CASE STUDY STANSTED AIRPORT
supporting more than 3,000 local families
to date – is run entirely by the airport sta ,
who volunteer time to sort and transport
donations.
OPPORTUNITY TO INNOVATE
Another advantage of the change, says Spall,
is the opportunity it o ers to facilities to
innovate, without the rigmarole involved in
outsourced contracts. “If you’re asking your
contractor to trial new solutions it’s taking
them outside of their own remit,” she explains.
“They haven’t got the flexibility we now have.
“I’m working closely with our project
teams to look at innovative products we can
use, like swapping out toilet rolls with less
wasteful pull-out sheets. We’re also looking
at technology-based solutions like flush data
going into our toilets that will link to our BMS
systems. We’ll also aim to put in scorecards
with happy/sad faces, so if, for instance, we
get four or five negative comments an alert
will go o to the team leader to check out
an area.”
Recruitment is also far more
straightforward. Unlike the typical model of
many outsourced contractors for so services
which go through agencies, and tend to result
in more temporary and less engaged sta ,
Stansted Airport has a di erent approach.
It now recruits directly, which gives them a
much more positive response rate.
Stansted’s Team Promise is now preparing
for the frenetic summer period. From the
beginning of June, the new managers have
four weeks to completely embed, get their
teams aligned, do the real work on team
culture and change of behaviour, and move
that forward so that when 1 July comes,
they’re ready.
Given some of the mess people create at
airports (the fact that people routinely drop
28 JUNE 2019
chewing gum onto the floor at passport
control was a revelation), Spall recognises
that she wants to motivate a team who
are passionate to deliver but, given the
environment, also be ready to let things go
– especially when, just a er giving an area a
good clean, it’s messed up in minutes. The
frustration this can create is appreciated, but
as Spall points out: “You can’t change others’
behaviours, but you can try and influence
them by putting signs up to encourage more
considerate behaviour.”
For now, the facilities team is confident
that the changes will improve the customer
experience at the airport. In fact, according
to Roy Elphick, Asset Maintenance Services
Director at Stansted: “I think it already has,
compared to where we were 12 months
ago. And we’ve not got di erent people, just
the same people, but with much improved
motivation.”
Insourcing your so services isn’t an easy
process, Spall acknowledges, but if there
is enough commitment throughout the
organisation it can be worth the e ort. One of
the biggest provisos, she advises, is to get all
of the management on board.
“Be crystal clear about your strategy, about
the outputs you want, where you come from,
where you want to get to, and most of all,
believe in it to make it a better place to work.
We’ve got the passion, and we did it in a very
short time period, but I do believe that if
that had gone on for longer, there wouldn’t
be that much more benefit. And remember,
you can’t change everything overnight,
so you’ve got to be clear about what your
measurements are on what you can and
can’t do.”
Roy Elphick adds: “The other point for me
is to be very focused on what exactly you
want to deliver. With outsourced contracts it’s
Insourcing your soft
services isn’t an easy process,
Spall acknowledges, but if there is
enough commitment throughout
the organisation it can be
ZoUtK tKe eƚ oUtƌ
very easy to go
for a cut price and
then think about the
standards, but with this we’ve
thought long and hard about what outputs
we want, the team that we want to deliver it,
and then what it’s going to cost us. We can’t
criticise the outsourced providers because
they delivered what we bought, but what we
bought wasn’t what we wanted.”
Previously, according to Spall, “the
cleaners were crying out to be part of the
family and not an outsourced team. Now
they’re part of the Stansted team and feel
like they’re treated with the same respect.
“We’ve got everyone back on board with
a leadership team who are there to lead
and a management team there to manage.
It’s all about support and inclusion and
being recognised for doing a good job. You
can put as many people as you like onto
this terminal, and say ‘go clean’, but unless
they’re motivated they will do the minimum.
However, once they can see the bigger
picture, it changes everything.”