ESR Employee Self Service Implementation

A Case Study by North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust

Background

North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust is a an integrated hospital and community services healthcare organisation serving around 400,000 people in Hartlepool, Stockton and parts of County Durham. The Trust also provides bowel and breast screening services as well as community dental services and other community based services to a wider population in Teesside and Durham. The Trust’s turnover is around £275m and we have 5,500 medical, nursing, clinical and non-clinical support staff.

The Project

In early 2017, as part of the launch of the new ESR Portal one of our key objectives was to implement ESR Employee Self Service. This would enable the Trust to move to online only payslips and withdraw paper payslips. Not only would this support our organisational plans for ESR but it would support the wider North East Streamlining Project.

As part of the North East Streamlining Project, we needed to align to the Core Skills Training Frame (CSTF) for statutory and mandatory training and utilise the range of e-Learning courses within ESR Employee Self Service

Before the roll out of ESR Employee Self Service commenced, the ESR Project Team, along with colleagues from the Education department spent some time reviewing the training needs analysis of the Trust and mapping over the CSTF competencies. Once this mapping exercise was complete, ESR was updated with both the new competencies and local e-learning packages and local competencies.

'Before we began implementation of ESR Employee Self Service, we wanted to make sure that employees would get the most out of the system, therefore it was important to configure the system for the use of e-Learning, in line with the objectives of the regional Streamlining project.'

Daniel Evans, Workforce Project Manager.

The configuration of ESR Employee Self Service for the use of e-Learning coincided with the launch of the new ESR Portal; therefore for us it was an opportune moment for full implementation.  The roll out of ESR Employee Self Service began with a pilot within corporate functions, including Human Resources, Education & OD and Finance. This pilot allowed us to test out access, functionality and some of the support guidance we had developed. An important part of the pilot was to gain feedback from our users, which we did using an online survey. The survey was really useful and helped us inform future implementation plans.  Once our pilot was complete, we then focused on clinical areas for further pilots, which again provided valuable insight.

Upon completion of the pilots, the project team worked closely with our internal Communications department to promote the use of the system. This was done using electronic screen savers, banners which were strategically placed around the Trust, through word of mouth and we worked with a local digital media student who helped us produce a short promotional video.  Quite quickly ESR Employee Self Service became well known in the Trust and staff were keen to get access to the system.

The project team supported the uptake of ESR Employee Self Service with a full implementation plan, which, along with using reports through ESR Business Intelligence, allowed implementation to be monitored closely.  The project team also held training sessions and drop-in sessions, which proved popular, especially with some of the Trust’s Estates & Facilities workforce.

By monitoring the access to the system through ESR Business Intelligence, the project team were able to report how many staff are actively accessing ESR Employee Self Service.  Once 50% of the workforce had accessed the system, we would set a date for the withdrawal of paper payslips.  In June 2018, we reached over 50% of the Trust  accessing ESR Employee Self Service, and, the project team gave three months’ notice that the Trust would move to online only payslips from September onwards. A robust communication plan was developed, which was initiated by a letter to all staff from our Director of Workforce and Director of Finance, outlining the benefits of moving to online payslips.  Between June and September, the uptake and utilisation of ESR Employee Self Service accelerated and by September 2018, we had switched paper payslips off for all staff.

Whilst promoting the benefits of online payslips, the project group, along with colleagues in the Education department also promoted the use of e-Learning through ESR Employee Self Service. ‘One Stop’ workshops and drop-in sessions were organised, which covered everything that related to ESR Employee Self Service, ranging from access, viewing payslips and completing mandatory training.

By June 2018, almost all e-Learning activity in the Trust was being completed using ESR Employee Self Service and the Trust’s local e-Learning platform was switched off.

Key Benefits

• The ESR Portal has been a valuable way of communicating Trust wide messages to all staff.

'The ESR Portal has proved to be a useful tool in communicating key messages across the organisation, for example promoting the NHS Staff Survey and the Trust’s Flu Vaccination campaign.'

Gary Wright, Deputy Director of Workforce.

• By providing staff with access to their own personal details, we have seen an increase in the accuracy of employee personal details, such as addresses and phone numbers.
• Using e-Learning through ESR Employee Self Service has allowed staff to complete national e-Learning aligned to the CSTF, which has enabled competencies to be transferred outside of the organisation for starters and leavers.
• Staff can see their online payslip up to 2 days before pay day using ESR Employee Self Service, accessing from home or work.

'I found the ability to access my own personal information and complete e-Learning very useful, especially being able to access my payslip before pay day and being able to access it from home.'

Kelly Brook, Dietetic Assistant  

Lessons Learned

• A variety of support mechanisms are essential, including drop-in sessions, classroom training sessions, electronic guides and videos.
• Engagement with all stakeholders is vital, ranging from staff and line managers to support services, such as ICT and Communications.
• Promoting the full range of benefits available through ESR Employee Self Service is key; promote all benefits such as online payslips and e-Learning; it is worth investing the time to configure the system to ensure users get the most out of the system.
• Using ESR Business Intelligence to monitor Self Service uptake is really useful.

Further Information

For further information about our Employee Self Service implementation please contact Daniel Evans, Workforce Project Manager at daniel.evans@nth.nhs.uk