Making Royal London a great place to work with IFM

Overview of the challenge

Founded in 1861, Royal London is a leading insurance company. With a long-standing reputation for quality, the organisation began a strategic partnership with Mitie in 2021. They wished to move from in-house facilities provision to an integrated facilities management (IFM) model with the support of an expert partner. The ultimate aim was to implement impeccable, customer-focused delivery that reflected a seamless, hotel-style experience. This would be supported by a collaborative programme of transformational change called ‘Your Workplace’.

Our approach

The development of ‘Your Workplace’ began during the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought renewed focus to hybrid working. As the project developed, Royal London wished to attract people back to the workplace by creating an exceptional experience. The organisation wanted the workplace to be a destination and stakeholders had the shared goal of creating great spaces to work.

Working in collaboration, Mitie and Royal London devised the ‘Your Workplace’ approach. Mitie colleagues were embedded into Royal London’s culture. To achieve behavioural change, team members received tailored training and were encouraged to provide constructive feedback to each other, whenever appropriate. ‘Voice of the Customer’ surveys tracked building-user satisfaction, providing a means to judge engagement and satisfaction. Team members demonstrating exceptional performance were rewarded with vouchers for high street shops and restaurants.

All Royal London’s building services management colleagues were brought together into one team. A ‘Workplace Concierge’ was established to safeguard compliance, make sure best practice was in place and to elevate the building-user experience. The team provide cover for client-facing roles, including front-of-house – and they’re even trained to solve the five most common IT problems. Ways of Working (WOW) meetings have helped incentivise performance, with 102 colleague-generated ideas recorded and over £3,500 in vouchers paid to recognise contributions.

Technology is key to Mitie’s IFM delivery and a £100,000 investment in workplace sensors was critical for recording space usage. At Royal London we further implemented the following:

• Upgraded robotic floor cleaning equipment that uses less energy and water, freeing up colleagues to focus on more detailed tasks.
• Mitie’s first bespoke client dashboard for live occupancy data, enabling building users to identify free desks.
• A self-scan till within the restaurant area; cutting down transaction time and reducing queues during busy periods.
• An unmanned ‘Grab & Go’ area for snacks and drinks, using technology to deliver a fresh food solution in a challenging space.
• Sensor technology within washrooms drives data-led cleaning, alerting the team based on usage and when washroom consumables need to be refilled.

Implementing a ‘one team’ approach where Mitie are integrated into the workplace team and the use of their connected workplace technology, has allowed us to make strategic decisions based on data and insight. Working at this level together has ensured Mitie are supporting our drive for continuous improvement, are clear on our strategic goals and can support across all workstreams. Having a strategic partnership with Mitie allows us to deliver change quickly and sets us up to manage future challenges seamlessly.

The results

The team is driven and engaged, as demonstrated by low attrition rates and year-on-year improvements in colleague satisfaction scores. This includes an increase in participation from 79% to 81% and an increase in engagement from 57% to 62%.

The ‘Your Workplace’ initiative had a positive impact, with the slick, hotel-style experience influencing a rise in building occupancy from 40% in March 2022 to current levels of approximately 60%.

Thanks to the combined impact of technology, the ‘Your Workplace’ programme and a revitalised colleague culture, Mitie and Royal London succeeded in creating a great place to work.

Why choose Mitie?

By bringing your FM and workplace services together, integrated facilities management (IFM) from Mitie opens the door to innovation and smarter ways to deliver your goals. You gain access to our unrivalled in-house specialists alongside our advanced data capabilities and platforms. This provides you with the insights, expertise and solutions to get the outcomes you need.