Avanti West Coast has announced the introduction of a new initiative that utilises technology to both capture and develop employee ideas.
The programme, titled ‘Ignite a Change’, provides employees with a technology platform to submit suggestions on how business and customer experience may be improved.
Launched with idea management software company Sideways 6; an online platform is now available for employees to submit their thoughts, with the cloud-based technology integrated with existing Avanti West Coast tools already used by staff to allow for ease of use.
The software, powered by AI, puts together similar ideas and suggests related topics, enabling both collaboration and the refinement of submissions. It also automated the process of capturing, reviewing and acting on suggestions, allowing for all ideas to be fully acknolwedged.
Ignite a Change is available to all employees and, ultimately, aims to enable company-wide collaboration and bring more people into the ideas process by giving them the chance to view, comment or engage with suggestions.
Proposals set to be implemented include giving staff the ability to apologise and resolve customer problems at the time of incident, as well as improvements to onboard announcements.
Anita Brown, Head of Innovation and Engagement at Avanti West Coast, said:Our people have amazing ideas to improve how we deliver our service. Ignite a Change is about helping our staff to make those happen.
The initiative has given us a brilliant opportunity to partner with Sideways 6 to do something pioneering for the rail industry. We’ve created a simple, user-friendly platform where anyone can quickly share their suggestions. By harnessing the ideas of our staff in this way, we can make a significant and far-reaching impact on the customer experience across the West Coast and beyond.
