hours. From the feedback, 12 initialpatterns were sent out to survey; advisors were asked which they would liketo work. This was a major reconsideration point for the team when 42% ofthe 700 advisors surveyed said they would not want to work any of thepatterns. This led to reviews and the options went from 12 to 20 and finally27. One principle that was very clear from the start was that there were verylimited conditions that would be considered for not choosing one of theoptions. Standard childcare responsibilities were not considered to be anexception for not choosing from the standard suite of 27 patterns since anumber of childcare friendly patterns had now been introduced. Onlymedical, caring or court order reasons were considered to be exceptional. Adelay in starting a new pattern could be requested to give you time to putnew childcare options into place. “Consistency was most important” “Wecommitted to be fair”.

Going live and seeing resultsThe first area to go live was Homemoves. Here 375 colleagues moved on tothe new working patterns. Communication was vitally important, because ithad to be clear that advisors were expected to provide three options theycould work. Of these 92% were able to choose a pattern from the selectionwith minimal disruption. A small number of unresolved cases were raisedduring the process and their solution has not yet been agreed which theycontinue to address. The unions understood the need for change and workedwith the project team designing the patterns, process and principles and weissued a joint communications to the business at launch. The team learned alot from this first group and have been able to adapt their approach to thegroups that have followed. One of the changes has been to release thepatterns earlier in the process so that people had time to consider theiroptions well in advanced of choosing a pattern. “We were able to share earlyso people could reflect” “Time to talk to husbands or wives and think aboutchildcare”.

Fairer with improved service for customersSpeed of answer is improved in evenings and weekends and there is more ofa feeling of fairness to both the customer and colleagues. New starters areoffered one of the new patterns when they join. Anyone who wants tochange to another pattern is placed on a waiting list. All options are open toeveryone, so people can amend their hours or working pattern if there is achange in their life circumstances if the pattern is available. Lookingoutwardly at best practice has been key to success and, with clear roles &responsibilities, leaders at all levels now have clear focus & accountability,empowered in new ways to be the best they can be. “Much more evenlyspread with more people on evenings”, “Half hour performance is better”.

e.on is one of the foremost energy companies in the world. They have around 6m customers in the UK who are serviced by5,000 Residential Employees based over 6 key sites plus outsource providers. They handle over 10 million calls customercontacts per year across calls, live chat, emails, social media. They use the omni-channel Genesys platform.

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“It was good to let advisorssee the patterns a fewmonths before so theycould reflect and we coulddiscuss it. Give them timeto talk to husbands/wivesetc. Think about childcare.”Emma Harris, Team Manager

“I felt very prepared.Thinking about thequestions we might getasked. There was an opendoor with the projectteams.”Natalie Shingler, Team Manager

“We can now recruit to thepatterns that we need, sohalf hour performance isbetter. Shahid Umerji, Resource Planning Analyst

“Comms came with about50 FAQs. We wanted tocater for all questions.”Sam Marshall, Transformation Manager

Resultsn Working patterns cut from2,000 to 27

n 100% of colleaguesinvolved in the review

n ASA evened out acrossdays and intervals

n Abandon rate reducedn Grade of Service improved

“I worked as part of the project teamcreating the working patterns.”Donna Whyman, Scheduler

“I was off on maternity leave socorresponded by email. I got secondchoice which was 5 more hours.” Amy Welsh, Resolution Manager

“There is no time limit on requestingchange of pattern. If you did not get1st or 2nd choice you wereautomatically put on a wait list. Ifyou got a pattern you liked, you areguaranteed that you will not need tochange for at least a year.” Alison Perkins, Business Lead

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Summary

This is a better place to work, because of bold changes, part of a widerwellbeing strategy in a business facing major digital transformation. Thisstarted from deep, comprehensive analysis of customer demand andpeople’s needs. A blue-print that many can learn from, fairness andconsistency were at the heart of this. Just six full time and three part timepatterns now meet diverse needs and provide flexible cover. Exceptionalcommunication engaged colleagues in understanding what this carefullybalanced set of options meant for them. As a result, everyone makingselections gained their first choice, working with others on individualagreements. The planning team gained buy-in from the top, working withHR & occupational health as well as colleagues at all levels. NPS is upeight points, speed to answer has reduced and costs are down.

See how the quality of analysis, planning and engagement drovesuccess in implementing new working patterns for everyone, in one ofthe biggest people changes esure has ever completed.

MyTime: enabling wellbeingand engagement at work

Planning and wellbeing

Key initiatives

Work-life balance in a changing worldShifts frameworks had not changed in many years. This made the changecomplex as it was affecting everybody. Analysis of arrival patterns showedhow demand was changing and was predicted to continue to change, withdigital growth and other factors. The planning team researched best practicein other places, did a full analysis of volatility and set up an impressive listof benefits, so that changes could be measured against min and maxexpectations. Discussions were held with teams to understand what theywanted from the new patterns and people were surveyed. Then, in creatingnew working patterns, trade-offs were designed to suit a number oflifestyles. For instance, you can have weekends off if you work late and oneoption had compressed hours, so they have three days off each week. And arotational shift was included for those who were happy to keep workingthat. “Channels have changed the demand profile” “Every change we make isdriven by data and insight”.

