CARGO
NEWS
THE NEWSLETTER FOR AER LINGUS CARGO
M AY 2015
Dear Colleague,
1,700
I would like to thank you and all of our staff for an outstanding contribution to a strong first quarter of 2015. You can see the scale of what you achieved in the March peak in purple on the chart. We have all been pressed hard in the last three months and have responded magnificently. I hope by now you have availed of our thank-you breakfast in Dublin or lunch in Shannon, a small token of thanks for the support this year. As we enter the summer season, reduced freight and additional flight capacity will make life a little easier for us with fewer offloads and rebookings, for example, and we have already seen this annual easing off in April. Thank you again for your contribution. I would like to update you on a few other issues in this first edition of Cargo News.
1,500
Regards,
AER LINGUS CARGO TONNES CARRIED
2012
2013
2014
2015
3,100 2,900 2,700 2,500 2,300 2,100 1,900
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
Michael Sanfey Director of Cargo
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YOU WILL HAVE NOTICED SIGNIFICANT CHANGES ALREADY INCLUDING: More safety inspections Revised procedures issued as a read and sign on a variety of safety issues Pedestrians marshalled in the yard to keep them away from vehicles The closure of the extended loading docks The creation of a driver reception area to marshal customers awaiting goods Repainting of the designated walkways in the warehouse
Your safety representatives in Dublin are Paul Hanratty and Paul Redmond, and for Shannon Oliver Nagle and Gus Ryan. Please feel free to approach either to raise any safety concerns or questions you may have. A safety representative may consult with, and make representations on safety, health and welfare matters relating to the employees in the place of work and the employer must consider these representations, and act on them if necessary. The intention of these consultations is to prevent accidents and ill-health, highlight problems, and identify means of overcoming them.
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afety is our top priority and safety is the responsibility of all of us. If you see anything that can be considered dangerous it is your duty to report it to your supervisor. By doing so you may save a colleague’s life. Easy-to-use safety reports are on the cargo portal or can be obtained from a supervisor.
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ENGAGEMENT
survey FEEDBACK
CARGO ENGAGEMENT SCORE 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3 2.9 2.8 2.7 2.6
2.5
2010 2010 2.89
2011 2011 2.84
2012 2012 3.14
2013 2013 3.38
2014 2014 3.17
e have received the results of the fifth Employee Engagement Survey. Once again, I am glad to say the overall company results have improved, getting closer to external comparisons of best practice. For Cargo, I am concerned that some of the strong improvements in our engagement results have slipped in 2014 from 3.38 to 3.17 and I am very keen that we understand and address that. As you are aware, we have made a number of improvements over the last number of years which were a result of your feedback through the engagement survey and various forums such as the engagement feedback sessions and the Cargo Contact Colleague Group. SOME OF THE MAIN THINGS WE HAVE PUT IN PLACE ARE: Warehouse heating project Office and warehouse refurbishment, improvements to staff locker and break rooms Supervisor and management development programmes Cargo Contact Colleague structure in place New equipment for the warehouse Quarterly business briefings from Director of Cargo Payment of special cargo 250 bonus Social events including our summer BBQ, bowling and cricket.
I WOULD LIKE TO RESPOND TO THE FEEDBACK OFFERED AT THIS YEAR’S ENGAGEMENT SURVEY AND FOLLOW-UP MEETINGS INCLUDING: • WHO DO I REPORT TO • MANPOWER • TRAINING • ROSTERS & LEAVE • COMMUNICATION
WHO DO I REPORT TO?
