Best peak practice

The team at Rugby Delivery Office (see pic - taken in July 2021) is ready for whatever peak 2023 has in store for them.

Customer Operations Manager Keith Shipway is honest and upfront about the unit’s position. ‘We haven’t been clearing for a long time,’ he says. ‘But now, at last, we are finally clearing again.’

It’s certainly been a tough few years for everyone – with the pandemic casting a shadow over Christmas 2020 and 2021 and industrial action affecting peak 2022. But Keith feels his team are finally starting to feel that their feet are standing on even ground at long last.

‘We want to get back to where we want to be,’ he says. ‘Most people do want to do a good job.’

‘I think it’s all about speaking to your teams and doing what you can to support them,’ he adds.

‘Bolstering preps in the morning to get things onto the frames quicker so that everyone can be out the door quicker - helping people to clear and maximising the opportunity for delivery time.’

The incentive scheme is working well so far in Rugby and has enabled the whole unit to transparently and easily see the results of their hard work, Keith says.

‘We can see our performance improving. And we are telling people where we are daily – using the noticeboard as well to share performance.

‘We have a noticeboard at the front of the office showing our USO (Universal Service Obligation) performance from that day and our quality performance for that day that directly links to the bonus. We have improved so much in recent weeks that if the bonus had started last week we would have got it.

‘The great thing about the incentive scheme is that it is simple, straightforward and gives customers what they want as well.

‘It is great that we are going in the right direction. For me the bonus is great – but the improvements we have seen at Rugby are also all about pride and performance.

‘There are people that have been here for some time that have a real pride in their performance. We are endeavouring to work with those people – they want to deliver.

‘With the new starters we are getting, we want them to hit those standards as well. We put them with our best people – so that the standards we are setting from the get-go are the right standards.

‘We really do need to say a big well done and thank you to our people – the OPG team across the whole delivery office at Rugby.

‘We are in a good place and we are preparing now for what the next four or five weeks will bring.

‘I think this Christmas is absolutely vital for the future of the business. We need to get back that business that we have lost.’