A careful mix of just 9 options gave people their first choice As a result of all this work, a simple set of options was created.n Six Full Time shift patterns were created to provide 85% of the coverrequired and offer attractive work patterns for everyone.

n Over 25% of people are Part Time and 3 options were provided, whichhelped deploy resource at the most challenging periods (weekends,evenings and during our morning volume ramp).

n Colleagues had a high level of choice within each option

With shifts, the detail is vitally important, so the fact that everyone gainedtheir first choice is no accident. It reflects the quality of analysis, planningand communication beforehand. Significantly, choices were designed to beeasy to understand – and to provide a cross-over of coverage, so that therewas flexibility about numbers in each option. Communication and the launchwere also carefully planned. The timing was important, after the March peakand completed before the next peak in September. Following the launch

“The success of MyTime was theconversations that happened. Noone was forced into a pattern.The individual discussions wereso important.”David Pitt, COO

“We needed to future proof fromcustomer demand and from ourcolleague needs.”Simon Butler, Head of Planning & BusinessIntelligence

“We want to live it, rather thanlaminate it on posters.”Alan MacEwan, Head of Operations

“Before you were put on rotationwhen you joined. There wasnever any certainty. You weretold what to work. Now you get achoice.”Jason Running, Customer Specialist

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event, everyone was given a few weeks to reflect and talk to family and to thenenter their choices for new shifts into an on-line portal. An annual reviewprocess has been put in place, so if your situation changes you can request adifferent shift pattern every August. “I can now control my life” “Without thesechanges I would have left” “Enables me to plan ahead”.

Focus on communication and designIt was important that these changes were well communicated to everyone andthis was a key focus of the approach at esure. People are often nervous aboutchange and the team wanted to be sure everyone was clear on their optionsand had time to reflect on their decisions. The options were packaged togetherunder the branding of “MyTime” and one of the frontline teams was given thechance to design and brand this. A great development opportunity, it also madethe changes really stand out in the organisation. She researched design options,used animation (a special interest) and looked at icons and logos used by well-known brands. Handbooks described each of the options and answered a lotof the questions people had, with exceptionally detailed visuals and FAQs.Gift bags were created for the fabulous launch day, with a brilliant card thatsummarised the options. Before the launch, team leaders went for an off-site day. The options were explained and they were asked to help shapehow these could be presented to the customer specialists. They discussedaround some of the difficult conversations to be had, with role plays. As aconsequence, conversations between team leaders and advisors were ableto begin on the bus back to the office. And team leaders were confident inanswering questions and able to reassure people. “Role plays gave me theconfidence“ “Leadership now bring us in” “In the past we were told”.

Personal development and wellness at workThe new shift options mean that there are now the right people in place at theright time, which enables more time for coaching and development. Indeeddevelopment programmes have been set up for all levels of the business andprogrammes for Rising Stars, Aspiring Team Leaders and Future Leaders givepeople the opportunity to learn more about different areas. Pay progression isin place as specialists gain more skills, which is down to their own preference.And all this is just a part of a wider wellness strategy in the business. Forinstance, a new module in the team leader training programme is focussed onmental health and training the team leader to spot potential issues so they candeal with them. Other ideas include an onsite masseuse, the offer of flu jabs andplans to run healthy eating cookery lessons and yoga classes. What’s more, thenew shifts mean that when it is quieter there are opportunities for volunteeringin the community. “How can we spot issues before they become too big?”

esure was recently acquired by Bain Capital. Esure Sales & Service operations is 750FTE with sites in Glasgow andManchester. They are a multi-channel operation with phone, back office (email, webform, robotics, paper), webchat,digital/portal, social contacts with customer. They use Verint WFM.

Best Practice Guide © Professional Forums Ltd 2019

“I originally thought thatwe would get the brandingteam involved but I got todo this myself. I knew thetarget audience really wellas I came from there.”Asuna Ikeshima, Customer Specialist

“We had conversations onthe bus back from thecomms day – people werelooking at their options.” Kelly Campbell, Team Leader

“People buy in to fairnessfor business as well as forthemselves.”David Pitt, COO

“We had lots of forums. What is veryimportant to you. What are youwilling to sacrifice to get that.” Hazel Johnstone, Senior Business Leader

“I really enjoy the work but I hadissues with early starts. I haven’tbeen late since new shifts.”Emma Caddow, Customer Specialist

“I am getting time off the phone forthe buzz and development time.”Darren Traynor, Customer Specialist

“We wanted people to take time tothink about their own personalneeds and circumstances.”Simon Butler, Head of Planning & BusinessIntelligence

Results year on yearn Over 90% of advisors usedthe portal to get their firstchoice of shift

n Employee engagementscores rose 8 points

n £125k savings in overtimen NPS scores increased by 8points

n Attrition reduced by c.8%

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Summary

The new, automated scorecard is driving self-accountability forperformance and supporting a cultural shift to best practice sharing atNewDay. It’s easy to access, less complex and makes performance veryvisible. As a result, front line associates review their own performance,support colleagues and challenge themselves. This raises the bar onaspirations, working alongside a career development programme calledAspire. Crucially, the small MI Team frees up time with automation. This isused for engagement with stakeholders, establishing credibility and trustin the data they provide. A collaborative approach has led to the teambeing seen as part of the operation, offering guidance beyond just buildingreports – adding value and becoming a trusted partner.

See how a new performance scorecard is creating visibility acrossteams to drive best practice, enabling colleagues to own their ownperformance and raising aspirations.

