Your ESR News

Development Road Map Update

Delivering the Development Road Map

It’s almost twelve months since we began delivering the Development Road Map; our most ambitious and challenging strategy since the first stages of ESR roll out in 2005.  Starting with Employee Self Service via the internet in September the ESR solution has been changing at considerable pace, with the deployment of the new Portal to our beta sites during January and February being the first glimpse that users had of the exciting new technology that was being introduced into ESR. At the end of March we fully deployed the Portal into ESR as part of Release 34, signalling the start of our provisioning plan.

As of the end of June, 139 NHS organisations in England have been provisioned, giving them access to the Portal and new improved functionality. Initial feedback from users has been very positive, and to date this continues to be the case with increased usage across all of the portal capability.  One of the key objectives for the Portal and enhanced functionality was to significantly improve the user experience for NHS employees interacting with ESR.  Introducing new technology that makes ESR intuitive, easy to navigate and accessible across both a range of devices, and from anywhere in the UK, has further enhanced and enriched the experience of NHS employees. A good example of how the portal has already enabled efficiencies is demonstrated by metrics reporting that 214,483 NHS employees have opted to switch to on line payslips as a result of the improved access via the internet and Portal functionality, and this number continues to increase month on month.  As a result, paper printing (and associated costs) has been reduced along with the onward distribution overhead at a local level. There is also a compelling case that electronic access to payslips, via secure employee login is more secure.

The Portal isn’t just being made available in England, it’s also being rolled out across NHS Wales, and you can read more about the approach being taken in Wales later in this article.  More information about the enhancements in Release 35 that was deployed into ESR at the end of June can be found in the accompanying article in this edition of ESR News.

With a continued focus on increasing efficiency, having easy access to personal data, payslips and e-learning via the Portal - amongst other workforce related data – will not only support local efficiency plans but also enable NHS Organisations to encourage their employees to undertake transactions in a more productive way.

It’s important at this stage in delivering this ground breaking plan to extend our thanks to all those individuals involved in the Beta deployment, and to those who worked alongside the ESR team to develop the user requirements, and later turn those requirements into the solution offering we now have; your contribution and feedback has been invaluable.

Provisioning and Roll Out

The Portal is an essential new tool that NHS HR Directors can use to positively contribute to their efficiency and productivity targets, and more importantly support their staff engagement strategies.

Our provisioning approach gives HR Directors two options; switch over with on-site support from our NHS Account Manager and Functional Advisor teams or switch over as an Independent site, using the helpful guidance and tools that have been developed by the NHS Team.

“Provisioning across to the new ESR Portal was extremely easy and it took less than 2 hours.  All the relevant information and guides were sent to us beforehand allowing us time to ensure that the correct IT infrastructure was in place.  The User guidance was informative and easy to follow.  The Portal was very easy to configure and customise the portlets.  We now look forward to rolling out across the Trust over the next few months to enable Staff to use it”.

Mark Preston, Director of Organisational Development and People, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

During July to September we will continue to write to Directors of HR to inform of their organisations allocated date for portal provisioning; to date a further 95 organisations have agreed a provisioning date with the NHS team.  It’s important to note that all organisations will need to be provisioned by the end of September. However, organisations can request to go live earlier without on-site support – on a first-come-first-served basis, by submitting a request to the NHS ESR Central Team at esr.pmo@nhs.net.

Case Study: ESR Portal Deployment – The NHS Wales approach

Velindre NHS Trust and hosted organisations were one of the initial beta sites and went live with the new ESR Portal towards the end of January 2017. Being a pilot meant that the deployment was done in a controlled way with initial access being made available to the ESR Project Team and then extending to Workforce, Corporate, and Finance departments. In mid-February the portal was then rolled out across the organisation.

Preparing for the go live was just as important as the event itself, with the trust team taking a proactive approach to staff engagement and marketing, giving presentations to Local Partnership Forums, Senior Management Teams, Workforce Managers, Business Partners and the Learning & Development community. This provided an opportunity for the organisation to ‘impact assess’ its Portal readiness from an IT, cultural and business process perspective.

