NHSD - Workforce Optimisation

NHS Direct (NHSD) is at the forefront of 24-hour health care, delivering telephone and e-health information services day and night direct to the public.  Over two million people access NHSD every month.

In 2008, The Accord Partnership had already provided NHS Direct with well received support in defining and implementing its virtual contact centre workforce planning (WFP) processes when it was commissioned to identify further opportunities for optimisation.  Accord's brief was threefold: to develop a strategic employment framework - identifying the optimum mix of fixed/flexible and part/full time workers; to develop a schedule management plan that reduced the cost of schedule non-adherence; and to identify improvements - both tactical and strategic - to the organisation's WFP toolkit.

Accord proposed a flexible employment framework and a schedule management plan with significant benefits to be realised over the short, medium and long term.  It also developed a roadmap for the development and deployment of an appropriate WFP toolkit that was aligned to initiatives already identified within the organisation's strategic development programme.