Making Data Accessible and Engaging

Insight and wellbeing

Key initiatives

Simple and automated: built with users in mind At the heart of this transformation is a focus on cutting complexity andautomating scorecards. The use of new SQL server and reporting servicesprovided real impetus to do something very different. The scorecards arenow available online, fast to load and save considerable time for colleaguesto access compared with previous solutions. Built in collaboration with theend users, strong visuals and colour coding makes the data accessible anduser-friendly. The ability to drill down beyond the metrics into the raw datais another attractive feature – particularly in relation to voice of thecustomer feedback and verbatim comments. As a result, since the launch ofthe new scorecards NPS has risen from +63 to +65 and Associate Satisfaction(ASAT) has risen by 3%. “It’s MI at the click of a button” “Make it as simple aspossible to use”.

Engagement and open communication drives adoption and trust Key to success has been a new collaborative approach to engage withstakeholders. Working in true partnership across multiple teams inOperations, HR and Training, the team has broken down barriers and createda culture of best practice and sharing. Design and roll-out of the newscorecards engaged colleagues at all levels and was supported by a trainingvideo. Stakeholders now inform the content and usability. Engaging with endusers and not just managers has been critical to getting the design right andensuring that usability. Monthly clinics are now held with end users todiscuss new requirements and enhancements. This step change in approachhas helped to build credibility and trust in the team. For all Ops data andreporting, “We’ve built the trust & credibility” “We’ve made it collaborative”.

Visible and engaging data drives self-accountability Crucially, the scorecards enable colleagues to easily track and view their ownperformance standards against those required of the different Aspire careerlevels. Changing filters shows where they are against future capability levelsand their readiness to progress. In this way, they can take personalaccountability for their own performance and its improvement. Many

“Everyone uses the same numbers– but we challenge at the start togain that understanding.”Costi Constantinou, Head of Ops Support

“It is my job to make everybodyelse's job easier.”Adam Sutton, Database & Reporting Developer

“The key part of the MI developerrole is being able to engage withthe operation.”Sam Kennedy, Senior Manager Strategic Planning

“To have this information withoutasking is a breath of fresh air.”Amanda Robershaw, Ops Manager, Fraud

“We don't take on any work wecan't automate.”Max Thorpe, Ops MI Manager

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“It’s great for drivingindividual and teamperformance.”Michael Cooke, Team Leader, Customer Care

“It puts the onus on theassociates to takeaccountability.”Debbie Cash,Team Leader, Underwriting

“We can get a view ofeverything in one place.” Wendy Fahy,Ops Manager, CustomerServices

Resultsn Scorecard Usage up 50% n Highest ever NPS inOctober

n NPS up from 63 to 65 inH2 2018

n ASAT up from 9.0 to 9.2(3% increase) in H2 2018

n AHT is 30 seconds lowern 92% say: I am clear aboutwhat I’m expected toachieve in my job

associates review their own scorecard every day and can address anyemerging performance shortfalls before they become a concern. Thescorecard links in to HR and reward, enabling associates to progress tohigher salary bands as part of the Aspire career development programme.Ultimately, they can drive their own destiny in terms of experience,capability, aspiration and reward. This is driving a culture of peer-to-peerimprovement; colleagues are supporting each other to succeed and arelearning from their peer role models. “It’s about you driving your own KPIs”“It’s been like a breath of fresh air”.

A changing dynamic for managers This is driving a different dynamic in conversations with managers.Associates are now proactive in their preparation and challenge their teamleaders to help them achieve more stretching targets and progress to thenext level. Team leaders can now access all their data needs from one placesaving significant time to focus on genuine needs-based coaching.Identifying best practice is so much easier. They have the right tools to viewteam performance and drill down customer survey responses to identify rootcause of detractors. Senior Ops Managers can now review trends, calibrateperformance and set KPIs across the teams easily and consistently – acrucial part of the Aspire programme and reward process. “They save somuch time” “I now have more time for other things”.

Focus on adding value not creating reports This has all been driven from an Ops MI Team comprising only three people.This is possible, because of the principles that are applied in the design ofall tools and reports. Every analyst would do well to take note of these! Nowork is taken on that cannot be automated. Data is captured and stored inits rawest form. This is extrapolated to create reports. Consistent style andlayout avoids the need for continual re-explanation. Reports are flexible andfuture proofed through tracking every metric for every associate regardlessof immediate need. These essential principles have resulted in only 10minutes of manual reporting processes each day. The time freed up isfocussed on engaging with customers, supporting new initiatives andspreading their capability organically across the business. “Everything isabout automation” “We don’t take things on unless we can automate them”.

NewDay is one of the UK’s largest & fastest growing issuers of credit, specialising in credit and retail transactions with 5mcustomer accounts and £2.4 bn of lending through own brand credit cards and retail partnerships. The 900-seat contactcentre in Leeds uses Avaya telephony, Verint call recording and Aspect WFM

“You don’t need constant feedbackfrom your Team Leader, you can seewhere you need to improve. We canquickly see feedback all in one place. ”Jade Baron,Associate, Customer Services

“It’s so useful, it’s not just anotherlink to click on, you gain so muchfrom it.” Claire McKean,Team Leader, Fraud

“We look at great role models andlook to how we can replicate them.”Phill Quinn, Ops Manager, Collections

“It’s such a time saving havingeverything in one central place. I cansee straight away if someone needssome help.”Linda Brook,Team Leader, Underwriting

