ESR Learning Management and Reporting – Our Journey

A Case Study by the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust                  

Background

The North East Ambulance Service employs over 2,500 staff based at headquarters, ambulance stations and support offices across 65 sites in the North East of England. 

The Project

In April 2017 an ESR Assessment highlighted possible improvements and efficiencies in the way we used Oracle Learning Management. This Assessment demonstrated that we were only using OLM for 40% of its potential usage. The Assessment recommended that we looked to utilise the available functionality to help us improve the recording and reporting of statutory and mandatory training and appraisal compliance. Implementing this would improve our overall data quality and give us the ability to provide detailed reports to the workforce based on these performance metrics.

Following the Assessment we developed a proposal for the Head of Workforce and Organisation Development which - was subsequently approved - and we began our project based programme of work to deliver the following:

1. A data quality review and cleanse of the OLM course catalogue to ensure the correct information and availability of training was accurate and accessible for completions and reporting purposes;
2. Replacement of the appraisal recording process from a spreadsheet based system to the ESR Appraisal functionality to improve the recording and reporting process and data quality;
3. Introduction of training competencies including the Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF), National and Local frameworks to be able to set requirements and compliance by subject and level e.g. Safeguarding Adults – Level 1;
4. Implementation of e-Learning by replacing face to face sessions and workbooks where applicable, and link to the relevant training competencies to support the delivery and completions of induction and statutory and mandatory training requirements;
5. Migration to the new ESR Portal to support the rollout of Employee Self Service to enable staff to update their own information, view online payslips and complete e-Learning;
6. Share appraisal and statutory and mandatory training information available to managers and leads across the Trust to monitor compliance and help achieve the Trust target of 95%. This was setup by creating local dashboards using the OLM Business Intelligence Reporting tool.

Prior to the recent developments that have been made to OLM, there was minimal knowledge, experience, and use of ESR OLM across the Organisation.  Multiple different systems and processes were being used to record and report information about employees including:

• A local spreadsheet to record appraisal information and manually update from ESR employee records;
• A local spreadsheet maintained by the Training Admin Team to monitor training attendance and completions;
• A local spreadsheet used to create a report on the training subjects and levels based on the type of course completed by staff group, as there was no competencies in use during this time;
• Training Subject Experts kept their own records of training course completions for their expertise;
• Limited reporting capability with only course completions recorded and not the detail.

Our project now captures all of the above into ESR OLM, thereby improving the usage, accuracy of data and reputation as the Trust’s single system for recording appraisal and training information.  With the improved usage and functionality of the system, Personal Assistants, Managers and Leads have access to reporting capabilities for their Directorates. 

Key Benefits

• In September 2018 our use of OLM had increased from 40% to 70%.
• ESR OLM data quality has improved for appraisal and training information.
• Improved levels of monitoring and reporting from individual up to Trust level for appraisal, induction and statutory and mandatory training compliance. 

MyESR Go Live

• The use of competencies and e-Learning has helped us breakdown the detail to subject, level and compliance at various levels from organisation to individual levels. This evidence provides a greater assurance for safe patient care through achieving the required compliance of our workforce.
• A range of individual user guides have been developed for common functionality in MyESR and e-Learning. This information is available via a local Intranet page along with details of local help and support for staff.

OLM and E-Learning Implementation

• ESR BI is used for reporting Trust-wide appraisal and training compliance using national and local dashboards.
• Training competencies are linked to courses or e-Learning and automatically update an employee’s record when training is completed. Competences can be transferred once reviewed as part of the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process from the ESR Streamlining objectives and completion to reduce training time and costs.
• Competencies are used to set the subject and level inherited by Business Group (all staff) and Position (role specific) to define staff groups and type of training required vs achieved which generates training compliance.
• Employees can view their training compliance using the ESR Portal Compliance Matrix. They can then enrol on an available class, or play e-Learning directly from their Matrix and the Portal.
• The internal NEAS IT Skills Team have created custom Directorate and Department reports to help managers and leads monitor appraisal and training compliance for their areas until Manager Self Service is implemented across the Trust.
• We are changing the way we work enabling our employees to book directly onto OLM courses. This uses real-time booking information, which aids compliance reporting and reduces the administration time, resources and effort.
• Internet access has empowered our employees to access and complete e-Learning functionality regardless of the location or mobile device they are using.

Reporting Users

'I am delighted with the progress that we have made in the use of OLM, the support that it gives us in the management of continued professional development and the quality of information that we are now able to access.'

Caroline Thurlbeck, Director of Strategy, Transformation and Workforce

'Since introducing the appraisal and statutory and mandatory dashboard we are able to monitor appraisal and training compliance on a regular basis within the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) which is really beneficial.  A weekly report is sent out to team leaders and managers for each department within the EOC so they can see due dates and what modules are outstanding for each member of staff.  The workforce management team monitor the service level agreements (SLA) on the day and if there is any capacity to release staff to complete their appraisal or e-Learning modules they can now facilitate this.  This way we can keep on top of compliance and utilise time appropriately to achieve our compliance targets.'

Sarah Crichton, Operation Centre Training Lead

'Since using the appraisal and statutory and mandatory dashboards I have been able to monitor staff compliance for the Medical, Quality and Safety Directorates.  I provide monthly reports for the two directorates senior team meetings so that they can see where staff are non-compliant.  I also send an email to staff within the directorates to make them aware of their outstanding training and from doing this staff compliancy has increased each month.'

Andrea Ward, Personal Assistant for Medical, Quality and Safety Directorates

Next Steps

Our objective to further utilise ESR functionality will continue, and we have plans to:

• Continue development of OLM class administration to other training teams reducing centralised administration and reporting;
• Rollout OLM class instructor to trainers to be able to monitor and update class attendances in real time;
• Explore system interfaces between ESR OLM and other systems to share data;
• Online Appraisals via Manager Self Service – this is planned for April 2019;
• Align to Trust behaviours and values by using and embedding within OLM;
• Develop and maintain support and usage guides to promote best practice to administrators and users;
• Continuously engage and increase awareness across the Trust;
• Keep up to date with key OLM and e-Learning changes;
• Promote ESR OLM as the single learning and management system for our employees;
• Share our experiences and best practice with other NHS organisations;
• Continue to be an active member of the regional and national OLM Specialist Interest Groups (SIG’s) so that we can continue to learn and share.

For more information

For more information about our ESR journey please contact Liam Marshall, OLM and e-Learning Training Lead at Liam.Marshall@neas.nhs.uk