Contact:  Deborah.O’Hara@esneft.nhs.uk 

 

Judges’ view

Their use of technology and innovation is outstanding and meant that the impact onthe organisation has genuinely been profound. Equally impressed by the focus they placed on helping their teams to develop and grow in light of the changes made.

When Ipswich and  Colchester hospitals merged to form a Trust employing over 10,000 staff the service needed to be reviewed. They have transformed it by innovation and teamwork, cutting the vacancy rate by 55%, saving nearly 10 million in agency spend and cutting the time to hire down by 78 days. Recruitment Partners were introduced aligned to each clinical and corporate division taking full responsibility for resourcing.

During COVID, the team were tasked with the redeployment of thousands of staff to support the Trust and local community, ensuring that upskilled staff were moved to meet the constantly changing demands, showing outstanding resilience with a one team approach.

 

Key points

• Taken a commercial approach to recruiting, modelled on a recruitment agency
• Up skilling the Recruitment Partners to provide a fast innovative solution with artifical intelligence robots for transactional processes
• New ways to attract candidates through social media using two marketing interns- achieving over 27,000 applicants over past year
• Retention Partners focus on leavers and to listen to why staff consider leaving.

The team is an integral element in delivering the corporate objectives, and through the Board approved strategic People Plan they have developed a 3-5 year goal: to be the best employer employing a permanent diverse and engaged workforce. The team pride themselves on diverse leadership skills and a strong, team-working ethos. They led the implementation of Kingston’s vaccination delivery programme, achieving  an 85% staff vaccine rate.

Judges’ view

Impressed by the clear leadership shown by the HR Director and the absolute commitment shown by the team over the last 18 months in helping to support the Trust. They demonstrated the values and behaviours which all HR teams should aim to achieve.

The People Services Team worked to engage and co-ordinate the workforce required to deliver the Derbyshire Vaccination Programme safely and effectively, at pace and on a large scale. The team designed and led a central function to support partners with a comprehensive and flexible workforce. Leading the programme required a different way of working in order to meet the workforce demands while also maintaining the integrity of the workforce within existing NHS services.

Judges’ view

The way in which they had created an absolute laser focus upon helping the organisation to achieve its COVID vaccine targets was highly impressive.

The team has been through an impressive and remarkable journey throughout the pandemic. There has been a visible change commented on throughout all levels of the organisation. This has included how effectively the team work together, how the individuals of the team feel able to contribute and have really shone with exceptional individual and team performances.  The team role models what good looks like, living the Trust values of teamwork, kindness, safety and improving.

Judges’ view

Absolute passion shown by the team to improving the service provided and to the importance placed upon relationship building. Definitely has the makings of a future HR Team of the Year.