2017 Roundup
Update from Paul Spooner, NHS ESR Programme Director
During the course of busy day-to-day activity, it is easy to lose sight of the scale of progress that organisations 
make over a given period. When I reflect on the progress made by the ESR Programme, in partnership with NHS colleagues in England and Wales, I am both delighted and proud of the many achievements and successes during 2017.
As we embarked upon 2017, we entered into a significant and exciting time for ESR. Consistent with previous years, service availability and performance of the ESR solution has remained the single most important objective – against which, I am pleased to note the service has been robust and reliable.
Additionally, 2017 has seen the introduction of the new ESR Portal capability and other key strategic developments. In January, the pilot phase for the new ESR Portal began and by March, full roll out commenced to all NHS Organisations across England and Wales. The challenge to provision every VPD by the end of September was successfully completed; and it is important at this juncture to express our appreciation from myself and the wider ESR Programme Team for the support and cooperation from Organisations to provision the Portal. It was, for some, a leap of faith, but since we began to make the Portal available to users we have consistently received positive feedback from both employers and employees - to date over 326,000 NHS employees have accessed their ESR via the Portal. Indeed, receiving regular feedback that the Portal is a ‘game changer’ to staff engagement and productivity is nothing short of fantastic to hear.
The Game Changer
During the last year we have successfully delivered a significant amount of change into the ESR solution. The Development Road Map actually began back in June 2016 with the introduction of online pdf payslip followed by internet access to ESR. During 2017 we have incrementally built upon that first key enhancement to deliver significant improvements to both the technology and the user experience with ESR. The timeline below provides a snap shot of the journey that ESR and the NHS has taken during the year:
As you will be aware, the next major release for ESR is taking place in December (release 37), and includes both Roadmap and Technical improvements to the ESR solution. You can read more about release 37 in the Roadmap update within this edition of ESR News.
The portal technology has been commended as a ‘game-changer’ to workforce engagement and management; and it is also recognised as supporting local retention strategies - by providing modern technology and personal data access to NHS staff. Of note - further enabled by the introduction of the Portal, we have seen over 314,000 NHS staff choose to view electronic pay-slips only, by opting out of receiving paper pay-slips via their ESR. Over recent months, we have published case studies from organisations that have taken the step to switch off printed pay slips for all staff (these are available on our website).
With an increasing demand for use of NHS budgets, a need to maximise productivity and efficiency along with an increasing demand for services, ESR can and should be used as a business critical system for the NHS; helping Organisations to make cash savings and increase productivity and efficiency by removing outdated processes and utilising real time data and reporting. ESR is increasingly being recognised as the ‘enabler’ to delivering local objectives regarding Workforce management.
ESR as the ‘Enabler’
During the course of 2017, and particularly during the portal provisioning work, we have worked with many organisations who have embraced the new technology and the respective opportunities introduced. Examples of such opportunities include how ESR enables streamlined processes – so as to make a positive impact on the way ESR is used and how staff and managers interact with the solution.
ESR Development Roadmap is scheduled to conclude in March 2018. Whilst this is a significant milestone – reflecting completion of the user defined developments, this will not be the end for ESR development. One of the things that we are committed to is the NHS ownership of ESR - continuing to be developed by the NHS for the NHS, and going forward it remains important that users share your ideas and suggestions through the Special Interest Groups and/or other strategic forums so that we can ensure ESR continues to meet your needs and those of your organisations. Ultimately – at an employing authority level, ESR is ‘Your ESR’, and we hope through use of employee self-service NHS staff will refer to ESR as ‘My ESR’.
Finally, I hope that you find this December edition of ESR News interesting and on behalf of the ESR Programme, may I express our thanks for all of your support throughout 2017, and wish you a Merry Christmas and offer Best Wishes for 2018.