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UTILITY WEEK | OCTOBER 2020 | 37 Operational Excellence Content spotlight – UKPN's next generation workforce planning app Among the first confirmed case studies on the UWL Online agenda is a session to be presented by UK Power Networks' con- tact centre manager James Cotter about the company's next generation workforce planning app. The solution was developed by UKPN in 2019 and won the Utility Week Digital Transformation Award in December last year, gaining recognition from the awards judges for the "truly transformational" impact it had on staff. The app was developed to help workers at UKPN's service delivery call centre man- age their own shi patterns. And in a way which allows them to fit their work around their personal lives while also ensuring the centre is always sufficiently staffed and the company maintains its industry leading service levels. UKPN took inspiration for the app's development from Netflix, which deploys a similar solution to help with work plan- ning, employee engagement and motiva- tion in its service centres. In its award entry, UKPN described the app as the new "jewel in the crown of our IT applications". The tool was co-designed with employ- ees to ensure usability and relevance. It enables staff to have full visibility of their working hours and manage shi swaps and leave in a fluid way, without having to wait on replies to emails sent to managers. It also performs dynamic shi forecast- ing, which specifies the level of staffing required in relation to anticipated demand under "business as usual" or "incident" scenarios. The solution has unlocked major ben- efits for both employees and the busi- ness. It has raised the "employee opinion score" of their workplace – a measure UKPN tracks regularly – and significantly reduced leave approval time. It has also enabled efficiency gains such as a 33 per cent reduction in overtime payments and a 50 per cent reduction in the size of UKPN's resourcing team, allowing the company to reallocate the skills of those staff mem- bers into frontline customer service roles. Furthermore, since the app was deployed, UKPN has achieved its best ever customer service scores against Ofgem's Broad Meas- ure of Customer Service. Enthusing about the difference the app has made to employees and the business, UKPN's service delivery centre manager Alex Williams says: "We believe this is way ahead of what other utilities are doing, and it stands out as one of the best innovations we've made in the way we operate a cru- cial part of delivering top class customer service. Our teams love it and I sometimes wonder now how we managed without it!" To learn more about this award-winning solution to work planning and employee engagement challenges, register now for Utility Week Live Online. Confirmed programme highlights… The following case studies are confirmed in our Operational Excellence Programme, which is structured around six core themes: asset management; technology for resilience; connecting and protect- ing a productive workforce; tackling water leakage; smart metering; and improving water and wastewater treatment. Details for our Innovation programme will be released shortly. • Using drone data to enhance short and longer-term infra- structure resilience Greg Barrett, project engineer Northumbrian Water (see analysis, p40) • Transforming the IT function to support new business resilience needs post-Covid James Boswell, head of end user computing, Centrica • SGN's accelerated rollout of new field force optimisation and planning soware during the coronavirus pandemic Ben Crox- ford, senior business partner, SHE development, SGN • Improving leakage detection in plastic pipes Jamie Jones, leakage and smart networks manager, Portsmouth Water • Restarting the gas mains replace- ment programme – tackling efficiency challenges post-Covid Annabel West, head of engineer- ing policy, SGN • Utility Week's Digital Transforma- tion Award winner 2019 – UKPN's next generation workforce plan- ning app James Cotter, contact centre manager, UKPN …and more. To find out more and register for your FREE pass visit http://www. utilityweeklive.co.uk/UWLO