Programme news
Update from National Programme Director
When I wrote my December 2017 update, I referenced 326,000 unique NHS employees had accessed the ESR Portal since it was launched earlier in the year. Today - a year on, I am delighted to advise that over 1.08m unique employees (as at the end of November) have now accessed the ESR Portal, with usage continuing to grow. This rate of growth is a clear demonstration of how NHS staffs are embracing the enhanced functionality within ESR.
Employer and employee feedback about the ESR solution has remained positive; and in June we surveyed Employee Self Service (ESS) users - via the Portal - to help us get early insight into how ESR users felt about the improved solution. In total, 997 ESS users took part in the survey, with the following headline response:
- 76.23% of users told us they access ESR weekly or at least monthly;
- 58.07% of users told us they access ESR via a desktop PC and 45.44% access via a mobile phone;
- 49.45% of users told us they access ESR at home.
The diversity illustrated within the feedback of how and when ESR is being accessed is very positive; particularly considering the design principles included achieving such flexibility of access and user choice.
- 95.89% of users told us they access their online payslip;
This is further evidenced by our latest statistics, showing at the end of November over 679k employees have opted out of receiving paper payslips.
- Accessing Personal Information, TRS, My Compliance, My e-Learning Enrolments and My Annual Leave were the most frequently accessed portlets.
As the number of employee users continues to grow, it is important that we give users the opportunity to share views and experiences. It is our intention to build on the survey we ran in June and invite direct user feedback going forward – ultimately to ensure the solution and service remains fit-for-purpose and continues to meet user needs.
Development and Release…
Consistent with previous years, the ESR solution has not stood still during 2018. Having completed the strategic development roadmap and introduced a new ‘agile’ approach to the release of change into the solution, ESR has continued to improve, from both a technical and functional perspective, including:
- Upgrading to Oracle 12.2 – further future proofing the solution and service;
- Migrating from N3 to the new NHS Digital Health and Social Care Network (HSCN);
- Implementing new Gender Pay Gap Reporting;
- Developments in OLM for Learning Administrators;
- Implementing the Organisation Chart for Managers;
- Implementation of IAT changes to further support NHS Streamlining;
- Implementing the Pay Award for the NHS in England (and a separate Pay Award for the NHS in Wales);
- Continued enhancement of reporting in Business Intelligence as part our Reporting Strategy - that will culminate in the decommissioning of the Discoverer reporting tool at the end of December 2018;
- Decommissioning of the non-portal access route (mhapp and legacy access routes into ESR), so that all ESR users log into ESR via the Portal – my.esr.nhs.uk.
…plus much more.
Working in partnership with our user groups and strategic partners, we will continue to progress continuous service and solution improvements throughout 2019.
Stability and Performance…
I am pleased to report that the ESR Service has once again been robust and reliable throughout 2018.
However, as I have separately referenced, we have experienced isolated issues with the stability and performance of Business Intelligence (BI) reporting. These issues have understandably caused concern amongst our users – not least of which as we enter the final stages of our reporting strategy that will see Business Intelligence as the only reporting solution from January 2019.
Working in partnership with IBM and Oracle, a number of solution changes have already been deployed to address the issues and improve resilience of the BI service. As with all aspects of ESR service, we will continue to closely monitor and implement continuous service improvements.
Take you own journey of ESR Discovery…
Throughout the year, ESR Account Managers and Functional Advisors have worked with NHS workforce teams to undertake a number of engagement and project planning sessions.
This engagement included completion of the ESR Annual Assessment – very much a spring board for HR Directors and teams to evaluate what ESR can do from both a strategic and operational perspective. As at 30 November, 79% of Assessment are completed or booked in calendars – which is a great position to be in and demonstrates again the positive level of engagement across the NHS.
On 1st November we launched our latest initiative - Discover Your ESR. Developed to work alongside the ESR Annual Assessment, this web based tool uniquely presents the ESR solution in a business driven format, to help NHS teams understand how strategic workforce and business challenges can be addressed using your ESR solution.
The increasing demand on NHS budgets, alongside a need to further maximise productivity and efficiency presents constant challenges for today’s NHS. The Annual ESR Assessment and the new Discover your ESR tool can provide you with the right level of detail about your current use of ESR and importantly, how ESR can help you overcome such business challenges. You can read more about the Assessment process and how it is supporting HR Directors in this edition of ESR News.
NHS Business Services Authority (NHS BSA) – Aligning and enhancing NHS Workforce Systems and Services…
In the March edition of ESR News, I referenced how the ESR Programme was joining NHS BSA from 1 April 2018.
