Winner: COVID-19 Response, Lloyds Banking Group and Mitie

What they did

When the pandemic struck, Lloyds Banking Group, with its 30 million customers and 65,000 employees, needed to keep its banks open to support its customers and continue to provide essential financial services. This required the maintenance of more than 1,600 branches, and over 100 offices and data centres.

With facilities service provider partner Mitie, the banking group maintained productive, connected and safe working environments for employees and customers on site as well as for staff working remotely.

How they did it

Lloyds Banking Group and Mitie needed rapid solutions to accommodate the evolving needs of its workforce and customers – while maintaining compliance with government and health authority guidance.

The FM team, under head of facilities management Marie Flint, acted as a strategic enabler and was supported by cleaners, guards, engineers, receptionists, and caterers. They followed a strategic model to:

  • keep all in-use premises safe for employees and customers, which required moving thousands of chairs, desks and IT kit to support social distancing, with posters and floor markers to guide people;
  • launch a new hygiene regime, with 81,000 enhanced branch cleans and 4,700 enhanced office cleans by mid July;
  • keep branches open wherever possible;
  • provide a rapid response to confirmed Covid-19 cases;
  • hibernating but maintaining 16 buildings for fast reoccupation;
  • launch delivery service of workstation equipment for the sudden rise of 35,000 colleagues working from home;
  • set up five PPE distribution hubs across the UK; and
  • support the group’s strategy while maintaining a safe, covid-secure working environment.

A joint incident management team comprising staff from all levels of Lloyds and Mitie held daily calls to respond quickly and expedite decision-making. The team succeeded at:

  • delivering a rapid response through its strategic model, which reduced bureaucracy;
  • creating a ‘one team’ ethic that could withstand the various challenges and be responsive when making decisions;
  • prioritising operational sites and people’s needs, flexing the service with colleagues at all levels working ‘hands on’ to deliver.

The result

The partnership enabled the banking group to:

  • support more than 1 million customers with payment holidays on loans and mortgages;
  • lend £9 billion to businesses via government schemes;
  • prioritise elderly and NHS staff;
  • support charitable foundations; and
  • the facilities management function came to the forefront of organisational decision-making.

Twitter: @LBGplc
Twitter: @Mitie