NHS ESR Implementation Advisors – the first year

Back in December last year we featured an article about the new NHS ESR Implementation Advisors that had joined the ESR Team.  Initially four Implementation Advisors IA) joined our regional teams to support the functional Account Managers; Nelson Boto in the South, Graz Leonowicz in the Midlands and East and Bron Driver and Jess Brooks in the North.

During the first 12 months, the Implementation Advisors have worked with 90 organisations in England, around 23% of the total number of ESR organisations and potentially 531,585 employees will have been positively impacted by their work being involved in 96 projects to date.

The table below shows you how these projects are broken down into the different areas of ESR functionality.

Implementation of Manager Self Service at Salisbury NHS FT

In September 2019 Nelson Boto supported Salisbury NHS FT with their implementation of Manager Self Service (MSS). This was due to go live in November and would include 3,500 staff.

Initial discussions to define the project plan highlighted that the Trust had an ambitious timescale for this implementation and understandably the team had doubts that they could meet the target date. However, using his experience of similar projects, Nelson reassured the team that it could be achieved.

To ensure that the implementation plan was kept on track Nelson met with the project implementation team every week.  He advised them on hierarchies, possible different types of access, and provided training for the three main ESR MSS functionalities (changing supervisor, changing hours, termination of employment).

With this regular level of activity and guidance from Nelson Manager Self Service was successfully implemented within the established timescale of 40 days.

As the Trust prepared to launch MSS Gary Dawson, Projects and Policy Lead said:

I’d like to thank you for all your hard work over the past few weeks.  As you are aware we intend to launch Manager Self Service across the Trust this weekend and you’ve been fundamental in helping us get to this position. Your expertise has clearly prevented us wasting valuable time and you’ve been able to support us to answer a vast number of questions

Expanding the use of OLM, Competencies and BI Reporting at Humber Teaching Hospital NHS FT

Humber Teaching Hospital needed some support with their use of the ESR Learning Management and Jess Brooks worked with the team to expand their Learning Catalogue, Competencies, and associated Business Intelligence reporting.

As some of the duties around reporting and catalogue maintenance were being redistributed between teams, Jess assisted by providing some training sessions and providing support to the Learning Administration Team as they created new courses and Learning Certificates. 

In addition, Jess also helped them to map their Recruitment processes, so that they could get the most out of ESR in terms of efficient use of the system, the IAT process, and the Applicant Dashboard.

Describing the contribution that Jess had made to the project Angela Brown, Senior Administrative Assistant, Learning & Development Team said: “Jess was so helpful and fitted me in to her busy schedule within minutes. Jess is always so supportive, encouraging and incredibly knowledgeable, and knowing she is there to support me when in need means the world, I would be well and truly lost without her. Jess made what would have been hours of work and getting it wrong, easier to grasp and completed in no time.”

North Lincolnshire & Goole – Implementing Self Service and OLM

When Bron Driver first joined the ESR team the first organisation she was asked to support was North Lincolnshire and Goole (NLAG) who were embarking on an ambitious programme to roll out Self Service and maximise their use of ESR functionality.

This began with learning management; they previously used an external booking system and manually moved the enrolments into ESR after the event. In order to prepare them for Self Service, their entire training catalogue required cleansing and updating so learners could book directly onto classes in the system.

They then required support with annual leave, setting up accrual plans and making sure the data was accurate prior to go live in April.

Most recently they have started to look at Appraisals in ESR and they have received BI training and moved to national Core Skills Training Framework competencies. Despite the challenges of COVID the work has stayed on course with the help and support of Bron.

Lauren Wilkinson, Training and Development Manager(NLAG), expressed her thanks for Bron’s help and support;

Having support from Bron over the last year has supported the organisational developments and streamlining. Whether it be the cleansing of data during the implementation of Manager Self Service or providing experience and knowledge with particular focus on the Portal, Self Service HR and Learning Management, OLM functionality and also Annual Leave, Bron has been an absolute pleasure to work with.

Bron is always passionate about helping our organisations and shares her wealth of knowledge in ESR ensuring that we maximise the business benefits.

The ESR Implementation Advisor is such an important role.  We have wanted to implement functionality quickly in our organisation and sometimes that is difficult when you don’t understand the system, and haven’t got time to research; Bron always points us in the right direction, saving us time.

South Warwickshire NHS FT – Implementing OLM

One of the organisations that Graz has supported in the Midlands and East region is South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, as they felt that they could be using the ESR Learning Management system much more effectively.

Support was provided to ensure that the mass upload spreadsheets provided by the NHS ESR Systems Integration Team were accurately completed when correcting competence requirements and competencies held for employees. In addition, new Learning Certifications were created in line with ESR best practice and auto-enrol was activated.

The work undertaken has ensured that employees are now completing the correct courses and are being awarded the required competencies. This has also led to a significant decrease in the time taken to report on training compliance.

Hayley Fletcher, L&D Lead at south Warwickshire told us:

Graz has been working with myself at SWFT for the last 18 months and has been an absolute asset to the work we have completed in ESR.  We have worked together extensively on the National CSTF competencies, enabling us to start the roll out of MSS across the Trust which has been a real positive step forward, and we have had some fab feedback from Manager’s around this.

It is now allowing us to open up conversations with other departments and our Implementation Team to look to implement the Applicant Dashboard and investigate Appraisal and other functionality with ESR going forward. 

You never feel like anything is too much trouble and I have felt comfortable and confident to pose any questions to Graz, she always responds as quickly as possible and is always happy to work through any questions and queries I have had.

The NHSBSA ESR Team has recently welcomed three new Implementation Advisors. The team now consists of seven Implementation Advisors across England:

If you would like support with an ESR implementation project or could benefit from having the expertise of your regional Implementation Advisor then please contact your NHS ESR Functional Account Manager.