Within a new NHS Workforce Services directorate, ESR is part of a wider portfolio of workforce systems and services including NHS Jobs, NHS Pensions and an HR Shared Services team.
Gordon Coyne, Director of NHS Workforce Services comments:
'I am delighted to see the positive engagement and progress with use of the ESR Portal. Supporting NHS organisations and their employees remains a clear objective for NHS BSA, as we strive to be the delivery partner of choice.
Looking forward, we recognise the challenges of supporting the NHS workforce and we will aim to maximise the strengths and learning across all of our Workforce Service offerings to the NHS, with a view to optimising use of technology and improving the user experience – for employers and current employees as well as future employees and retiring members.
ESR has already started this journey with the Portal. NHS Pensions is undergoing a programme of modernisation and service reform, and the NHS Jobs platform is currently being transformed – so as to present a modern, fit-for-purpose solution to the NHS and applicants.'
If you wish to find out more information, please visit the NHSBSA website
Thanks and Best Wishes…
Finally, I hope that you find this December edition of ESR News interesting and on behalf of the ESR Programme and the NHS BSA, may I express our thanks for all of your support throughout 2018, and wish you a Merry Christmas and offer Best Wishes for 2019.
ESR committed to supporting Pay Progression
The new pay progression system will come into effect on 1 April 2019 for new starters or those promoted to a new role on or after 1 April 2019.
We are working closely on the detailed policy requirements with our colleagues at NHS Employers so that ESR can be updated to support the delivery of the new pay progression framework and appraisal system.
In order to support organisations to implement the new system we are committed to providing a solution that:
- Updates our Manager and Self Service offering to ensure that:
- meetings to discuss pay progression can be recorded as a new ‘review’ type;
- Improved workflow notification for managers and employees in years when the Pay Step update will lead to an increase in pay;
- Ability to record any reasons for non-progression – as a national set of values to facilitate national and local reporting;
- Changes to the ESR increment process for new starters, or existing employees with a grade change, from 1st April 2019;
- Functionality to enable non-Self Service HR organisations to manage this process in the transitional period (April 2019 - April 2020).
Guidance on the progress with work towards the implementation of the new pay progression system can be found on the NHS Employers website.
Discovering Your ESR
Annual ESR Assessment
The NHS ESR Team introduced the Annual ESR Assessment for all user organisations in 2016, in readiness for the planned launch of the new Portal and enhanced functionality in 2017. Designed to help organisations understand what steps they needed to take to be ready for the new capability, the Assessment enabled HR Directors and ESR Leads to prepare plans that would enable them to be able to roll out the new Portal as soon as it was launched.
Two years on, the Annual ESR Assessment has become an important benchmarking tool, providing HR Directors and their teams with a comprehensive overview of how their organisation has progressed with its use of ESR functionality, and more importantly, how the data in ESR is supporting local workforce strategies.
Split into two parts the Assessment:
- provides you with a comprehensive set of statistics taken directly from the ESR solution, looking across a broad range of functional areas within ESR. This easily identifies gaps in usage and highlights where you can gain further efficiencies;
- gives you an opportunity to discuss your current agenda, your key priorities and your organisations objectives - as well as helping you identify how ESR can support you in addressing these objectives.
Earlier this year the NHS ESR Team conducted an in-depth review of the Assessment tool, taking into consideration feedback that had been received during the previous years and the reports that are produced. The 2018/19 Assessment round is now well underway across all regions in England, and significant progress has been reported across a wide range of ESR functional areas. Since the 2018/19 Assessment round began in late spring, 79% of all NHS user organisations have completed their Assessment or have a date committed with their NHS ESR Regional Team.
Following the Assessment, three reports are produced to help organisations digest the data and the recommendations that derive from the Assessment itself:
- Executive Summary - Illustrates overall progress regarding the implementation of various elements of ESR functionality, highlighting key areas where there is scope for further advancement;
- Summary Statement - Headline summary of progress made within your organisation towards maximising use of ESR functionality;
- Action Plan – Detailed summary of the ESR utilisation made by the organisation.
One of the core objectives for the Annual ESR Assessment is to help HR Directors and their teams to better understand the breadth of functionality within the ESR solution, and identify where ESR can support them to meet workforce and organisational business challenges.
Optimal use of ESR can help you address these challenges; whether that’s reducing sickness absence, improving compliance, streamlining recruitment, realise back office efficiencies, monitoring workforce diversity, managing staff costs, empowering your workforce, improving the quality of workforce data or all of these areas.
The Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust both completed their 2018/19 Assessments in June and provided the following feedback;
'We welcomed the opportunity to discuss our progress with our NHS ESR Account Manager and Functional Advisor. We looked at what ESR functionality we are currently using and the options for the future. This was particularly useful because at that time we were considering the transition to Manager Self Service (MSS) and Oracle Learning Management (OLM). We had recently rolled out Employee Self Service (Limited Access) and felt that this was going to be the next natural step, although we weren’t sure what it involved.
The Assessment and discussion helped us define our approach to rolling out MSS and OLM, and provided the framework and evidence we needed to ensure we secured Board and Exec team buy in. We could use the recommendations within the report to help us reinforce where we could get more from ESR and increase our information transparency with line managers. Both our NHS ESR Account Manager and Functional Adviser were very knowledgeable and supportive with our questions around MSS, making our investigative process more efficient and rapid.
The NHS ESR team gave a presentation to the wider team including our Training and Education Department, which was gratefully received.
As a result of the Assessment and the support from our NHS ESR Regional team we have now commenced our roll out of Manager Self Service in liaison with the Training and Education team, who are building up their knowledge of OLM in readiness for full roll out. We found the ESR Assessment and the support provided by the NHS ESR Regional Team was the push we needed to bring our plans to fruition'.
Calum Robertson, Operational Lead – Workforce Information and Barbara Fitch, Workforce Information Officer
'As a Trust we have been gradually increasing our usage of ESR functionality, initially transferring from our existing training system to OLM. Realising the potential of the solution for the Trust and our employees with the new ESR Portal, we further developed our training offering through ESR by implementing competencies and applying competency requirements. Having seen the efficiencies this has provided we were keen to understand the solution further, so keen to undertake the ESR Assessment to help us better understand our current usage, and what further functionality is available.
Overall, everyone who took part in the Assessment found it to be extremely helpful, especially as there were a lot of things we discovered we could do with ESR that we were not aware of. The various Assessment reports are very informative and provided us with key information on areas of ESR functionality that we should focus on. They also enabled us to further discuss and formulate plans with Trust Senior Management to obtain their support and direction.
Since receiving our Assessment reports we have set up a new ESR steering group to focus on how we can make better use of ESR in order to meet our strategic workforce agenda. So far we have successfully moved our core skills e-Learning back to ESR and are in the process of planning our launch of Manager Self Service. We are also in the final stages of testing devolved access for our trainers, so that they can update class attendance using a tablet, as well as enabling employee self-enrolment for our face to face courses.
We are continuing to work with our NHS ESR Regional team who are supporting us further with our ESR development to aid us to achieve our objectives'.
Craig Stewart, Head of Workforce Intelligence
The new Discover your ESR tool
The NHS ESR Central Team has recently launched a new online tool – Discover your ESR.
The tool has been designed to work alongside the Annual Assessment process, and uniquely presents the ESR solution in a business driven format, segmented into current strategic workforce and operational business challenges.
Across the NHS it is recognised that the pace and scale of change to the ESR solution over the last 18 months has delivered tangible benefits – both in terms of enhancing and transforming the user experience and presenting HR Directors and their teams with the opportunity to re-evaluate how ESR can support a wide range of workforce challenges.
The Annual Assessment, as we have detailed earlier in this article helps organisations identify gaps in their ESR usage, what workforce challenges are currently a priority and provides a range of recommendations that are designed to support the organisation to move forward.
By using the Discover Your ESR tool HR Directors their operational teams can work through those challenges and develo
p a better understanding how they can address them using ESR.
The two elements; the Discover your ESR tool and the Annual Assessment gives HR Directors and teams the complete package that assists local planning of next steps to increase their use of ESR.
Two Workforce Leaders have recently told us what they think about the new Discover Your ESR tool;
'I have been impressed with the new functionality of ESR to support our ‘digital employee journey’ plans and found ‘Discover Your ESR’ online tool really helpful to support the business case for change. The tool is really easy to use and gives you a fantastic overview of how ESR can support a range of workforce strategies, national and regulatory policy and productivity goals.’
Lynn Demeda, Director of Workforce Programmes, Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
'Delivering change is impossible without clear workforce data that is fundamentally reliable – principally due to its link with payroll. The launch of the new Discover Your ESR web based tool is a great innovation that builds upon the solid platform ESR provides. This tool enables strategic leaders to understand how they can use the data within ESR to understand their workforce needs and plan for the future, really maximising the potential within the ESR system'.
Mike Gibney, Director of Workforce and Innovation, The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust.
'The ‘Discover Your ESR’ tool aids in bridging the knowledge gap between Senior Leaders and HR teams in terms of their understanding of the ESR solution and its capabilities , thereby enables constructive conversations about workforce challenges in a useful and easy way'.