A communication and engagement toolkit was developed to support engagement that included presentations, posters, step guides and other ‘readiness’ tools.

“The deployment of the ESR Self Service Portal has transformed ESR from a ‘clunky and dated’ system to a workforce system of choice for the employee and manager alike. Personal data is immediately visible to the employee to view and update, with the Manager Dashboard providing almost real time absence, compliance and appraisal data with easy ‘drill down’ capability that turns data into intelligence. I believe the new portal is game changing in the use of ESR Self Service; its functionality takes us to a different place in terms of ease of access and usage. It is fantastic!”

Hazel Robinson, Workforce & OD Director, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership 

Within 6 weeks of the Portal going live almost 50% of the workforce had logged into and continued to return to the Employee Self Service Portal to view payslips, request annual leave and access e-learning materials.

To help increase awareness and usage a series of weekly global emails were distributed around key calendar events encouraging employees to log into the Portal to view their pay slip prior to pay day and suggesting employees view their annual leave entitlement during the month of April.

These weekly emails have continued with messages encouraging employees to access their Total Rewards Statement or check their compliance with statutory and mandatory requirements etc.

The success of the beta pilot has resulted in an agile deployment plan for the remaining NHS Wales organisations.  Portal Assessments have been undertaken with the Workforce Director, Head of ICT and ESR lead for each organisation that included looking at:

• Their degree of IT readiness with Internet Explorer 11 and Java
• Their maturity of Self Service deployment and usage
• Their compliance with transition from Moodle (the NHS Wales legacy e-learning platform) to the ESR e-Learning solution
• Their compliance with ESR best practice and NHS Wales world class standards

The assessment also included a demonstration of the Portal, which without exception was enthusiastically received by all Workforce Directors, resulting in a Portal provisioning timescale for Wales commencing in May 2017 and concluding by September 2017.

 

 

 

Recent changes to the solution

Release 35 was successfully deployed into ESR on 30^th June, bringing additional enhancements into the ESR solution.

Manager Self Service from the Internet

In September 2016 as part of ESR Release 32 we introduced Employee Self Service over the internet.  By using a User Name and Password to log in to ESR we took the first step towards greater accessibility to ESR Self Service for all NHS employees. 

In order to provide internet access to further ESR functionality, such as Manager Self Service or accessing ESRBI dashboards, an additional two-factor authentication is required. Currently, access to ESR over the N3 network has a two-factor authentication provided by Smartcard access.

To give Managers greater access, utilising two factors of authentication, in Release 35 we introduced the ability for users to register a mobile phone number to which a one-time-passcode will be sent by text message.

• A manager wishing to access their Manager Self Service functionality over the internet will firstly log into ESR with their user name and password and be presented with their Employee Self Service information in the ESR Portal.
• From here they are able to “upgrade” their access to Manager Self Service by requesting a code that will be sent to their previously registered device.
• Once the code is entered Manager Self Service functionality will be available in the same way as it is over the N3 network.

At present internet access does not allow users to view and act on notifications, simply giving an indicator of any open notifications.  From Release 35 we will open this capability up and allow full interaction to a specific set of Self Service based notifications, giving even more flexibility on managing both your own and your teams’ records in ESR.

Common ID

Release 35 made further changes to the way employees can log into ESR.  Previously anyone wishing to access their ESR record over the internet was required to set up and manage a second user name and password, but Release 35 changed and simplified to this so now employees only need one user name and password.

The flow diagram below shows you how Common ID works. 

 

You can find more information about Common ID in the Release 35 Guide to Enhancements on Infopoint

 

New Reporting Strategy

The new ESR Reporting Strategy outlines the improvements that are being made to the ESR reporting service - improvements that are designed to meet the needs of the ESR user community both now and in the future.   The strategy not only details these improvements and additions to ESR Business Intelligence (ESR BI) but also supports our migration from Oracle Discoverer (following the confirmation that Oracle is withdrawing support for this product).