“We’ve got constant feedback ondemand. It boosts your morale – youcan see the improvements you’remaking. It shows you areas ofconcern before they become a realconcern.”Kyle Lumb,Associate, Underwriting

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Summary

A powerful and effective insight community has transformed the role ofanalysts and their value to the business. It connects teams, acrossfunctional siloes, and made it possible to start a pioneering Data Scienceteam, now delivering millions of £ in benefits. Significantly there’s a hugebreadth of insight, from optimising sewerage plants to service recovery,helping the company regain No:1 spot in the regulator’s all-importantService Incentive Mechanism. Projects include an early-warning weatherimpact system, auto-sorting emails, optimising outbound and auto-identifying 1 in 3 dissatisfied customers (up from 1 in 10). The communityhas grown to over 130 analysts in three years and insight capability hasgrown through best practice sharing, co-working on initiatives betweenteams and more structured development pathways.

See how an enterprise-wide community of insight professionals isconnecting and developing people, based on principles that anyonecould learn from. They share, innovate & create proven value.

Creating an environmentwhere success is inevitable

Enterprise-wide beyond contact centre

Key initiatives

Out of the shadow: the community of insightNo longer is business intelligence (BI) sat in pockets around the business,producing reports and working in siloes, what IT teams call ‘Shadow BI’,where applications are built by end users. At Anglian Water they embracedthis as an opportunity, not a problem. Value is placed on local, subject matterexpertise, knowing the data, people and processes. Rather than centralise,people stay in their business streams where they are most effective. Inspiredby a 2-year leadership programme at Loughborough University on ‘creatingan environment where success is inevitable’, they built an insight communityto develop users as professionals. Significantly, joining the community isvoluntary, there is no empire building or land grab. And, since inception in2014, it’s grown from 15 to 130 people, across every business unit. Led byRichard Moore, with senior sponsors including Richard Boucher, Group Riskand Strategy Director, who also heads up the investment committee. “It’s notabout structure” “Its overarching support” “We’re getting people to fall in lovewith data again”.

14 guiding principles and a culture of exploration Crucially, a shared insight culture embeds 14 Guiding Principles, where‘exploration is the way we do things’. This gives analysts freedom, with 10%of their time to think and experiment, unbound by governance. Theprinciples were designed as the ‘anatomy of Business Planning’ and helpedcreate an identity for the wider team. Credibility is not just about successfulprojects; learning from what doesn’t work also establishes trust. Hacking isnot a dirty word, but allows ideas to be tried cheaply, not over-committingtoo early. This community spans the whole analytics spectrum, from reportcreation to analysis and data science. There is a shared belief that, bycreating the right environment, like this, success is inevitable. Results are notguaranteed but the community makes them more likely. “People are free tofail” “Every day there is something new.”

“The magic ingredient is ouranalytics community. It’s anenvironment where results areinevitable.”Richard Moore, Analytics and Insight Manager

“People find it useful to talk toother people who like data.”Sarah Edwards, Report Developer

“It’s opened my eyes to what dataand skills are held within ourorganisation.”Sarah Marot, Team member

“This is an important part of thefuture of this business.”Peter Simpson, Chief Executive

“Every time we take new insightto the Board it strengthens ourposition.”Richard Boucher, Group Strategy and Risk Director

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“There has been a shifttowards healthy challengeand asking “why”, “what isthe report for”. This forcedme to reassess what I’masking for and how Iwanted to use it.”Pete Holland, Head of Operational ServiceDelivery

“They’ve been keycollaborators in solvingsome of our reallysignificant problems. Theenergy, enthusiasm andcreativity they bring reallystands out.”Mark McCormack,Smart Water Systems ProjectManager

Resultsn Millions of £ in benefitsover the next 7 years

n No:1 in OFWAT SIM tablesfor customer service

n Outbound dialler successrates up from 10% to 80%

n Successfully identify 1 in 3dissatisfied customers (upfrom 1 in 10)

n £80k saving by removingmanual planning ofnetwork sensors

n Analysis saved £300k byplacing fewer sensors

Connecting people and developing as professionals Starting four years ago, with a meeting between a small group of analysts onone site, the community has grown and the annual conference gathered 132delegates in 2018. It’s built up through word of mouth using variouscommunication methods such as Yammer (with 160 members), meetings, andlocal forums at each site. An Analytics Academy is developing analyticscapability across the business and tailored courses are aligned to an enterprisewide analytics competency framework. These range from technical skills (likePowerBI) to soft skills (like communicating analysis). The community is guidedby an Analytics Steering Group and everyone you talk to has done somethingdifferent that has real value. “There’s lots more talking between teams” “It’shelped build relationships”.

The millions of £ in benefits flowing from Data Science Recognition in The Forum’s Insight Awards helped gain investment in a smallexploratory Data Science Team. Their early success built the business case togrow further. This team is split 50/50 between employees and contractors, withknowledge transferred to build up internal skills. With initiatives already set todeliver millions of £ in benefits over the next seven years, the huge range ofmachine learning and data science projects include:n Successfully identifying 1 in 3 dissatisfied customers (up from 1 in 10)n Weather impact system, tried and tested by the ‘beast from the east’!n Outbound dialler effectiveness, lifted to 80% (5 FTE efficiency) n Inbound emails auto-sorted, with 3-day-faster SLA n Regulating the energy-intensive aeration in sewage works and optimising theplacement of expensive sensors that avoided major investment costs

“Proactive intervention sets us apart” “The most agile team in the business” “Lotsof proof points” “It’s a long journey”.