Cheryl Samuels, Deputy Director of Workforce, STP Education & Training, North and Central London
If you haven’t completed your Annual ESR Assessment for 2018/19 yet, want more information about how the Assessment and its reports can support you, or want to learn more about how Discover Your ESR can help you, please contact your NHS ESR Regional Account Manager.
New for 2019 - My Compliance Portlet
ESR Release 41 will introduce changes to the My Compliance Portlet
The changes planned will help users interact more easily with the learning they are required to do in order to meet the competence requirements set for them. This will include:
- Ability to view percentage compliance, both in numerical and graphical format for all or a single assignment.
- A consolidated list of required competencies by RAG status.
The process to enrol on and complete the learning that will deliver required competencies has been significantly simplified and integrated in to the My Compliance Portlet. Some of the key features are:
- Play the e-Learning associated with the competency.
- Automate renewal of the Learning Certification, the learner will no longer need to select renew before playing the course, where the Learning Certification can be renewed.
- Search for and enrol on learning that will deliver required competencies.
- View the classroom course details you are enrolled on.
- Easy navigation to the ‘Compliance and Competency’ page.
Examples below show the My Compliance portlet collapsed and expanded:
'The development of the My Compliance Portlet will simplify how users identify their training requirements and find the appropriate learning from the ESR Portal Dashboard. This will make it a more streamlined process for the end-user as it will reduce the amount of questions and queries our team receives relating to statutory and mandatory training and e-Learning completions. I am really excited about the imminent release, and this will improve the overall experience for staff.'
Liam Marshall, Learning Management and E-Learning Training Lead
Reporting Strategy draws to a close
2018 has been a significant year in the ongoing development of ESR Business Intelligence (ESR BI). ESR Release 41 (at the end of December 2018) will see the conclusion of the ESR reporting strategy with the final decommissioning of the Discoverer reporting tool (subject to final testing). The strategy has seen significant enhancements and changes to ESR BI, with many new reports to support users in their business processes and in their move to the BI reporting platform. This key and final stage of the strategy ensures that ESR reporting is based on a future-proofed/fully supported solution that we can continue to drive forward.
Key developments this year have included:
- Gender Pay Gap Reporting
- Certification Reporting
- Working Time Regulation Reporting
- Apprenticeship Reporting
- Index Tabs to support navigation
- Updated BI Syllabus and Course
- Further replication of Disco reports (Travel and Subsistence, Vehicle Management, Recruitment, Emergency Contacts)
The NHS ESR BI Team continues to develop and enhance the range of standard BI dashboards. Over 250 change requests have been raised and implemented this year, including the 1000th change in total, in order to provide the reports that organisations have requested and require to support their business processes.
Nottingham CityCare Partnership was one of the organisations that made the transition to reporting from BI early as Tom Tomlinson explains:
'Moving from DISCO to BI was an interesting process. Our organisation relied on the ‘Organisation Profile’ report that was reported from Disco, so this was one of the main reports for us to re-create in BI. This was a challenge, but not impossible, finding the right criteria and elements when creating an analysis in BI was the longest part, but with ESR Support it was made significantly easier. BI is really very user-friendly once you spend a bit of time digging around the national dashboards and learning what does what, the fact that you can copy filters from an existing analysis to a custom-made analysis definitely helps. Some of the other reports we heavily relied upon included staff requirements like Professional Registration, DBS and Appraisal reports. By ensuring we had consistent data between the two reports in Disco and BI we were able to ensure data accuracy before Disco was withdrawn, and we have actually completed our process of moving to BI well ahead of time. With the second and third phases of Disco reports being having recently been withdrawn, I would encourage everyone to start creating their dashboards, two clicks and you can have a suite of information at your fingertips. If you need a set of data regularly, no matter what it is, creating your own dashboards is a must and saves a significant amount of time.'
Tom Tomlinson, HR Management Information Officer, Nottingham CityCare Partnership
As Discoverer will be completely withdrawn from ESR on 28th December 2018, it is imperative that any remaining local Discoverer reports still being used are replicated in ESR BI as soon as possible (and before this date).
To support the transition to ESR BI, the centrally provided BI education course was redeveloped and has been well attended during the year - with 443 reporting users attending in order to improve their skills on creating and modifying analyses in ESR BI.
There is a Reporting section on our website where you can find out more information about ESR BI, including helpful documents and a report writer's guide that you can download.
If you need guidance about how to get started with ESR BI, have specific questions about the functionality, or need support in relation to the withdrawal of Discoverer, please contact your NHS ESR Functional Advisor.
