London City Airport: First class support for employee well-being
Published by: LifeWorks,
London City Airport is the fifth busiest airport serving the UK’s capital city. Over 4.5 million passengers pass though the terminal every year, supported by over 2,000 direct and associated employees. An airport is a unique work environment, where the safety and well-being of passengers and crew is paramount. With demand for air travel predicted to double over the next 20 years, a recent paper from the British Psychological Society encouraged the aviation industry to invest in the infrastructure and wellbeing of its workforce to meet this demand and ensure safety is not compromised.
In line with this prediction, London City Airport is in the midst of a £480m airport development programme, which will see eight new aircraft stands, equivalent to the size of 11 football pitches, being built alongside the creation of the UK’s first Digital Air Traffic Control Tower. There will also be a full-length parallel taxiway constructed and extensions of the terminal, quadrupling its size. This will grow the airport’s workforce significantly and London City has stepped up its plans to develop the culture of its workforce and support employee well-being in tandem with the expansion.
“We are undertaking the largest development ever in the history of the airport and we want our staff to enjoy work and enjoy their lives out of work,” said Robert Sinclair, CEO of London City Airport.
“Life is too short not to enjoy what you do when you’re at work and it’s incredibly important that our staff are strong mentally and physically,” Sinclair added.
London City is using the LifeWorks total unified well-being solution to communicate with all of its staff, to get key messages out and to talk about the development and the future of the business. The Newsfeed allows a company communication to be delivered to all staff, wherever they are, even if they are not in front of a computer.
Combined with Recognition, the Newsfeed is also promoting a sense of community by allowing staff to engage with each other 24/7.
“LifeWorks lets people know what a great job they did. You may not be able to speak to them face to face but you can catch them online and they then get a notification saying they’ve been given a recognition,” said Mohammed Zaman, Security Operations Manager at the airport.
This support for social well-being also connects to an employee’s mental, physical and financial wellness when combined with the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and clinical counselling.
“Just to get a ‘thank you’ or a ‘well done’ at the end of the day, it motivates you to do better,” said Stephanie Powell, Reward Manager at the airport. “And If you give people the functionality to be able to get some help, speak to someone, and relieve their stress then they’ll be more focused on their work and therefore their productivity will increase,” Powell added.
Being able to offer 24/7 support to the workforce is crucial when you have lots of shift workers and rostered staff. As CEO Robert Sinclair points out, in that environment it’s not always easy for people to be able to communicate with each other.
“So, whether it’s mental well-being, whether it the Employee Assistance Programme, whether its deals for local gyms or communication with other employees, everything we do means we want to see a healthy, happy, engaged workforce,” Sinclair said.