Delivering value from Insight Value to the business is also demonstrated by the way the main insight teamworks. Anglian Water recently reclaimed the No:1 spot in OFWAT’s all-importantService Incentive Mechanism (SIM), helped by embedding Data Science methodsinto an easy-to-use app and empowering managers right across the business topick up the phone and speak to a ‘customer at risk’. The team use Power BI tocreate interactive dashboards that people can access on their phones, offering asnapshot for leaders at all levels. They second team members to projects acrossthe business, building up knowledge in those areas. What’s more, AGILEmethodology principles have been adopted, planning work in fortnightly sprintsand stakeholder mapping is a team exercise that is revisited regularly. “Ad-hocwork fuels exploration” “It connects data and decision making”

Anglian Water is the biggest geographical water and water recycling company in England & Wales supplying over 6mcustomers. There are 130 members in their analytics community whose scope includes analytics about their customers,transactions with customers, physical assets (pipes, pumps, treatment and sewerage works), colleagues and much more.

“The team are brilliant, helpful, easyto work with and come up with reallyinnovative solutions. Thank you.”Rachel Dyson,Keep It Clear Programme

“The community is telling us whatthey need – we’re the facilitators. ”Andy Riddell,Analysis and Reporting Manager

“The growth of the analyticscommunity is a really excitingdevelopment.” Susannah Clements,Group Director of People

“I was amazed how quickly the teamcould pick up the world we live inand the challenges we face daily.”Richard Fielding,Optimisation Project Engineer

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Summary

The catalyst for transformation at British Engineering Services was creating anew company, separate from RSA, seizing the chance to stand out in themarket and deliver on ‘making Britain a safer place’. Capacity planning wasfundamental, alongside outside expertise with Visitour scheduler from FLS.Reliability comes from effective end-to-end planning, delivering the highestquality inspections, on time, every time – an exceptional customerexperience. Engineer surveyors remain a key part of the planning process andlifestyle flexibility has been a massive win too. It’s created a customer-drivenand flexible mindset and removed traditional territorial boundaries. This is ahuman organisation that everyone feels part of. Three years on and theevidence is clear – sales up 100%, customer retention up 15%, huge costsavings and delivering the best service in the market.

How flexible resourcing and strategic use of planning helped themstand out from competitors on service and create a new, one teamculture that’s doubled sales and raised month-end service by 50%.

The power of planning totransform the business

Enterprise-wide beyond contact centre

Key initiatives

End-to-end planning: at the heart of transformation Developments across the entire planning cycle was critical to success, fromstrategic, capacity planning to scheduling and real time changes. There isnow complete trust in the numbers and the plan. New, long-term capacityplans have enabled the company to identify pinch points, helping plan forrecruitment, cross skilling and contingency. This is important, becausespecialist engineer surveyors cost £60-£70k and take up to a year to recruitand get up to speed. Plans take account of a range of factors, balancingworkload to availability to ensure client commitments are met. Visitour, keyin optimising geographical zones and travel times, is also used in real timeto gain extra flexibility. Engineer surveyors used to plan all their own work.Now it is done for them and they love it. All this is supported by a robustgovernance process. Also, accuracy of plans made it possible to roll outmobile reporting and E-Reports, making life better for everyone – bothcustomers and engineer surveyors. “This is a market differentiator” “Notreplicated anywhere else”.

The power of planning: driving sales and price It’s impressive how planning drives both tactical and strategic resourcing atBritish Engineering Services. Furthermore, this has been taken several stepsfurther to become the key differentiator in this market. Planning now drivesall sales and pricing decisions, underpinning profitability and margin. Price isintrinsically linked to capacity, flexing based on ability to deliver service.Sales strategies are focussed on areas of opportunity where higher capacitycan drive costs down. Previously, pricing was largely flat UK-wide, now it’sdone geographically based on capacity forecasts and specific skills ofengineer surveyors locally. Crucially, sales teams don’t bring deals to thetable without engaging the planning team first. British Engineering Serviceswon’t risk damaging their reputation by taking deals they cannot service. Asa broker comments, it’s a revolution in their market. “Profit & loss doesn’twork if we don’t get planning right” “The capacity plan plays a vital part inpricing strategy”.

“The confidence we have in ourservice delivery, underpinned byour planning, means we canshout about it to our customers.”Paul Hirst, Managing Director

“Having great people alone isn’tenough; they have to be the rightpeople in the right place.”Steve Doyle, Operations Development Manager

“Planning enables us tounderstand where we can reduceprice … tailored to the skills ofEngineer surveyors in specificareas.”Hazel Doherty, Head of Pricing

“Moving our large-scale contractsto British Engineering Servicesin 2018 was a big decision, butwe know it was the right one.”Dave Berry,Group QHSE

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One Team: breaking down traditional territories Flexibility in a largely fixed cost base is a crucial part of success here.Historically British Engineering Services was very territory driven, engineerteams looked after their own patch and rarely crossed borders. So much of thishas changed. Traditional, field-based territories have been removed to create atrue one team approach with a consistent national objective – all driventhrough trusted planning. Incredible flexibility is created through simplyadjusting drive time radii in pockets or nationally, creating a domino effect inmoving resource. There are no artificial boundaries to prevent engineersurveyors helping each other out. Local relationships with customers remainimportant so engineer surveyors will still phone ahead on their way to jobs andmanage those relationships. “It’s one team now” “It’s a national picture”.

