Continuous improvement
Congratulations to the team at Larne Delivery Office in Northern Ireland, winners of the CEO and COO Award for ‘Small Delivery Office of the Quarter’ for Q1 and Q2.
The new quarterly awards scheme, which is sponsored by Group CEO Rico Back and chief operating and finance officer Stuart Simpson, is based on the units that score most highly across four key areas of performance measurement: safety, First Class quality, cost and productivity.
At the end of the year, we'll be presenting awards to the overall 'units of the year,' recognising the best performing units nationally. Winners will receive money to spend at their unit.
Service delivery leader, James Jack and operations manager, Jacqueline Kilpatrick visited Larne Delivery Office to present delivery office manager Daniel Sweeney and the team with the award.
‘It was a great honour for us as a team and a real morale boost to see our hard work and efforts recognised by the senior management team,’ said Daniel. ‘We had a team breakfast of sausage rolls and buns to celebrate our achievements, and there was a great atmosphere all-round.
‘At Larne Delivery Office, we focus on providing a great service to our customers by ensuring we get it right first time, every time. We’re not perfect, but we always do our very best to provide a first-class service for the residents of Larne. We have a great team here and we believe teamwork and flexibility have been a key part of our success.
‘Over the past few years, the staff have made me feel very welcome and I’m really proud of them. We’ve made some positive changes in the unit, and by working together and working smarter, we’re now seeing good results. As a business, we have a lot of challenges in front of us, but I’m very confident the team will work together to adapt and make any required changes.’
Postman John O’Toole said he feels engagement between staff and management has been a key part of the continuous improvement the unit has demonstrated. ‘Listening to each other and acting on feedback has really helped to improve the atmosphere of the unit,’ he said.
Postman Stephen McToal said the performance boards and Work Time Listening and Learning sessions keep the team in the loop as to they are performing. ‘By using these we know and understand what we need to focus on to perform at a high level,’ he said. ‘If something slips, for example, our Tracked performance, we instantly act to ensure any issues are resolved.’
Workplace coach, Rob McToal, said: ‘We’ve seen good progress in the team. It’s vital that we don’t rest on our laurels and instead continue to focus on achieving good performance.’
