FEATURE


Sodexo streamlines


labour scheduling at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust


Sodexo, a global leader in services that improve quality of life, is the world’s 18th largest employer, with more than 420,000 employees working at 34,000 client sites in 80 countries. Its integrated FM offering includes everything from reception, concierge, cleaning, parking, pantry, laundry and waste management services. In the UK, it has around 34,000 employees spread across some 1,850 locations. Clients include private corporations, government agencies, schools, universities, and prisons. The 1000-strong Sodexo team provides services such as portering, security and cleaning across five hospitals that make up Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. It was here that Sodexo needed an improved time and attendance and labour scheduling solution that would better schedule and record the placement of the right people, to the right areas, at the right cost – to meet tough NHS standards.


The situation:


• Heavy rostering targets imposed by the NHS were difficult to achieve without an automated solution, as hospital staffing needs constantly change due to peaks and troughs in demand


• Supervisors were each spending up to three hours per week manually trying to allocate people to key hospital tasks


• Staff were not being efficiently placed – on some occasions people were double-booked for the same role, or were scheduled to work at more expensive times of the day/ week (at a higher hourly rate) to perform non-urgent tasks that could have been undertaken at different times at the standard lower rate of pay


• Non-efficient allocation of staff had the potential to incur fines around cleanliness levels


• Scheduling inaccuracies were rife, with exceptions as high as 30% at times


• Worked hours were not being correctly recorded • Sickness and absence data was not being effectively managed


• Payroll had to deal with hundreds of invoices from contractors per week, 20% of which contained queries, including mis- reported hours-worked data


16 www.isopps.com Tangible results:


• Through better scheduling, premium rate overtime has been reduced by more than £44,000 per year – a reduction of 14.34%


• In retail alone, a £60,000 (6.11%) saving has been achieved through better scheduling


• Shift accuracy has improved – exceptions have fallen from 25-30% to just 2-4%, smashing the 7% target


• Supervisors are saving more than three hours per week through not having to manually allocate tasks, the equivalent of two full time employees


• Supervisors are able to meet service levels more cost- effectively


• Accurate recording of staff hours has reduced the number of invoices from contractors from 250 to around 15 per week, equating to a 94% reduction in invoice processing


• Similarly dramatic time savings have been realised by Sodexo’s central administration team as the volume of invoices to forward on to their client has subsequently reduced


• Short-term sickness has fallen by 5.24%, creating annualised savings of around £31,000


• Employee engagement has vastly improved The story


Phased approach to workforce management


“It’s almost unimaginable now,” admits Sue Prince, business process director, at Sodexo, “But it was only two years ago that our time and attendance and scheduling was being done manually. Today, that seems so antiquated.” As changes go, Prince believes the HR technology journey Sodexo has been on in the last few years has been nothing short of transformational. “It’s been a two-pronged journey working with Central Manchester Hospitals – integrating time and attendance, and labour scheduling over a two-year period from 2014-2016 – so that the on-site booking of staff could be improved.” But the journey had to be taken. Optimal rostering of retail, cleaning and facilities staff was getting increasingly difficult to achieve as hospital staffing needs constantly change due to peaks and troughs in demand. Supervisors were


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