Flexible resourcing: wellbeing for engineer surveyors Resourcing is worked around the lifestyle & needs of engineer surveyors, a bigwin that has cut stress and helped engage everyone in a one-team culture.Because of the way capacity is planned, availability for time off is much morevisible to engineer surveyors, as well as short term options around schedulesand travel routes. Breaks can be taken when engineer surveyors choose. Theycan also see that one person may have a bad schedule in order for 200 tohave a good one. There are flexible parameters for start and finish of jobs –for example starting from school drop-off to fit with lifestyles. Most work isconfirmed two weeks ahead to delivery promises to customers and toensure there are no wasted journeys. Some initial churn of engineersurveyors was needed, to get the right people in the right place bothgeographically and culturally. “It makes my job a lot easier” “It gives you asmuch flexibility as you need” “This works really well”.

Flexible resourcing: a real difference for customers Being agile in managing workloads, in a live way, is making a real difference tocustomers. An interactive system – essentially a big, live map – givesunprecedented visibility. Being able to move resource at a moment’s notice,including being able to differentiate the specific skills of the engineer surveyorsinvolved, is market leading. They coped with the surge demand created by the‘beast from the east’ seamlessly simply by extending radii for drive timesnationally. Planning reorganised resources in hours to protect serviceperformance and maintain their reputation. No other provider can maintainservice performance, keep their customers safe and maintain their reputation.Great planning insight also supports surveyors to work with their customers tohelp them plan better and avoid higher charges and lost revenue by ensuringassets are available for inspection as planned. “Our ability to react is verypowerful” “It’s intrinsic to making our client’s businesses operate”.

British Engineering Services is the UK’s biggest independent engineering inspection, testing and certification company. 450highly qualified Engineer Surveyors perform 2.8 million inspections each year, supported by 20 Planning Team membersusing online reporting systems and FLS Visitour scheduler.

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“British EngineeringServices have knocked thesocks off other providers,pulling the process of co-ordinating engineersurveyors out of the 1960s.”Daniel Schofield, Client Executive Leader

“The working together pieceis massive. It feels reallygood to be part of theculture here.” Chris Sherrington,Head of Customer Service

“New people coming in canjust focus on being anengineer. It was a massivecultural journey.”Hannah Mather, HR Director

“There used to be regionalteams but now there is oneteam.”Peter Thorpe,Territory Manager

“You have to work as a team tounderstand what’s going on. It’s very compelling.” John Harris,Unit Leader

“This approach to planning hasbrought the whole businesstogether.”Gareth Hilton, Chief Commercial Officer

“It saves me the job of planning. It’sbrilliant if you have an appointment… the schedule can be changed.”Phil Muslek,Engineer Surveyor

“On the days I do the school drop-offI just start my shift from there.”Lee Chapman,Engineer Surveyor

Resultsn Customer retention up by 12%

n Cost savings c10-15% n 50% reduction in wasteddowntime in 2018

n 74% improvement for ‘onor before’ SLA for thelargest clients

n 100% rise in salesperformance in 2018

n The best service in themarket

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Summary

Powerful insight, from a range of models built in-house, has transformeddisability benefit assessments at Capita PIP. The new approach toscheduling optimises drive times and the geographical spread of work.These tools are used by leaders at all levels, with a new planning &performance governance framework pivotal to success. The new approachhas established a sustainable operating model, with headcount stable at230, compared to 600+ in the early days. PIP claimants are seen promptly,clinics better utilised and Disability Assessors (DA) enjoy a better work/lifebalance. Importantly this restored confidence with the client, DWP. Theyasked to share this as best practice and the operation is also establishedas a role model for best practice across Capita Group.

See how data-driven optimisation and a robust operationalgovernance framework transformed this field-based service and became a benchmark for group-wide best practice.

Powerful insight drives anew operating model

Enterprise-wide beyond contact centre

Key initiatives

Actionable insight underpins a sustainable operating model Early in the contract there were 145,000 claimants waiting to be seen,resulting in long delays, complaints and failure to deliver contractual KPIs.Inefficient scheduling of work and illogical driving routes meant DAs spenttoo much time driving and not assessing, causing dissatisfaction, highattrition and complaints. Quality was suffering too. The Data & Insight Teamwas established to clear backlogs and they did this in three months, initiallythrowing resource at it with a range of innovations, but it was not asustainable steady state. Challenged to reduce FTE by over 60%, theyimplemented a best practice workforce management and operationaldelivery solution to empower the business and regain the confidence of theDWP. At the heart of this solution is the innovative use of data giving fargreater visibility of key, actionable workload and performance insight. “Weweren’t making the best use of resources” “We had to leverage the data”.

Minecraft Squares help optimise geographies The crucial change was a new approach to optimising geographicalplanning. Using VBA and Excel they established a database oflatitude/longitude applying knowledge of the work to be allocated and DAhome postcodes. Data is mapped into 8x8 squares (64 sq miles) showingnumber of claimants and oldest outstanding cases in each area andcomparing it to where DAs are based. Minecraft-style screens make it visualfor Team Managers who can see hotspots and move DAs around like chesspieces to address older cases or new work coming in. People had never seenthis level of granularity before, performance was transformed. This newapproach is now at the heart of the ability to allocate work flexibly andmanage the pipeline of ageing cases while ensuring drive times areoptimised. “It’s like a chessboard” “I can report by square and see where we’re busy”.