Payroll Stakeholder events are a hit
The ESR Programme team has recently been delivering a series of ESR Payroll Stakeholder Events, throughout England and Wales. The aim of the events is to help ESR Payroll users have a greater understanding of the system and some of the third party interactions that they may not have been aware of.
The events are aimed at those people who predominantly run the payroll processes for their Trust or Client(s), who use ESR extensively, and who understand the day to day demands of working in a busy NHS Payroll department.
The first three of a series of four events were delivered during November and covered the following items;
- BACS, Bank Accounts and PAYE references
- How to set up a new payroll
- Payroll Processing
- Retro versus Retropay by Element
- To update or Correct?
- How the queues work
- RTI Regular Queries
- RTI Reconciliation
- AfC Pay Progression
- User Notices
- Downtime
- Helpful Hints
The events have been very well received with very positive feedback from the delegates.
Overall, these events have proved to only be a great networking opportunity, but have also enabled the NHS ESR Team to gain a greater appreciation of what Payroll professionals are dealing with on a daily basis, and that in turn will help in developing Payroll specific guidance and with future service delivery.
Cardiff, 8th November 2018:
'When the ESR payroll events were announced we were pleased to get involved as these gatherings are very useful to gain up to date knowledge of the system, to talk with the people at the centre of the operation and share experiences with our peers from other Trusts. The event in Cardiff was undertaken in a very user friendly way and whilst serious subjects were discussed, they were given a humorous touch from time to time, and what was particularly pleasing was how receptive the presenters were to particular processing problems raised, and the joint ‘work arounds’ which came from the whole meeting. I found it a very positive day and learned a few new things.'
John Meacham, Head of Payroll, University Hospitals Bristol
Sheffield, 12th November 2018:
'The Payroll Stakeholder’s Event held in Sheffield on Monday 12th November was firstly very well attended. It was great to catch up with familiar faces and meet like-minded payroll professionals. The event was very well run; speakers kept the flow really well and kept to timings and the agenda. We have just started running our weekly payroll, so found the Interlocking and RTI sections were both highly relevant and helpful. The speakers, Fiona, John, Tracey and Nicola are extremely knowledgeable and engaging. Looking forward to the next event!'
Tracie Thomas Pay, Pensions and Benefits Manager, Nottingham University Hospitals
Fleetwood 13th November 2018:
'I attended the ESR Stakeholder Event held at Fleetwood on 13th November 2018. This was hosted jointly by IBM/NHS ESR Central team in an environment where the audience had free reign to ask questions and participate in interactive sessions. All the presenters where extremely knowledgeable and at ease with the questions that arose during the day. I certainly picked up a few tips and also used the opportunity for a little networking. Unfortunately due to local operational issue’s I was unable to bring my payroll team leaders with me as planned but hopefully next time round I will be able to make this happen.'
Neil Evans, Payroll Services Manager, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership
Still time to book your place
The last event in this series will be held at the IBM Southbank Office on 9th January 2019. There are still places available so don’t miss out!
To book your place, send an email to ESR.IS-ESRCourseReg@nhs.net , completing the Subject Heading as ‘ESR Payroll Stakeholder Events”
The body of the email should contain the following;
- Name of Delegate
- Email address of delegate
- Payroll Provider or Trust name
- Stakeholder event : London Southbank
The national agenda and ESR’s role
The NHS ESR Systems Integration Team develops and supports interface processes, to enable ESR to exchange information with third party systems and solutions. Currently, there is approximately 2000 interfaces in operation across the ESR footprint. Some of the third party systems sit internally within NHS Trusts and others are external interface processes; for example supporting links to systems such as those at NHS Pensions and the General Medical Council (GMC).
Health Care Professions Council Interface
In response to a number of requests from the ESR Special Interest Groups, and following a significant consultation period with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC), an interface with the HCPC was delivered in October 2018. Whilst the update and notification works in the same manner as that of the links with the GMC and the Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC), the initial capture of data from the HCPC Register is different and built in house by the NHS ESR Systems Integration team.
Within a week of the interface going live in October 2018, the registration details of 150,000 HCPC registrants recorded on ESR were checked and updated. The interface process facilitates the weekly check and automatic update of up to nine data items for each HCPC registrant. The HCPC interface process works by interrogating the HCPC public (online) register, using the HCPC registration numbers that are stored on ESR. It then applies updates to the HCPC data on an Employee record where the information on the register differs from the data held within ESR.
