When employees were sick, it was very hard for them to get in touch with their store or health centre.
One phone call to a freephone number and everyone in the chain is immediately notified – reducing hassle.
Since its implementation, the system has saved nearly £600,000 and cut absenteeism by 0.25%.
The challenge
Before, sick-leave notification was decentralised and there wasn’t a single process. Now it only requires one free call, with minimal hassle.
We worked with Carrefour to create a sickness and accident leave reporting channel that would be simple for employees – and effective for the business. Our professional services global consultancy teams have 25 years of experience devising strategic technological solutions to meet business goals. So they were definitely up to the task.
To keep costs to a minimum, we proposed Cloud Contact. As it’s a complete virtual contact centre solution, customers can quickly scale the number of agents, but only pay for what’s used on a per-agent, per-month basis. The resulting medical assistance service (servicio de atención médica or SAM in Spanish) is a cost-effective Cloud Contact facility based at the Carrefour Argentina headquarters in Buenos Aires, integrated into the company’s HR systems.
If they’re sick, employees can access the SAM anytime via a freephone 0800 number. Notifying the company takes a single, free call. A contact centre agent team passes the notification on to store managers, HR and the medical centres, helping them to follow up on the illness.
Outside working hours, employees can leave a message via the freephone number. If they’re calling about a work-related accident, the SAM interactive voice response (IVR) sends them to a workers’ compensation insurance company for treatment. Each employee then has to submit a photo of their doctor’s note, using WhatsApp, ready to send to the relevant health centre.
It only took us 100 days to develop the SAM project, with our professional services team doing a significant amount of work on the HR systems integration.
The SAM has been working without a hitch since its launch. In the first seven months it took 24,000 calls and helped cut absenteeism by 0.25 percent – representing a saving of ARS$12 million (nearly £600,000), net of implementation costs.
Mariano Patané, head of workplace health for Carrefour Argentina, says: “As well as making sick notification easier for employees, the system can collect statistical data. We can track the progress of diseases and take appropriate action.”
Carrefour also faces fewer sick leave-related disputes with trade unions, since all SAM conversations are recorded and can be used as proof of what employees did or didn’t tell the company.
The success of the SAM is leading Carrefour Argentina to integrate the system with its in-house clinics. That’ll mean referrals and case histories can be managed and monitored in one place.
The SAM has exceeded our expectations. We were looking for an economic benefit but this is a sustainable, long-term project.