“We had to get on a positivecontractual footing with theclient. Demonstrating control,rigour and robustness has reallyhelped secure clientrelationships.”Steve Gentle, Group Operational ExcellenceDirector

“Stability in routes and scheduleshelps provide an environment ofquality for our customers,”David Stubbs, Head of Data & Insights

“We’ve proven you don’t need bigbudgets to improve youroperation and service provided tocustomers.”David Edwards, Support Services Director

“We balance the right number ofassessments and the quality ofthose assessments.”Stuart Newton, Resource & Planning Manager

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Rebasing the radius to optimise travel time DAs are no longer set up to work a 5-mile radius from home. This was a rootcause of initial backlogs as some cases were never assigned and others wereoverloaded. Instead work is allocated flexibly basing DA schedules from theaddress they start the day, varying the radius they can cover to the next joband rebasing their radius from each job during the day. This is all withinparameters of maximum mileage for the day by region. The result is reducedtravel but increased coverage. Work is planned around the DAs. TeamManagers adjust workloads to support flexible working needs, time forreport writing and quality assurance. DA’s are happier, attrition is down,quality is up and, importantly, the enhanced insight makes tactical changeseasy and managers feel in control. “We make schedules work for DAs” “Thesetools have enriched DAs lives”.

Operation governance & rigour Tracking of the operational efficiency forms the heart of a weeklyoperational meeting with the COO & Ops leads. An operational dashboardfuels the meeting, creating a healthy tension that drives better planning andperformance. Looking back and forwards, the tools give the Ops Managerscontrol over their number. They know exactly what they need to achieveeach week, their plans in the longer term and reasons for past performance.With a three-month lead-in time to bring in new DAs, the granular, longerterm capacity plan is vital, enabling the business to become much moreproactive. This is a critical meeting – it plays a key role in ensuring thereis full operational governance and rigour across the business, supportingcontractual performance and financials. “It’s the best meeting we have”“Operational rigour is now built in to the business”.

A role model for operational excellenceEvery tool has been built in-house using VBA and Excel by the Data &Insights Team, making them agile and easy to adapt. The success in turningthe business around and delivering the steady state is obvious; backlogsremoved, productivity up, complaints down, quality up, satisfaction up andworkloads under control. This has drawn attention from across the CapitaGroup and is now being established as the benchmark of operationaldelivery and workforce planning across all divisions. It doesn’t stop here, theintroduction of PowerBI is transforming MI, moving to self-service andfurther enhancing the ability of the business to drive efficiencies and deliverfor claimants. “It’s less frantic, more predictable now” “Other parts of Capitaare all over these tools”.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is a non means tested benefit for people aged between 16 and 64 who have a longterm health condition or impairment. Capita carries out PIP assessments on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions(DWP) in Wales, the West and East Midlands and in Northern Ireland on behalf of the Department for Communities. CapitaPIP is part of Capita's Government Services division and carry out on average 25,000 assessments per month.

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“The simpler something is,the more powerful itbecomes.”Carl Meads, Data &Insights Manager

“Our team managers use itdaily, it’s the heart andsoul of what they do. Theynow have a variety ofoptions for reporting andcan now see who hasn’tgot a schedule”Diana Holdcroft, Regional Manager

“Prior to this system being developedDA routes were planned with a mapand a pen. This system gives me atool that is configurable and givesme a complete overview ofresourcing schedules” Lianne Round, Head of Field Operations

“It’s a support mechanism; we canevaluate what DAs have beenworking on and identify issues.” Rhys Linton, Team Manager

“We have to know what theprofitability of the contract will be.What we learned is that we had tocreate a longer-term view andunderstand our levers and what they do.”Dickon Love, Capacity Planning Manager

“It feels like we have more control,we’re better informed. We can lookback now as well as forward.”Jen Cole, Regional Manager

Resultsn Claimant satisfaction over90%

n Contractual quality scoreachieved

n Stabilisation of thecontract achieved 4months quicker thannational average

n Waiting times deliveredconsistently across allregions – no postcodelottery

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Summary

As they needed a 50% rise in output to support the UK’s digital revolution,a step change was required in the way training is planned for atOpenreach. The team designed new planning processes, new planningtools and consolidated key data. What’s more, a collaborative approachwith internal customers drove radical improvements. The catalyst fortransformation was a new CEO with a ‘Big Bold Plan’. This followedseparation from BT and a legacy of poor customer service. As a result,training capacity is up 30% and class utilisation is up 19% points. All thiswith 30% fewer planners. Engagement levels in the planning team haverocketed. It’s good news for customers too, with the best ever OFCOMservice levels and a rise in ‘first time fix’ meaning that 84,000 fewercustomers needed a repeat appointment.

See how analysts and stakeholders connected, making it possible fornew tools, data and processes for resource planning to transform thedelivery of Learning, Development & Resourcing for field engineers.

Resource planning for engineers’ training

Enterprise-wide beyond contact centre

Key initiatives

Big & bold: the potential in planningFocussed on driving the UK’s digital revolution, the CEO’s big, bold planpromises better service, broader coverage and faster network speeds. For thefirst time, the strategy explicitly called out the importance of skilled teamsequipped to deliver. The Business Planning team in Learning, Development &Resourcing (L, D&R), however, were not geared up for this growth in demand,struggling to create a plan of supply. Already this was a giant L, D&Roperation, supporting the complex skills development needs of 26,000engineers nationwide. The pace of change, 3,000+ new engineers and a 50%growth in training days required necessitated a step change in efficiency andeffectiveness in the way training has been planned for.

