As Europe’s largest airport, Heathrow is powered by a team of 6,500 employees and welcomes more than 78 million passengers every year. Home to more than 80 airlines, Heathrow’s Terminal 2 holds the title of the ‘World’s Best Airport Terminal’ and is the airport’s most sustainable––powered by 100% renewable gas and electricity. The around-the-clock nature of work for Heathrow’s dispersed workforce necessitates reliable, easy-to-use, and operations-focused secure team messaging.
From engineering and customer relationship managers to security personnel, Heathrow needed a mobile communication strategy to boost employee satisfaction and for shift communications across airport departments.
After gathering feedback from frontline workers on the pain points they experience in their daily jobs and researching technology that could deliver solutions to address them, Heathrow built a digital workplace that includes Beekeeper. The airport now has a robust operational communication platform designed to:
- Connect and engage Heathrow’s mobile workforce while being desktop-accessible for office-based employees
- Digitally manage operational and shift communications
- Consistently and effectively convey the airport’s communication strategy
Real-time Team Messaging Boosts Employee Satisfaction
Now an integral part of Heathrow’s communication strategy, Beekeeper (which Heathrow calls ‘Buzz’) is used primarily for airport operations staff and for employee engagement. Implementing team messaging as a key component of their digital workplace has made Heathrow a more proactive organization to measure and respond to employee feedback efficiently.
Beekeeper provides “eyes on the ground,” for airport team members to share photos and comments about what could be improved, and to surface any issues. Conversations started within Beekeeper communication streams allowed the organization to make necessary changes to increase employee satisfaction and engagement.
Digitally-Distributed Daily Briefing Sheets
Coordinating schedules for in-person meetings and pre-shift check-ins for a rotating 24/7 workforce is nearly impossible, not to mention costly from a business perspective. The solution?
Heathrow now ensures their frontline workers receive the need-to-know information for their shift by distributing daily briefing sheets directly through Beekeeper. Posted in dedicated communication streams, these briefing documents are accessible directly from their mobile device.
“With Beekeeper, there’s really good visibility into the issues people face in their daily jobs at Heathrow. For example, we have had some of the equipment in the airport improved and changed. We have also made changes to the working environment. Content shared in Beekeeper has allowed us to improve the business in this way.” –Heathrow
Mobile Shift Communications
In addition to maintenance reporting, another core operational use case for Beekeeper is shift management. Shift management used to be paper based, but since moving the process online, the organization has greatly reduced the time this process takes from a week to just a day or two. Push notifications ensure that the shift exchange happens quickly, and coverage can be facilitated peer-to-peer.