Supporting a reliable and stable solution

Central to the strategy is an upgrade of the infrastructure that underpins the ESR BI service, ensuring it remains resilient, reduces any downtime and remains fit for purpose as the primary reporting service for ESR going forward.

Supporting your data needs

With the large amount of data that is currently available in Discoverer, users are particularly interested in data availability within ESR BI. The reporting strategy includes a comprehensive review of the Discoverer End User Layer (EUL) ensuring that comparable capability will exist in ESR BI to allow local reports to be replicated.  In addition, the strategy will deliver a more comprehensive suite of data items in a way that makes reporting across different subject areas easier; ensuring that the widest ranging set of reports can be made available within ESR BI. 

Supporting the mobile workforce

Reporting information is now needed beyond the confines of the desktop.  Enabling ESR BI over the internet for Managers and for ESR’s core user community, together with access via mobile devices such as tablets will improve the usability of BI and make access to data much quicker and easier.

 

The major changes outlined in the strategy include:

• New and updated subject areas
• New functions such as alerting, scheduling and sharing with individual users
• Replication of Discoverer reports into ESR BI
• Mobile access
• Access to ESR BI over the internet
• Ability to combine ESR data with external data
• Access to real time or near-real time data from ESR BI
• Comprehensive Audit reporting

Further details are available in the ESR Reporting Strategy Video available here (Kbase login required)

Transforming the Hire to Retire process across NHS Wales

A case study by NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership                         

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership is a dedicated shared services organisation sharing common operating standards and systems. The use of one workforce system – the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), across NHS Wales provides significant opportunities for standardising processes, providing more efficient services and lowering costs. However an audit of recruitment and on-boarding processes for new employees across NHS Wales revealed unnecessary delays and duplication of processes.

The delay in Occupational Health (OH) clearance along with the manually dependant process of notifying Recruitment of eligibility to commence work lead to significant delays within the recruitment chain, resulting in a higher dependency on agency and locum staff, often adversely impacting the variable pay bill.

More than ever, the necessity to maximise efficiencies, reduce the variable pay bill and maximise digital resources is critical if NHS Wales is to provide safe, effective, world class health services to its patients.

Coupled with this was significant variation in the use of OH systems and processes, duplication of data entry, inconsistencies in processes, no standardisation of data sets and processes were manual and paper driven. These issues combined and resulted in lengthy delays in OH clearance and delays to appointing new employees into posts.

The Project

With evidence of waste, including duplication and delays in the on-boarding process, a scoping exercise was undertaken to benchmark existing processes against a world class solution.  With the automation, standardisation, portability and workflows that ESR provides, full deployment of ESR was defined as our world class standard across NHS Wales.

An ESR ‘world class Hire to Retire’ vision was developed that defined the process from confirmation of preferred applicant to Occupational Health clearance and readiness to commence in post. This became the blueprint for the project.

We initially undertook a process mapping exercise with key stakeholders including the NHS ESR Team, Occupational Health and Recruitment staff and an OH supplier to determine the degree of variation that existed. This exercise provided us with robust evidence around the differing processes, duplication of data entry, dependency on manual and paper based processes and lack of standard operating procedures across the various organisations. We established a stakeholder group to identify how the ESR OH module and use of ESR Interfacing technology could be used to streamline and automate the processes, and three pilot organisations were identified to test and implement the solution.

Some of the required functionality was already available within the ESR solution, but additional functionality was identified that would enable a bidirectional exchange of information between ESR and the OH system. This required co-production and partnership working. We developed a specification outlining the data exchange required and how the process could work.  For us as a team this was not without challenges; implementing this innovative solution within a live environment introduced high risks because we didn’t have a testing environment, so agile project management was required to ensure services would not be adversely impacted for any length of time.  The Recruitment and OH staff required significant training, support and IT support as infrastructure varied significantly between the three pilot organisations - with different solutions often required. 

