FEATURE A PRESCRIPTION FOR PROGRESSIVE PERFORMANCE


An antiquated workforce management system across the Royal Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust forced Sodexo to rethink its strategy for the future. Embarking


on a relationship with Kronos, a workforce management technology provider, enabled a streamlining of processes fit for contemporary service delivery. Ryan Lloyd, Editor of Tomorrow’s FM reports.


Sitting in the heart of the city on the busy Oxford Road, the Royal Manchester’s Children Hospital composes one of nine healthcare centres in the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT).


It is here that Tomorrow’s FM met Sue Prince, Business Process Director at Sodexo, Ryan Atherton, Multi- services Manager at Sodexo and Claire Richardson, Director of Professional Services at Kronos, to discuss the streamlining of service provision Kronos’ workforce management software has given Sodexo across the Trust.


Operating across a diverse array of sectors such as healthcare, education, corporate and government, multi- services provider Sodexo employs more than 420,000 people across 34,000 client sites in 80 countries, making it the 18th largest employer in the world. In the UK alone, it has around 35,000 employees spread across 2000 client locations.


In 2005, Sodexo was awarded a hard FM deal for five of the hospitals across the Manchester Trust. Three years later, the NHS extended the contract to include the provision of soft FM services. Domestic, retail, portering, waste management, patient dining, help-desk and technical services are bundled together in a total facilities management (TFM) contract.


As Prince succinctly explained: “We let the hospital do what the hospital does, which is look after the patients, and we provide the services in and around that.”


In recent years the FM environment has become highly competitive. Decreasing margins have forced service providers to adapt their propositions to deliver enhanced efficiencies, as clients seek contractors that offer better value for money, innovative technological developments and accurate management analytics.


The evolving demands of customers continues to motivate service providers to evaluate and improve their performance to meet new procurement criteria. This point becomes even more pertinent in British healthcare as the government sets new, often more challenging, targets for the NHS.


As part of its contract with central Manchester, Sodexo is performance managed, with the hospital coordinating regular audits to ensure that the services it is supposed to conduct are up to a certain standard. “If we fail to achieve key performance indicators we can be penalised on a monthly basis,” explained Atherton.


“The evolving demands of customers continues to motivate service


providers to evaluate and improve their performance to meet new procurement criteria.”


Pre-2014, Sodexo’s existing workforce management system was too antiquated and outdated for its 1200-strong workforce and the contemporary needs of the Trust. Lost productivity, hidden costs and suboptimal staff allocations were culminating in a need for a more methodical and systematic way of working; a new solution to meet the growing complexities had become paramount.


Enter Kronos US-based multi-national workforce management and service provider, Kronos Incorporated, offers a suite of tools to help manage and engage workforces from pre- hire to retire. Recent estimates suggest that upwards of 40 million people at more than 30,000 organisations around the world rely on Kronos workforce solutions every day.


Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital - Copyright - David Martin 22 | TOMORROW’S FM


In 2017, the workforce management software market was valued at $4.25bn. It is a massive industry that is


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