Musket90:
I think many of us are aware of the shortage of stands, but this doesn't excuse when you finally get on stand finding that the ground staff are not on duty (so if direct to stand had been possible the wait would have been even longer), nor that there is a shortage of the key ground equipment and/or its operators.
Almost all other airports in the world manage to get their ground handling staff round the aircraft at moment of arrival, including GlobeGround at other airports (though the problem is not confined to this one agent), so the question is why not at Heathrow. It's especially noticeable if you arrive on stand even slightly before ETA, you get the impression of them purposely not coming out until it's time.