This was not a straightforward ESR implementation project to deploy existing capability.  This project was bold and transformational, taking the existing ESR solution and enhancing it to achieve greater efficiencies.  One of the keys to the success of the project was the resilience and commitment of all the project stakeholders which included the three large NHS Wales organisations, Medgate, the Occupational Health provider and the NHS ESR Systems Integration Team to implement a cost effective solution with no additional resource or expenditure.

Benefits

There has been a wide range of benefits identified as part of this project;

• Standardisation and embedding of robust operating processes between Occupational Health and Recruitment resulting in time savings of 23,835 hours per annum within both processes, which equates to efficiencies of approximately £40K per annum across the pilot organisations.
• An 80% reduction in duplication of data entry for Occupational Health administration teams.
• A 20% reduction in the Occupational Health process steps.
• Establishment of standard data sets, significantly reducing variation.
• Portability has resulted in pre-employment data being available to Occupational Health at an earlier stage in the recruitment process, speeding up on-boarding for new employees.
• ESR workflow notifications removed approximately 3,000 clearance emails per annum from the process.
• The project has significantly raised the profile of Occupational Health services.
• The deployment of ESR Self Service has been progressed by organisations to ensure the data in ESR is current and correct.
• Improved visibility about the OH interventions and immunisations required for staff groups.

Potential learning and advice for other Organisations

This project will act as a blueprint for the deployment of the ESR/OH bi-directional interface across all remaining Wales NHS organisations. Lessons learned have been meticulously documented with standard operating procedures created and process maps developed, improved and refined.

Tips for other Organisations:

• Ensure you understand the ‘as is’ process before developing new processes to maximise capabilities.
• Engagement with key stakeholders from the outset – particularly IT - is critical. Many of the issues we encountered resulted from local IT infrastructure, security settings, fire wall settings etc.
• Regular project meetings are very important so that you can manage issues and risks.
• Develop testing scripts and establish a robust testing process of the technical solution.
• Ensure that you provide training for your OH and Recruitment teams so that everyone across those teams understand the new processes, roles and the impact to each service.

The Next Steps

We now plan to fully deploy the ESR/OH bi-directional interface across NHS Wales and our business case has recently been approved by NHS Wales Shared Services Committee.  The next step is to get our project initiation document (PID) developed outlining the timeline and the sequence of on-boarding for the remaining five organisations. 

We are currently developing a specification that will enhance the interface between ESR and the recruitment software (TRAC) that we use to further remove duplication of OH clearance data entry by recruitment staff.

We are going to implement electronic pre-employment health questionnaires. This will require additional data portability from the interface to pre-populate position requirements, but it will reduce delays in pre-employment health information by approximately 50%, leading to quicker on-boarding of new employees and further removal of Recruitment and Occupational Health process steps.

For More Information

For more information about the project and associated benefits please contact Helen Thomas, NHS Wales ESR Hire to Retire Programme Manager at Helen.Thomas7@wales.nhs.uk, or Vanessa Davies, Head of Occupational Health, Hywel Dda UHB at Vanessa.davies2@wales.nhs.uk.

 

 

 

Expanding the use of ESR to Junior Doctors

A Case Study by St Helens and Knowsley NHS Foundation Trust

Background

St Helens and Knowsley have been the sole Lead Employer Organisation for Cheshire and Mersey Deanery since 2010 and manages 2100 junior doctors who rotate not only to any one of 27 Host Trusts but across specialties within Trusts.

400 GP trainees based in any one of 175 GP practices located from Cumbria in the North to Derbyshire in the South form part of the 2100 junior Doctors, and management of this group of staff presents a range of challenges; not only geographical but also around areas such as IT infrastructure and the lack of ESR knowledge.

In April 2016 the trust was invited to tender for Lead Employer Services for GP trainees from Health Education West Midlands (HEWM).  Our experience of managing the GP trainees for Cheshire and Mersey Deanery provided us with the knowledge to manage this group of staff, and although the numbers of trainees were higher the basic principles of our Lead Employer ESR model was seen as transferable.

The GP trainees within HEWM were employed directly by the individual GP practices and managed by the practice managers, with payroll outsourced to numerous external providers. They did not appear on the national ESR Database.

