There is a clear business case for improving staff engagement in NHS organisations. Trusts with high scores on staff engagement, measured by the NHS staff survey, tend to have better quality outcomes, overall good performance on other human resource practices and better results in the patient survey.
Staff engagement is not a panacea but can be a critical ingredient in delivering high quality outcomes. The NHS has a highly committed and engaged workforce but there is variation between different organisations and there is always room for improvement.
Over the next few years we face the unprecedented challenge of making major productivity improvements to release up to £20 billion in efficiency savings. Research evidence from across the economy shows that an engaged workforce is essential in delivering sustainable savings.
Our work with NHS trusts has shown that successful staff engagement approaches must include the following:
Senior leadership commitment.
Top leaders set the tone for the organisation and can support staff engagement in their own ways of working and in their communications. In some cases, especially in periods of change and when difficult decisions have to be made. Direct face to face communication with large groups of staff can be key in creating a cycle of trust and openness.
First-line supervisors and middle managers also need to be engaged and supported to engage their staff. Research shows that, on a hospital ward, more engaging leadership styles have a major impact on nurse effectiveness and engagement is crucial to effective team working.
Staff engagement needs to be embedded into day to day working rather than a separate initiative
It needs to be applied when deciding how organisations come up with ideas to make savings and improve services. There are many different models and techniques for this, from quality circles to staff suggestion schemes and organisations can choose the one that suits their circumstances best.
Involvement is a key aspect of engagement and the NHS needs to find ways to involve staff in decisions around their working lives. It needs to complement any formal partnership working arrangements with staff side bodies.
Communication
Communication is another key aspect of engagement and a range of methods can be used to improve communication especially between senior leaders and others. Face to face communication has a crucial part to play through models including "Listening in Action" and "Big Conversations" and can be complemented with modern technology such as social networking and bulletin boards.
It is critical that communication is two-way and managers are seen to act on issues that are brought up. Even where a response is negative it is better to respond than not to say anything.
Engagement can also be influenced by everyday issues. For example, there is evidence that both how induction programmes are conducted and the recognition that staff get for exceptional effort influence engagement levels.
The NHS is going through a period of major and difficult change. There are examples of trusts that have already engaged their staff in difficult decisions to make savings at local level. Evidence from the private sector shows that staff engagement can be maintained even where major restructuring has had to take place.
Top tips
Make the case for staff engagement on the grounds of impact on patient care and organisational performance rather than HR practice.
Show commitment from the top with a symbolic action e.g. an unannounced walk around or a special meeting with staff.
Make staff engagement a critical catalyst for progress on productivity and quality not a separate initiative.
Support first-level line supervisors to create an engaging style of leadership.
Seek to involve staff in the critical challenges facing your organisation and finds ways of tapping into their ideas.
Use information from the staff survey to identify the scope of the staff engagement challenge in your organisation and benchmark your performance and progress.
Review and improve communication methods and in particular be seen to respond to staff concerns even if they cannot always be acted on.
Find out more
Our staff engagement pages contain further advice and case studies from NHS organisations who have successfully engaged their staff. There are also summaries of our staff engagement webinars held during 2010 and access to our latest briefings.