Vodafone Total Workforce Mobility improves Bedford Borough Council’s performance

Overview

  •  Located in South East England, Bedford Borough Council serves a population of 157,000.

  • Like all UK local authorities, it faces budget constraints yet needs to improve its customer service and keep its workers happy and motivated.

  • Together with Vodafone, the Council rolled out a workforce mobility programme, improving employee satisfaction and productivity.

Meet Bedford Borough Council

Bedford Borough Council is a local authority of South East England, serving a population of 157,000. Despite the many challenges UK local authorities face throughout the year, Bedford Council strives to improve the lives of residents and employees alike.

The council aims to be a leading example when it comes to improvements, such as rethinking traditional processes, listening to employees and giving them the right tools to reduce travel costs and time spent on admin tasks.

The challenge 

Heavy budget constraints have taken their toll on Bedford council’s productivity, like many local authorities. One area especially affected is the Regulatory Services team.

It couldn’t provide the expected quality service due to time consuming and inefficient data sharing processes. As Craig Austin, Assistant Director at Bedford Borough Council puts it: “People employed in Regulatory Services […] don’t want to spend all day doing paperwork; they want to do their job better and help people.”

The Council wanted to extend its workforce’s mobility, preferably in a single-device model, to achieve quality outcomes and boost morale and productivity via faster, more effective decision makings.

“It’s hard to put a price on the most significant benefit: flexible working has created a better work/life balance for [the Council’s] staff. Life is easier with a mobile work environment.”

The solution

After careful consideration, Bedford Borough Council opted for the Vodafone Total Workforce Mobility (TWM) suite.

TWM helps employees by giving them the right applications and devices to get more done in less time.

Initially, TWM consultants suggested a trial with the Council’s Food Services team. Workers received new laptops and smartphones, and had the chance to voice their thoughts on creating the finalised solution.

“Mobility is more than the device; it impacts our forms and processes. This was an opportunity to rethink how we work. Vodafone really helped move this forward,” adds Craig.

The benefits

Thanks to the successful trial, Bedford Council’s Regulatory Services now can enjoy quicker, more efficient fieldwork and administration. In total, 63 workstreams within Regulatory Services use Vodafone TWM, including Health and Safety, Noise Pollution and Trading Standards.

Back-office workers also saw positive changes; paper and print costs were halved and there’s less need for print document storage rooms.

Additionally, the flexible working policy introduced hot desking. This allowed the Council to save significantly on real estate costs by reducing the number of office desks by two-thirds, only keeping them for employees who want or need to work in office.

Stats

Simultaneous workstreams

63 TWM-based workstreams help teams work faster.

Less paper wasted

Switching to technology means 50% less paper printing.

Less unused office desks

Flexible office desk policy also helps reduce real estate costs.

Investment for the future

With the necessary upgrades implemented, employee work/life balance sorted and adhering to the budget constraints of UK local councils, Bedford Borough Council’s future looks bright with Vodafone TWM.

In fact, they expect to see a return on investment within just three years, with savings injected into frontline services and expanding the TWM suite to the Adult and Child Services and Planning and Highway departments.

As Craig concludes “it’s hard to put a price on the most significant benefit: flexible working has created a better work/life balance for [the Council’s] staff. Life is easier with a mobile work environment.”

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