Heathrow Academy, Conference Room 1
Attendees
HAAG Members
Christiane Link
Chris Wood
Clive Locke
Anne Thorpe
Libby Herbert
Invited attendees
Elizabeth Hegarty (HAL)
Luke Burton (HAL)
Ciara Thorn (HAL)
Sara Marchant (HAL)
Dorothy Burton (HAL)
Stephen Wilson (HAL)
Neena Haria (HAL)
Rachel Denison (HAL)
Catherine Jenkins (HAL)
Lee Ribolla (HAL)
Cathy Baxter (HAL)
Cadence Woodland (Wilson James)
Robert Ham (NHS)
Opening – Luke Burton
Wilson James are in the transition stage of the T5 Carve Out, taking on the PRM contract at T5 solely.
Today’s HAAG meeting will be about sharing new ideas and exploring creative options.
CL – What are Heathrow doing short term?
LB – Continuous improvement work meetings have been scheduled in the calendar. Throughout the last 3 months O & I consultants are working on the continuous works, looking at what is critical for improvements. Scored and worked out our improvement plan. Local terminal improvement plans in Airline improvement meetings as well as working with individual airlines.
AT – Do O & I have any disabled members on the forum?
LB – O & I are a processed driven company so aren’t looking at fixing the day to day operation. They are working with HAL and are not there for expertise but looking from a process orientated view – resource vs demand to improve the service. O & I are giving us advice to help improve our ‘production line’.
CL – Why are passengers still being turned away at the host desks and told to self-mobilise or told ‘you don’t look disabled’.
LH – We need to be able to see these the complaints (Anne referred to) so HAL can see these centrally. We also need to look at fixing the foundation and have a top 3 priority list of things we should be focusing now.
AT mentioned she has attended several meetings with HAL employees, but has never seen any feedback that has come out from those meetings.
CL – Short term decisions are needed as well. Offering self-mobilisation shouldn’t be so quickly offered.
LH – Reiterated that there is a team of 11 people who deal with the operation on a day to day basis, including the complaints, and we have to remember that if complaints are shared on social media sites, HAL would respond directly to the passenger instead of social forums so complaints are being dealt with privately.
SM would like to minute that even though she has recently moved over from Gatwick Airport, she was never involved in the Wilson James contract, so this is not a conflict of interest. SM only worked with Wilson James to understand their challenges, so she can bring them to her role which included training. Ciara Thorn manages the operation and Omniserv contract.
CL – Heathrow is still responsible for the every day. Worst case scenario is when a passenger is rejected the assistance they have asked for.
LH – ACTION We need to find a way to communicate the short-term action pieces. Everything that has come up on the agenda should be on the roadmap. Visibility of the day to day operation.
Robert (NHS) – Works in neurodiversity and employing more people with disabilities makes a big change from experience.
CW – Time and time again seeing the same complaints come up on social media
LH – HAL have a social media team where someone is always on shift and the complaints are sent directly to the Assistance duty manager. Furthermore, the trends feed back into Neena.
Today’s session was going to start with Sara and Graham going through the ATF’s future plan, however, they will now go through this piece offline and feedback to the group over email or on Teams.
Who should be invited to the quarterly HAAG meetings? – group discussion.
SM – As a result from the recent working lunch, we have the standing agenda items.
CW – Would benefit from bringing different people of the business in, like Stakeholders, airlines. They would be able to see what is going on from a passenger’s point of view and the airlines can share their views. The airline would complete the triangle of HAAG and HAL. AOC chair should also be invited once appointed.
Group agreed on inviting Geraldine Lundy – left Virgin to become a consultant.
ACTION – For the following to attend regularly, AOC, Geraldine, John Fishwick, Alison and Heather from BA.
SM – Do we want WJ and OS at every meeting? Group agreed it’s too early to decide but need to have flexibility in the future.
Clive – Would like a frontline employee, for example a service manager, a check in agent and a baggage handler, to be flexible depending on the topic on agenda. This means the group can hear about their interaction and issues they face from their end.
AT – Would like to see how the airlines train their staff.
Clive – Would rather it wasn’t the senior managers who are always invited, for example a check in agent to see the operation from their point of view.
Update on HAAG recruitment
SM – Update on recruiting for the new HAAG chair. This vacancy is going to be advertised on a different area on the website. ACTION – Once live Sara will share with the group.
SM – Also looking to replace two members and has made contact with the Alzheimer’s Society to see if anyone would like to join. Mary Doyle and a Mark (Visual impaired) are currently potential new members. Recommendations for new HAAG members come from current HAAG members. Terms of reference states the Chair picks the members, however Sara is looking at changing the process of this.
CL – Autistic adults (Carly) are often over looked as the focus is around children – over service for the passengers and not for PR purpose.