Felicity King from Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in East Grinstead says:
'The new HCPC interface with ESR has allowed us to save time. This interface process has given us assurance that staffs are up to date with their registrations. Now that this service is in place users will no longer have to manually type or check the HCPC registration. This will make substantial efficiencies overall in the area of professional registrations using ESR.'
Digital Maternity Exemption Certificate
Working with colleagues within the NHS Business Services Authority, we have been supporting a Digital Maternity Exemption Certificate Project - which is currently being piloted with a small group of midwives, GPs and their patients.
Currently, expectant mothers are issued with a maternity exemption certificate (a plastic card), to allow them to access free dental care and free NHS prescriptions during pregnancy and the 12 months following the birth of their child. The new digital service offering from the NHS BSA will allow patients to receive their Maternity Exemption Certificates electronically by email, rather than receiving the plastic card.
Following positive feedback, the NHS BSA is looking to increase the number of midwives and GP’s included in their pilot. Clinical users of the new service must be authorised and their professional registration must be validated in order to allow them to access the new service. The ESR Systems Integration Team is currently exploring how they can assist in automatically validating a midwife or GP’s professional registration, thus enabling access to the digital service. Further updates will be provided as the project progresses..
A new online portal for Consultant activity
As part of the National Clinical Improvement Programme, the ESR Systems Integration Team has been working with NHS Improvement to build a new interface process. The National Clinical Improvement Programme (NCIP) aims to support clinicians with learning and continuous self-development with respect to the services they deliver. This programme will deliver an online portal that will provide Trust level activity, such as surgical and procedural outcomes data to NHS consultants in England. The interface will provide specific consultant details from ESR for participating Trusts to the NCIP system, which will facilitate the registration of consultants onto the Portal. The deployment includes a pilot phase scheduled for April 2019.
Doctors in Training
NHS Improvement, together with Health Education England, is overseeing a new national programme to improve the on-boarding and induction experience of Doctors in Training (DiT), when they rotate from one training post to the next. The programme will address national barriers to support local improvement and will sit alongside existing regional streamlining programmes.
The NHS ESR Team is supporting the programme to implement the Streamlined Doctors in Training Interface (which sits between ESR and the Trainee Information System or TIS); and assisting on defining plans to roll out the Occupational Health (OH) Clearance (Bi-directional) Interface between ESR and third party OH systems.
Further information about the national programme will be made available in due course, and details of regional streamlining programmes, which include information about the rotation process for DiT, can be found at https://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/recruit/streamlining-programme.
Case studies
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:
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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;
- 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
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
Streamlining and improving the quality of Trust Induction
A Case Study by Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust
Background
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust provides local general hospital and community services to around 260,000 people in Walsall and the surrounding areas. We are the only provider of NHS acute care in Walsall, providing inpatient and outpatient services at the Manor Hospital, as well as a wide range of services in the community.
The Trust employs approximately 4,500 staff who all access ESR Self Service.
Previous Induction Process
Our previous induction process required new starters to undertake the mandatory e-Learning modules such as Information Governance, Conflict, Equality and Diversity, Safeguarding etc., (8 modules in total) prior to their induction day, as part of the broader one day induction programme.
This was achieved by giving them access to a third party e-Learning system that hosted our local e-Learning, but this incurred a cost for the stand alone system, and it also required additional resources in order to add the competencies into ESR following course completion.
Often applicants would encounter technical issues which prevented them from completing the training and resulted in them having to stay behind after their Trust Induction to complete paper assessments.
Whilst this ensured they were compliant on day one, we felt it didn’t give new employees a good introduction to our Trust or a good induction experience. There was too much emphasis on completing training and not on the organisation’s core values, and it became more of a ‘tick box exercise’. In addition, this required the training team to undertake dual entry into both the third party system and ESR.
The Solution
During an on-site IAT workshop with our Regional NHS ESR Account Manager we learned that ESR Employee Self Service functionality enabled applicants to have access directly to their e-Learning prior to their start date. We saw this as a great opportunity to replace our current process using the third party system with ESR, as it would enable our future employees to:
- Undertake their e-Learning at their own pace prior to induction;
- Refocus the Trust Induction on core values;
The New Process
Since March 2018 we have been rolling out and finessing a new induction process that involves giving all successful applicants access to their ESR Self Service account and asking them to complete the mandatory e-Learning modules before their start date.
The process is defined as follows:
Step 1: Recruitment team downloads the successful applicant at the offer accepted stage into ESR from the e-recruitment system
Step 2: ESR generates a user name and password under the Auto Create Account process that have implemented. The ESR team are assigned the Auto Create role and receive the Auto Create account notifications detailing the login details for new starters and applicants.