The practice managers would carry out a range of administrative tasks for each trainee; 

• Carry out ID Checks and maintain records.
• Carry out DBS Checks and maintain records.
• Calculate Pay, Grade, Banding paperwork for Payroll Providers.
• Calculate Leave entitlement.
• Complete Absence information, Holidays/sickness/special leave for Payroll Providers.
• Completion of Training/Appraisal data.
• Complete the Termination Process.

The above process would be necessary each time a trainee rotated (up to two rotations per year per surgery) X 470 surgeries.

Our tender involved becoming the lead Employer for the GP trainees and utilising eSolutions such as ESR, not only because of our previous experience with Cheshire and Mersey but also the much larger geographical footprint of the GP locations (Crew to the North and Gloucester to the South).  We demonstrated the need for change and how this could be managed by the streamlining of services and the use of ESR.

Our approach included identifying the benefits of:

• HR and Payroll services provided directly through ESR
• Managing Training and Appraisals through OLM
• Greatly improved Absence Management through ESR
• ESR BI Reporting
• E-Expenses via ESR
• Occupational Health clearance using ESR
• DBS/Right to Work recorded and monitored through ESR
• MSS and ESS and the planned remote Access via My ESS

The reporting capabilities of ESR and in particular absence reporting were an area of interest for the tender panel. With 470 GP practices all independently recording sickness assurance around the reliability, detail and accuracy of this information is a key challenge.

We have developed suites of BI absence reports which we run for the Cheshire and Mersey Deanery.  Being able to provide this level of detailed reporting from ESR was seen as a big positive in our tender and we were successful in our bid, being awarded the contract by Health Education West Midlands starting in August 2016.

The Project

With the contract for GP Services in West Midlands commencing on the 1st August 2016, we initially set a target of introducing ESR MSS and ESS within 12 months.

A Project Team was established involved Key Stakeholders from HEWM to develop a project plan which enabled the implementation of ESR and the Streamlining of services.

One of the major challenges was the geographical spread of the 470 GP practices and their lack of knowledge and understanding of ESR.   Working with HEWM the project team attended GP Practice Manager and Medical Staffing Manager events throughout the West Midlands to present our proposals for the introduction of a Lead Employer model and the streamlining of services through the use of ESR and eSolutions.

These events were well attended with upwards of 50 to 100 Managers attending each event. The response was excellent; with Managers quickly buying in to the proposal, seeing how the model of using ESR as HR and Payroll solution would greatly improve efficiency allowing them more time to manage other areas of the Practice.

We use a Web Based information portal called HR Direct for Managers and Junior Doctors in Cheshire and Mersey Deanery and agreed that this would be ideal platform for training Practice Managers on the functionality of ESR. We uploaded the ESR captivate training video’s onto HR Direct and provided each Practice Manager with access to the captivate files.

The trainee GP’s were set up with access to ESR ESS using a Username and Password, and from September 2016 the trainees began accessing MyESS by first logging into ESR through the secure N3 connections within their practices, and then setting up remote access to ESR ESS via smartphones or iPads.

By adopting this approach to implementing MSS and ESS through remote e-Learning, 80% of the practices were accessing and interacting with MSS and ESS within 4 months of the contract starting, way ahead of the original 12 month target.

The Benefits

There are many benefits of implementing a Lead Employer model using ESR as the main driver for change; these include:

• We have reduced the time needed by Practice Managers on the administration of GP Trainees. This has been conservatively estimated at 12 hours per trainee per rotation. This equates to 12 hours per trainee X 470 Surgeries X two rotations per year X £24 per hour based on Band 8 = £270,720 Per Annum Savings;
• GP trainees appear within the National ESR Data Warehouse, enabling greater scope for central workforce planning for trainee GP’s;
• Central control of absence data enables staff with underlying medical problems to be identified quickly and interventions planned;
• Enables ‘hot spots’ of sickness to be identified, these could be individuals or problems within certain practices;
• Access to MSS and ESS for Managers and Trainees;
• Access through MyESS remotely via Smartphone/iPad empowers GP trainees and managers to access to their own data remotely; they can manage their own information in a quick and easy way; giving them more time to focus on delivering high quality care.

