Staff experience in the NHS
When excellent staff experience is achieved, staff become inspired to be the best people they can be, which in turn delivers the best patient care. To achieve excellent staff experience employers must create an environment where staff can feel valued, supported, encouraged and ultimately succeed.
Why is staff experience important?
The Long Term Workforce Plan sets out how employers will address existing and future workforce challenges by recruiting and retaining more staff and working in new ways to support staff experience.
To meet these aims, employers must prioritise giving space for employees to stay and thrive within the NHS, continue to build on lessons learned and ensure that the NHS People Promise is a lived reality.
Despite the continued pressures on NHS trusts, we are seeing great examples of innovation and transformational change to enhance the experience of staff. We know employers are working hard to provide a supportive, compassionate and psychologically safe environment for all NHS employees.
Bringing the NHS People Promise to life
The NHS People Promise explores seven elements that would make the greatest difference in improving the experience of NHS staff. We have created a visual (above) to demonstrate how, when these seven elements are combined, meaningful staff experience can be achieved.
"This is a promise we must all make to each other – to work together to improve the experience of working in the NHS for everyone."
Our visual above highlights the key people and teams who can influence, shape and bring the NHS People Promise to life – including leaders and line managers. When organistions work collaboratively they can shift cultures, challenge ideas, maximise impact and make a lasting difference to the experience of NHS staff.
We understand organisations may not have one person responsible for each of the people promises, or may have one person responsible for more than one promise. However, we wanted to show that when all these roles are combined, real improvements to staff experience can be achieved. The people involved just might look a little different in each organisation.
Staff Experience in the NHS: Creating the conditions for change
On 21 November 2024 our annual staff experience conference brought together NHS professionals working in health and wellbeing, staff experience and staff engagement. At conference delegates explored how we can work collectively to create the conditions for culture change and transform staff experience outcomes. Three key themes emerged throughout the day.
- Remembering that meaningful and lasting change takes time.
- Visibly leading by example with compassion is vital.
- Understanding what we want to see change isn’t enough – we also need to communicate the why.
On the day we launched a new video called A day with Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospital (WHH). In the video the team at WHH share how they developed the We Are WHH: Culture Plan and the work underway to transform culture at the trust including their popular culture corners.
Key staff experience resources
We produce and collate a range of resources showcasing adaptation and innovation in staff experience within NHS trusts. This information is aimed at helping strengthen local approaches to staff experience and improving attraction and retention of our valued workforce.
You can find a wide range of resources across our staff experience web pages, including the key resources highlighted below:
- Eight elements of positive staff experience outlining the essential elements for an effective staff experience initiative or strategy.
- Our staff experience impact 2023/24 infographic showcases our key programme highlights, feedback and impact for 2023/24 in a handy downloadable resource.
- Our flexible working resources support both leaders and line managers to embed a positive staff experience culture through the option to work flexibly.
- Raising concerns guidance for managers and employer actions outlines key considerations when developing a speaking and listening up culture.
- Supporting staff with the rising cost of living offers a series of online video masterclasses featuring key employer actions to support staff, alongside a range of further guidance on this topic.