Step 3: The ESR team copy and pastes the generated usernames/passwords into an internal spreadsheet and add the ESR position number. This spreadsheet is accessible to all those in the Recruitment and Learning and Development teams. This enables the Learning and Development team to ensure that the training/competency requirements for the position are set up.
Step 4: The Learning and Development team take the position number information from the spreadsheet and subscribe and enrol the applicants to the relevant learning certifications in ESR. This means that the only step the applicants have to do when they log into their Employee Self Service account is press the ‘Play’ button on the e-Learning portlet.
Step 5: The Recruitment team issue the final offer letter by email to the applicant (following completion of employment checks), which includes details about their induction day and how they can access their e-Learning modules via ESR. The process varies depending on whether they are current NHS employees or not, and also provides them with their ESR username and password.
For applicants coming from non NHS organisations we ask them to come in and meet with our ESR team. We then assist them to log onto ESR and also explain how ESS works and also show them the My ESR App and how to activate remote log in etc. Historically this would have been done when they collected their Smartcard after starting in the Trust. With employees no longer needing to have an N3 connection for their first log in, we typically only meet with employees if they are experiencing problems accessing from home.
Step 6: Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) – When the Recruitment team update the applicant’s recruitment status to ‘offer accepted’ in ESR, they then initiate the pre hire IAT process to transfer across any existing valid competencies, which then determines their e-Learning needs prior to their start date.
If applicants have already undertaken relevant training and we have proof, either through IAT or a certificate brought in (where competencies have not been implemented in their previous Trust), then we don’t expect them to repeat this again, therefore streamlining the time to hire process and avoiding duplication of training. We also subscribe them to all training so that they can then renew in the future at the appropriate time.
Step 7: The Learning and Development team undertakes weekly checks to ensure that the applicant has completed their required e-Learning, and if e-Learning is showing as incomplete they send a reminder email with a deadline date. If e-Learning isn’t completed they may not be allowed to attend the induction and this may delay their start date.
We introduced this new aspect in June and so it’s in the early stages, however we have seen a significant increase in completion rates.
Step 8: Induction Day – We run the applicant competencies report in ESR Business Intelligence (BI) to check what learning has been completed by the applicant. This would include competencies transferred via IAT and what they have done prior to their start date.
New employees are compliant and ready to commence their job roles without the need to be released from wards and departments to complete these mandatory e-learning courses.
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Pictured above Halima Begum, Recruitment Team, Joel Marriott, ESR Team and Linda Nicholls, Learning and Development Team
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Benefits
As a result of this new process we have realised a range of cost and efficiency benefits for our Trust.
Costs:
- An annual saving of £4,500 per annum achieved by removing the third party local system provider that hosted all local e-Learning, and removing associated admin costs;
- Removal of duplication of work by staff that previously had to input competencies and data into both the third party system and ESR.
Efficiency:
- Improved Induction experience for our new employees;
- Freeing up our L&D team to focus on more values based training for all our staff;
- Enabling our managers to proactively engage with their successful applicants to undertake the e-Learning before they commence employment, ensuring no delays to on-boarding.
'The new process means that Recruitment, ESR and Learning and Development Teams work more closely together to ensure a smooth end to end process is achieved. We are still finessing the process but seeing good outputs and results so far,'
Karen Bendall, Workforce Training Manager
'Although some additional process steps have been introduced to all teams involved, this provides overall, a more streamlined process for the applicant, the department and the organisation.'
Reece Hodgen, Recruitment Team Leader
Since the requirement for an N3 network has been removed, we have switched on the auto create internet access option. This means applicants are automatically given internet access to their account and do not need to come on site, they can log into ESR as soon as they receive their offer letter with their login details.
We have improved the timing of the IAT process to ensure that we can receive competencies already in place for an applicant in good time to avoid any repeat training.
The content of the induction has moved from a paper exercise to e-Learning being undertaken in advance, which enables us to deliver a better quality induction programme with more time spent discussing the values of the organisation.
Key Considerations
As with any project, you learn what works and what you would do differently in the future. Our recommendations for key considerations to ensure success when undertaking a project like this are:
- Set up a project team and involve key departments e.g. Recruitment, Learning and Development and the ESR/Workforce teams;
- Undertake a process mapping exercise to understand and agree the full end to end process and the responsibilities of each team;
- Ensure that your senior management team support the project. Our chief executive was very supportive of this project.
For More Information
For more information about our project please contact Karen.Bendall1@walsallhealthare.nhs.uk
Data Tells a Story – Recording and Reporting Apprenticeship Details in ESR
Within the NHS, apprenticeships are offered in many different areas of work. They are designed around the needs of the employer and can help transform businesses by up-skilling the current workforce with the skills needed to sustain the NHS workforce of the future.