Winning Hearts and Minds To understand key issues, focus groups were held across the team, withtrainers, Operations Managers and engineers. The team listened to feedbackand took on a wide array of ideas about how to improve. This started thejourney of openness and collaboration with stakeholders, however, planningmanagers needed to win the hearts and minds of their own team first. Theteam was disengaged and frustrated, as the employee satisfaction surveyrevealed. Less than half felt they had the right tools to do their job well andonly a third felt their processes helped provide a great service. Things had tochange and so several initiatives were implemented:n A team strategy built around 4 pillars of capability, agility, culture & brandn A set of supporting behaviours to underpin the strategyn A new quarterly business planning cycle n Purchase of an off the shelf application ‘ScheduleIt’ n In-house build of 20 bespoke planning toolsAt the heart of these initiatives is a principle of driving automation throughinnovation and designing in collaboration with stakeholders. Results areobvious – ‘right tools to do my job’ is up to 96% and the score for having theright processes has nearly doubled. “We’ve taken the team on the journeywith us” “Stakeholders were frustrated” “They felt we were a blockage”.

“We’re training more people andcourses are more full. We canprove each trainer is doing more– that’s due to improvements inplanning.”Richard May, Head of Business Planning

“We can quickly move ourresources now – we couldn’t dothat before.”Mark Davidson, Client Delivery Manager

“We’re in the healthiest placewe’ve been as a business. It’s thefirst year ever that Openreachhas hit all of our minimumservice levels.”Mark Rainbow, Head of Training Delivery

“We can have really frankconversations about what iscritical now.”Steve Armstrong, Head of Operational Planning

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“We have the power to dowhat we need to do now.”Sarah Tate, Planner

“The biggest thing it’s givenus is time, time that we canfeed back in to the guys weare training.”Chris Hunter,Trainer

“We’re training the rightguys with the right skillsnow.”Alan McNaughton,Senior FND Training Manager

Resultsn Learner days up 75%n Average seat fill up from80% to 89%

n 5% reduction in classcancellations

n Operating costs down£576k

n First time fix helps 84,000customers as a result ofbetter skills

n Best ever OFCOM servicelevels delivered byOpenreach

Innovation: automation and collaboration ScheduleIt, the only off-the-shelf purchase, gave a holistic, single view of alltrainers. A suite of bespoke applications was built around this, to give an end-to-end planning tool and create a single source of trusted data and valuedinsight. This includes automated demand capture, pre-course briefings, feedbackand use of text messaging. The team engaged stakeholders to crystalliserequirements and building inhouse meant these weren’t compromised, withflexibility to build or customise more applications as opportunities areidentified. Using SQL servers and a web front end they started deploying toolswithin two months. “Data at the push of a button” “All in one place”.

Driving value in the face of rising demandAutomated demand capture made it possible to fully see operational prioritiesand build training plans effectively. Alongside this quarterly process, a short-notice change process makes sure priorities are met, whilst attendance ismaximised. Schedules take account of engineer travel times, with 74% trainedin their own patch. Outsourced training is managed to ensure renewable skillsare refreshed on time. A new course portfolio cut 1,000+ courses to just 177, bycombining or removing duplicate and redundant courses. Design of new trainingcourses is managed end-to-end, from requirements through to pilot and sign-off. “It’s given us control” “There’s a robust, measurable plan”.

Being connected: partners not suppliers A true shift in culture underpins these changes, so that areas which werepreviously siloed now feel very connected. Above all, there has been brilliantcollaboration on all aspects of work. As a result, people have seen mutualunderstanding and respect grow – also changes to tools and processes weredesigned and implemented with the end users in mind, so they’re easy to use.Furthermore, senior leadership has created a license for people to experiment.Enhanced insight is helping to drive valued conversations. This has built trustand credibility in the planning team, so much so that they are now viewed as apartner rather than a supplier. It’s now an environment where people ‘feel theycan learn and grow’ – up 17 points across 33,000 Openreach employees in thelast Your Say survey. “It’s ok to try things out” “We run trials and learn” “Toolsenable meaningful conversations” “Conversations are vital”.

Openreach maintain UK’s broadband and telephony network, managing over 165million km of cable, supporting 600service providers with 26,000 engineers. Using planning tools developed inhouse and ScheduleIt, the 26-strong planningteam for L, D&R works across 11 regional training centres, supporting 143 trainers with a mix of 2,291 licenses.

“If we need to react, the first place wego is planning. It allows us to lookahead and see what our trainingcapacity is to deliver the strategicpriorities.”Marc Hughes,Head of Strategic Skills

“We’ve put service back at the heartof the business. There is an honestynow that is very powerful. Trust hascome a long way.”Kevin Brady,HR Director

“We gave them permission to just trythings. We’re allowing them to dowhat they want to do.” Kevin Gaughan,LD&R Director

“We’ve now got the ability to matchsupply to demand. It’s night and dayfrom where it was.”Pete Stewart,UK Operations Director (Service Delivery)

“There’s constant consultationbetween planning and the businessunits.”Alison Solomon,Client Delivery Manager

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