ACTION – Invite Mark and Carly – Chris to speak to Carly.
Once the team is complete, it would be beneficial to have a team day with a facilitator, looking at each other’s Insights to have a collaborative way of working as a team. RD can organise this.
ACTION – As a result in the Social survey – to book a lunch in Central London with the current team.
It is reminded that HAAG members can be use the newly creating Teams on Microsoft as an internal communication instead of saving the frustration for the quarterly meeting. That way the team can view the messages and action immediately.
Cadence – explains that Wilson James have a low turnover of staff which is beneficial as it retains HR costs but means employees can gain more training and keep great staff. Recruiting with a hospitability background and experience is what WJ look for as these are the same people skills an airport environment requires and are key transferable skills.
CT explained Project Infinity in T2 is no longer running. It ran for 8-10 weeks but had to end as the service was inconsistent. It aimed to look at allocations and resourcing.
CL – Who makes the decision on what is a priority?
CT – It is a mixture of feedback we receive in forums, CAA requirements and feedback from HAAG members.
ECAC data slides
- ECAC performance per terminal. April – August – Steady improvement 97.8% which is good.
- ECAC data on how we are measured is being revised by the CAA. For example; passenger no-shows.
- Terminal 5 is driving down the performance. OS have a real time dashboard to advise teams where to look at peak times as well as new handsets.
- Invested in continuous improvement consultants which have analysed what is driving these results as well as looking at Inform data
CAP1228 update
- 1 handover on arrivals from Top of jetty to carpark etc
- From the 1st September it has been agreed to have 2 handovers in T3 and T4.
- Customer Satisfaction performance- Biggest area of priority is arrivals (3.74) – still a complicated service and where the focus is.
- Feedback – top 3 areas are still the same. Areas the team have been working on are; seamless arrivals, resource allocations, staff courtesy and waiting times.
- We have always had a problem with the transport to and from the terminals. Podiums have been installed which have information details about where to go next and who to contact. More resources have been moved to the baggage hall.
Complaints
An example of a complaint – ‘poor communication and staff looking bored’
AT – We are not giving them the skill sets they need. Management needs to spot this and need to call out that behaviour.
CL – It’s not only done to train the agents but that the duty managers correct behaviour of the agents on the spot.
Wilson James have a check list of questions to ask every passenger waiting in the host area to engage with the passengers. A simple reassurance that the agent will be back at what time is a peace of mind and confidence.
Lee and Cathy – T3 level transfers.
The piers at T3 were an add on to the original building, and the glass wall down the piers that splits the arriving and departing passengers mean the space is a narrow area and therefore a buggy etc doesn’t have the room for go down. This explains the multiple handovers. The lifts are also small and slow which causes delay times.
Starting with the investment in Area 2b – Investing in Mark 2020
- New lift will hold 53 people
- lift to change levels straight through to where you need to go
- Installing a lift to baggage reclaim hall – ACTION to find out how fast the lift moves, capacity and cycle time.
- Also working on T2 host expansion – relocating the travel bureau and T4 level transfers.
Cathy Baxter is leaving the team and moving on as the Business Planning and Change Manager and we have Jenna Chrissie replacing the Customer Operations Manager role on 1st October. ACTION Jacobs on agenda for December
Surface access
Catherine Jenkins from the Surface access team – Stakeholder lead
What is Surface access? All methods of transports to and from Heathrow. It doesn’t include trips within airports boundaries.
- Expansion needs to have their strategy in place to submit their application in June 2020. Big focus on getting people out of cars and using public transport and agile working.
- As passenger numbers are increasing, to make sure public transport and infrastructure are also keeping up with demand.
- Potentially if you have a high emission or diesel vehicle, you will be charged like the Congestion zone in Central London.
- We want passengers to use clean vehicles to come to Heathrow with the exception of wheelchair accessible vehicles.
CL – Will this be after cross rail is completed? This should be pushed back as accessible options will be limited.
Action to take away – What about if you were a passenger in a car that hasn’t been adapted as a disability car?
Armbands
Anne and Libby – training
Chris – wheelchairs in cabin
Clive – building construction
Christiane – Surface access transport
Intro to Wilson James
WJ will be the PRM provider to T5 solely – on schedule for November 2019.
Some OS staff will TUPE over to WJ and WJ will also be recruiting 100 new colleagues.
CL – There are two providers in Chicago and when problems occur with handovers, each company blame each other.
Cadence – ACTION will speak to experts in the team to investigate the technology knowledge on this.
AOB
SM – Edinburgh Airport have started using fetchyfox which is a food and beverage ordering service app for passengers with reduced mobility. Maybe an option to explore in Heathrow.CW – Travel Medical Companions website update? SM confirmed this is not live yet but is going through the contracting stage. SM will share once launches.