In April 2017, the apprenticeship levy of 0.5% of the total annual pay bill was introduced. It is therefore essential that organisations can easily identify the number of apprenticeship training opportunities accessed against this levy. In NHS Wales, the levy for 2017/18 was c£18 million.
Background
The June 2018 edition of ESR News highlighted the development of the new Apprenticeship Details Extra Information Tab, (Recording Apprenticeships in ESR).
Hywel Dda University Health Board has piloted the new Apprenticeship Details functionality. The Health Board provides multidisciplinary healthcare services in west Wales, employing 9,900 staff. Apprenticeships are a key enabler in the organisation’s engagement, staff retention and workforce strategy. In 2017/18, the Health Board’s Apprenticeship Levy contribution was £1.9m.
Before the ESR functionality was made available, the Health Board used a spreadsheet to record Apprenticeship data. Figure 1 outlines the old process, which was difficult to maintain and analyse and was labour intensive and inconsistent, involving multiple users to collect key information.
Figure 1 – Old Process to manage Apprenticeships
The new process for recording apprenticeship data in ESR
In July 2018, Amanda Glanville, the Apprentice Lead for Hywel Dda UHB, populated Apprenticeship Details for over 250 employees using data previously held on the Apprenticeship spreadsheet. Recording apprenticeship data in ESR has transformed the old process, reducing it to five steps that are actioned online, streamlined and low maintenance, outlined in figure 2.
Figure 2 – New process to manage Apprenticeships
Reporting apprenticeship data using ESR Business Intelligence
NHS Wales, working alongside the NHS ESR Central Team, developed BI Dashboard tabs in both the Education and Learning and Staff in Post Dashboards. These enable NHS organisations to report key data including: Apprenticeship Level, Framework, Status, Main Training Provider and Apprenticeship Type by standard data including AfC Band, Age, Department, Staff Group, Job Role, and Occupation Code etc. Further developments for summary data and access via Manager Self Service to the Staff in Post Apprenticeship data for their team are currently being progressed.
Apprenticeship data is also available in the ESR Data Warehouse, which enables NHS Wales to report key data that enables a much wider a picture of Apprenticeships across NHS Wales.
Shining a Light on Apprenticeships in Hywel Dda UHB
Accessing robust, high quality data easily from ESR BI has enabled Hywel Dda UHB to have greater insight into employees undertaking Apprenticeships:
- The majority of staff undertaking Apprenticeships are existing staff
- Half of staff undertaking Apprenticeships are age 41 or more
- Two thirds of Apprenticeships are undertaken by Bands 1-4
- ESR BI has enabled the Health Board to accurately identify the saving for NI contributions for staff aged under 25 undertaking Apprenticeships
'Since Apprenticeships have been recorded on ESR, the Health Board has gained greater insight into the types and levels of Apprenticeships accessed, by whom. This enables us to easily identify employees who successfully complete Apprenticeships and start to quantify the value for money against the annual Apprenticeship levy and the Retention Strategy. ESR is now the only place to record and report Apprenticeship data for the Health Board.'
Angie Oliver, Assistant Director of Organisational Development, Hywel Dda UHB
Key Benefits
- Business Intelligence
- ESR enables a ‘single source of truth’ for employees undertaking Apprenticeships
- Apprenticeship data can be easily monitored in the Education and Learning dashboard
- Managers can see Apprenticeship data for their staff using Staff in Post dashboard
- ESR Data Warehouse enables an overview of Apprenticeships undertaken across NHS Wales
- Underpins Workforce Planning
- Enables vocational innovation and best practice development
- Supports engagement and retention strategies
- Increased capacity and capability for a sustainable and future proofed workforce
- Financially Prudent
- Enables Payroll to ensure the correct NI contribution for staff undertaking Apprenticeships
- Enables organisations to maximise the value claimed of the apprenticeship levy in line with the Framework agreement on the reform of Agenda for Change
Next Steps for NHS Wales
- Health Boards and Trusts in NHS Wales are collecting and validating Apprenticeship data to record on ESR by 31 January 2019.
- In partnership with NHS ESR Central team, to further enhance ESR BI reports.
- ESR positions to better reflect the job undertaken and close Apprentice Job Roles.
- Payroll to streamline the process to ensure the correct payment of NI contributions.
For further information, please contact Amanda Glanville @ Amanda.Glanville@wales.nhs.uk
Debra Lewis,Digital Workforce Solutions Programme Manager, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership @ debra.lewis@wales.nhs.uk