Heathrow Express has won three awards at the UK Employee Experience Awards – the Gold Award for Employee Experience in a Crisis – Staying Connected:the Gold Award for Employee Training and Development – Continuous Learning and the Silver award for Use of Digital Technologies and Transformation.
Whilst Heathrow Express maintained a service throughout the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, it also faced the lowest passenger numbers on record. The fastest route from London to Heathrow also supports Heathrow in providing the best airport service in the world.
As a result of the pandemic, it restructured the business to both futureproof and differentiate the brand and transform employee and customer experiences.
Following the restructure, the Heathrow Express Senior Leadership team was keen to ensure colleagues felt COVID-safe at work and remained engaged especially as many were furloughed and due to return to new jobs.
Mike Morgan-Batney, Head of Customer Experience appointed consultants Ethos Farm to help scope out and develop digital solutions to revolutionise employee engagement.
The resulting Digital Employee Engagement Initiative has underpinned Heathrow Express’ ethos that even in a pandemic, a great customer experience can only be delivered by employees’ own great experiences.
This revolutionary digital end to end Learning & Development experience could be accessed by colleagues on furlough, uses avatar customers, scenario-based learning, bespoke video content and real-life stories; all of which can be accessed through the bespoke built employee app.
Using cutting-edge workforce technologies, the initiative includes products to take colleagues from induction through career progression and information and content governed by external bodies such as the Civil Aviation Authority and the Office of Rail and Road.
This has helped staff overcome anxieties and helped to secure 100% return to work for frontline colleagues.
Mike Morgan-Batney, Heathrow Express’ Head of Customer Experience said: “These awards are a testament to the positive and innovative approach my team and our partners Ethos Farm took to employee engagement during the COVID crisis.
“When you’re serious about providing world leading personalised customer service, you need to have an engaged workforce prepared to create memorable moments at each stage of our passengers’ journey.
“Our approach through COVID was recognised not only by the judges at the Employee Experience Awards, but more importantly by our own employees who through various eNPS, PULSE and post training surveys showed that our team are not only Heathrow Express Ambassadors but are promoters and custodians of our brand; exactly what we need to continue providing world leading service to our customers.”
Photo credit: Heathrow Express
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