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.