Active Health Partners Improves Current and Future Resourcing at its Nursing Contact Centre with GMT Planet™
GMT helps to drive down overtime costs and identifies overstaffing level of 25%
BIRMINGHAM, UK -- (July 10, 2007) - Active Health Partners (AHP), the provider of a system for employees to call to report absence, has significantly enhanced the accuracy of forecasting and resourcing within its 24-hour Nursing Contact Centre (NCC) in London, following the introduction of GMT Planet™ workforce management solution. This has not only helped to drive down overtime costs and identified a 25% level of overstaffing during key periods of the day, but also improved AHP’s ability to accurately resource for short and long-term projects for existing and new clients.
Since implementing GMT Planet, AHP has introduced a number of new initiatives around compliance and real-time adherence monitoring for staff, and supported the introduction of home working to manage the split shifts around peaks in call volumes between 6am - 10am and 4pm – 7pm. Such initiatives, combined with enhanced visibility to multiple work streams around inbound and outbound calls and emails, and greater reporting capabilities, have led to further improvements in customer service levels, demonstrated by the continued success of achieving weekly service level targets.
Brett Edwards, Head of Contact Centre Operations at AHP explained, “GMT helps us to forecast correctly for existing staff levels and offer a predictive schedule to accurately forecast for future campaigns and new clients. We have an eight week lead time for new client campaigns, so we need to ensure we can efficiently deliver a high-level of service. Through the use of GMT workforce management, we are now consistently achieving our service level target of 80% of calls answered within 30 seconds. We also identified a 25% overstaffing level, which has helped us to rework schedules for a better staffing fit.”
AHP’s business has grown dramatically over the last four years and the NCC is now staffed by 40 FTE nurses, supported by a small group of non-medical staff, currently managing 10,500 inbound and outbound calls a week. With projections of a 60% increase in calls by the end 2007 and the increasing complexities of managing shifts around the peaks in call demand and longevity, AHP selected GMT Planet to improve its resourcing and schedule staff to meet these requirements.
Brett Edwards continued, “GMT Planet workforce management solution is flexible enough to grow with our business. It has enabled us to quickly bring staff up to speed with the system and manage the complex rota of scheduling staff around peaks in call volumes, their hospital shifts and offer shift preferences. In turn, GMT’s adherence tool has promoted an increase in productivity within the NCC and utilization of nursing staff has improved significantly. From a management perspective, it delivered visibility to multiple work streams around inbound and outbound calls and emails for the first time, offered greater standard and adhoc reporting capabilities, and supported the introduction of compliance and real-time adherence monitoring.”
AHP’s 24-hour helpline is staffed by experienced nurses who carry out assessments, offer medical advice, arrange review dates and record the employee’s absence, before providing real-time notification and reporting of the absence to the employer. The service promotes medical health with employees, providing primary health advice from professionals as soon as they need it and recommendations on timely and cost-effective treatment, and in some cases has reduced potential absence by up to 30%.
Simon Angove, CEO of GMT said, “As the need grows for particular organisations to offer a 24/7 service, so do the complexities associated with scheduling staffing. Beyond current forecasting of resources, workforce management solutions now need to offer added value through predictive capabilities, accurate reporting, and support for new initiatives around productivity and flexible working. We’re delighted that AHP recognised that GMT Planet could deliver these benefits and continue to support AHP’s innovative service as its business develops and expands.”
About GMT Corporation
GMT’s workforce and cash optimisation solutions create competitive advantage by enabling companies to improve customer service and sales, while decreasing their variable expenses. The company’s product line combines precision forecasting and intelligent scheduling with powerful analytics and performance management tools – together delivering a complete solution that is priced to deliver quick return on investment. GMT serves financial services and contact center customers worldwide, including ABN AMRO, Citibank, Eurostar, Ingenico, Nielsen Media, Pizza Hut, SunTrust, UPS, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo and West Midlands Police. The company is privately held with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and offices in the U.K., Australia, and India. For more information, visit www.gmt.com.
