The participants in the online seminar were Steve Jupp, the Department of Health staff engagement lead and former NHS HR Director and Professor Katie Truss, head of Kingston Business School Employee Engagement Programme. The session was chaired by Steven Weeks, staff engagement policy lead for NHS Employers.
Steve Jupp outlined the research he has been carrying out over the past year on the ingredients for successful staff engagement.
Steve Jupp has been looking at the experience of staff engagement strategies in a range of Trusts around the country. The key ingredients he identified for successful approaches are:
- a commitment to engagement and support for it at all levels in the organisation. Support from top leaders was necessary but was not sufficient in itself.
- a variety of engagement models could be used and techniques varied but common themes were involvement of staff in key decisions facing the organisation such as reconfiguration of services, dealing with deficits and productivity improvements.
- engagement needed to be sustained and “not just for Xmas” and was often linked to work around local values
Professor Truss reported on results of research conducted by Kingston University with employers that are members of its Employee Engagement consortium. These employers included NHS trusts and local authorities.
The main feature of the webinar was real time interaction with participants who were able to send in their questions online during the seminar. Questions ranged from the links between staff engagement and patient satisfaction, impact on health and well being and top tips for successful engagement around productivity and efficiency.
Comments from participants
"Very helpful and a good way to learn and reflect without travel, thank you."
"Fantastic!! really enjoyed it and great use of an hour!"
"Very useful way of working."
Summary of questions
Amongst the questions raised were the following with answers in italics
Is there a link between appraisal and staff engagement?
Evidence from the staff survey appears to show a link between good performance on staff appraisal and higher levels of staff engagement and there is reason to believe that engagement of individuals in their work can be improved by well structured appraisal.
What is the link between staff side organisational forums and staff engagement?
Staff engagement in the NHS is based on social partnership and there is therefore a key role for staff side organisations in respect of staff engagement. The national Social Partnership Forum is supporting a number of local engagement projects and engagement is included as a key principle for national policy programmes such as QIPP and Transforming Community Services.
In organisations such as London Ambulance and South Tees hospital the local consultative body have played a key role in successful engagement strategy especially in staff involvement on decision making. Staff engagement also encompasses individual engagement of staff e.g. in their work.
Is the private sector better than the public sector at staff engagement?
There was no overall evidence that public sector organisations in the UK economy had worse staff engagement than private sector ones. The NHS in particular had reasonably good staff engagement scores compared to some other sectors although there was wide variation within the service. Professor Katie Truss study included both private and public sector organisations and good practice could be found in both sectors.
The NHS could also learn from local authority initiatives for example Birmingham council had implemented one of the largest scale and most successful staff engagement programmes in the UK public sector.
This programme known as BEST had featured innovative ideas ranging from a “dragons den style” competition for innovative ideas to extensive use of social media. In particular in had supported front line staff to help redesign their own services e.g. in the Highways department to redesign street signs and in social care to meet disabled user needs.
Find out more about Birmingham City Council's BEST project.
The NHS had a great advantage in the socially useful nature of the jobs of most of its staff and the values of its organisations needed to be build on this. In the NHS there could also be dual engagement with staff identifying with their profession as well.
Is there a link between health and well-being and staff engagement?
There does appear to be links between improved health and well being and staff engagement results in the staff survey. It appeared that where action was taken to support health and well being of staff there was improved engagement levels.
Professor Katie Truss did note though that in some private sector organisations they had studied there was a danger of “burn out” from “over engaged” staff in rapidly expanding organisations. The NHS needed to ensure that engagement levels were sustainable for individuals to avoid this danger including as senior manager level and in HR roles!
What links are there between leadership styles and engagement?
Evidence from studies by the Institute of Employment Studies showed particular styles associated with “engaging leader” could help with promoting and sustaining staff engagement though no one model would work everywhere. The role of middle managers and front line supervisers, which in the NHS were mainly clinical staff was crucial and they needed training and support and reassurance that this agenda was not a threat to them.
What are the links between staff engagement and patient experience?
There is clear evidence of staff engagement and better organisational performance. There is emerging evidence of links to improved patient experience though the issues are complex and there may be mutually reinforcing relationships rather than one way causation.
Audio recording
An audio recording of the full webinar is available free of charge on request. Please email Andrew Fisher at NHS Employers at andrew.fisher@nhsemployers.org
Other issues
The issues of a “balanced scorecard” for measuring engagement, overcoming cynicism about initiatives and the availability of information and support for local organisations were also raised. NHS Employers had developed a range of resources available on its website and would be developing its sharing of good practice through initiatives such as the “webinar”.
Speakers stressed that though progress was being made as shown in recent staff survey results much more was needed. It was emphasised that although overall objectives can and should be developed nationally approaches and implementation needed to be developed at local level. It was also felt that staff engagement needed to be ongoing and sustained “not just for Christmas” and would be essential to help the service meet the challenges ahead.
Resources for employers
NHS Employers has produced a number of resources to help employers improve staff engagement. See our staff engagement homepage for more information.