Ken Bradshaw
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hereas in the past staff have reported to supervisors who change with shift patterns, from May 31st a new system will be applied. On any given shift, each staff member will continue to take direction from the supervisor/CTO/duty manager as before for the duties on that particular shift. However, all staff members will also be appointed to a permanent named manager who will be responsible for a small group of staff. Regardless of changing shifts, everybody will have a
single manager to whom they can turn for any issues that affect them on a daily basis. This new system has been very successful in IFS and will complement the Cargo Contact Colleague process in allowing information to flow freely in both directions. Ground floor office-based staff will report to one of the two duty managers, Seamus Hynes and John Donnelly. The upstairs office is unchanged. For the warehouse team each person will initially report to the new role of warehouse manager, who will join us in the summer. This structure will be reviewed once the new person is in place. ACTING UP: Some confusion was expressed at the engagement meetings regarding Acting Up. It is a requirement of all grades to Act Up as needed. This will only be requested when the person Acting Up is properly
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trained for the higher grade. At all times we will endeavour to provide maximum notice of a request to Act Up. However, unforeseen changes to rosters and staff attendance may not make this notice possible in all cases. It is important to bear in mind that this flexibility in Acting Up is essential to both the smooth running of the Cargo operation, and also allows us to grant leave requests and days off with the maximum flexibility for all staff. Notice of Acting Up will be identified to you via the published roster or may be requested on the day by your supervisor or duty manager. The process of appointing a person to Act Up as required will be made more formal and communications will be given via the supervisors on this. Other views expressed during engagement are addressed on the following page.
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ROSTERS & LEAVE
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ENGAGEMENT
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Many staff asked for an update on the roster review, wanted more notice of future rosters, wanted gaps in the rosters filled earlier, more weekends off and greater clarity on holiday planning. All of these are under review between Aer Lingus HR and Cargo Management. While any roster will seldom suit all of our staff it is our intention to improve the rosters and present an update on the status of any new scheme before the end of June this year. We are exploring a new roster exempt from the Working Time Act which, if successful, would allow more flexibility for staff. All of the suggestions received for specific new shift times, earlier/later starts have been considered and will be implemented where possible – for example, an additional Friday evening shift has been added to cope with busy trucking schedules.
Staff training is under review. Already in 2015 all Dublin warehouse staff have been offered training on safety and ULD-building. The new recruits have been held back for a full four-week induction training course so that when they join the roster they can make a more immediate impact and this will free up resources to offer training to other existing staff in particular to boost the pool available for export roles. ● A new role of warehouse manager will commence in the summer; this person and all of the management team are committed to spending more time on the office and warehouse floor to assist and understand operational issues as they arise. ● A final review of the new floor surface is under way. If that is not successful, a project will commence in the interim to fix the floor joints on the floor without doing a whole resurface. ● The lack of a planned progression through the various work activities with the appropriate training has been addressed and a clear path from team member A to team member B has been established to allow good staff to progress. ● Over the coming months we will be organising more social events where we can get together informally to recognise our achievements. If you have any suggestions for these events please let us know. Please continue to take part in the communication activities and engage in the process of making Cargo a better place to work.
OTHER ISSUES
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COMMUNICATION
MANPOWER LEVEL ENGAGEMENT
Associated with rosters (see below), there has been concern about staffing levels in general and housekeeping in particular. March has been our busiest month in each of the last four years and has been again this year. I would like to thank you and all our staff who have given so much to keep the operation moving this year. We will now see an easing off of volumes for the summer period. It is this strong level of productivity that has supported the pay-out of the annual performance bonus to staff and we are on track in 2015 again. As well as the seasonal slowdown in freight, we have added more staff hours. Recently, five staff who have been on 20-hour fixed term contracts have been offered permanent full-time contracts. In addition, eight new staff started in early April. This, with the seven new jobs last year, will bring up our staff level in Dublin significantly. Future staff levels will be monitored as business progresses to see if more recruitment is required. Our duty managers have committed to filling known gaps in a timely manner and the revised roster will allow for future rosters to be published earlier than at present. We are conscious of the need to balance growth with our ability to service customers safely and effectively; as a result we have cut back on some volumes of transfer mail as this was causing staff particular difficulties.
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The series of meetings in March were a good kick off to better communication. The move to appoint a single manager for all staff will allow us all to know to whom we can turn with requests for information at any time. We are committed to continuing to hold more of the Cargo Contact Colleague (CCC) meetings and will return with a further series of meetings with all staff 3-4 times per year as needed.
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN FOR YOUR EFFORTS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, IN PARTICULAR FOR YOUR COMMITMENT DURING THE RECENT BUSY PERIOD.
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