Shared Learning

Our innovative use of ESR functionality has now become the driver in developing the Lead Employer model for managing Doctors in training on behalf of HEE.  With NHS England keen that the remaining other five HE regions for GP’s in training should have a Lead Employer Organisation by the end of 2017, we are working alongside them to promote the model and highlight the vital role that ESR plays within that.  Part of that work involves us developing a help desk facility that the other five HE regions can access for help and guidance whilst they are establishing their Lead Employer model.

“The benefits of using Self Service has enabled us to view and input trainee data in real time. Being able to view sickness history means we can monitor activity and act swiftly should the need arise.  We can also keep track of annual leave and ensure that a trainee has taken the correct allowance.”

Julie Stokes Practice Manager Audley Health Centre North Staffs

The Next Steps

Having recently become the Lead Employer for HE East Midlands with circa 750 GP’s based over 208 GP practices and 14 Acute Trusts we plan to roll out Manager Self Service across these organisations, including a Trust that doesn’t currently use ESR.

As part of the new portal release we will also be looking to implement MSS via the internet to add flexibility of access.

For more information

 If you would like to talk to the team about our Lead Employer model please contact Joanne Powell Head of Workforce Planning ESR and HR Systems Development on 0151 290 4342 or email Joanne.Powell@sthk.nhs.uk.

 

Understanding the pre-hire IAT process

What do you know about the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process in ESR? 

IAT is a key automated piece of ESR functionality unique to the NHS.  It is designed to remove the manual processes associated with NHS Staff Transfer Forms and therefore reduces the amount of data entry following the appointment of existing NHS staff from other NHS Organisations.

IAT Workshops in the Midlands

In recent weeks, NHS Senior Account Manager Maria Scott has been running on-site workshops for NHS organisations in the Midlands to help them understand the process and the associated benefits. 

It is an objective of the National Streamlining Programme to implement pre hire IAT across all regions and across the West Midlands - with ten workshops already run, there is certainly a growing interest in utilising this area of ESR functionality to speed up the recruitment process.  

The workshops have been particularly successful when the audience has been a mix of Recruitment, L&D/Training, HR and payroll staff. This has helped the various departments better understand the end to end process and the crucial part that they play to ensure that the IAT is initiated and acted upon in a timely manner, in order to gain the maximum benefits of the data that is transferred both pre and post hire.

The University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust recently participated in one of the largest workshops to date with 22 people and Otto the guide dog - who was happy to sleep through the event!

Dave Mander, ESR & Workforce Information Manager worked with Maria to organise this during one of their regular team training days and attendees from the ESR & Workforce Information Team, Payroll, Learning and Development and Recruitment all took part. 

Dave who is currently reviewing the overall end to end recruitment and induction process for the organisation told us:

“To ensure that our new employees get the best possible experience when they join our Trust we are currently undertaking a review of certain processes and looking to move them between the various departments that  manage ESR such as Resourcing and Payroll.

Part of this review has included how we transfer an employee’s service history and training details from other Trusts, the benefits of this would reduce the amount of training we would have to provide during their initial starting period and enable our Learning and Development team to streamline induction offerings to suit the training needs of the new staff.  This would also provide the correct information regarding annual leave entitlement as this also links to our e-Rostering system.

One of the most important tasks to get right first time is the Pre-hire IAT’s and we understood that it was vital to give our staff the correct training and support to do this, so Maria kindly offered to deliver some training for us at UHCW and we were delighted with the turnout on the day.

The group enjoyed the workshop and asked plenty of questions of Maria, and I am sure from the feedback we have received that the group found it very informative. It will certainly help us going forward and we hope that our use of IAT will help reinforce a level of confidence amongst our new starters when they join us and use Employee Self – Service to update their Mandatory training on line”.

 

In another part of the region Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS FT organised an IAT workshop for members of the Recruitment, L&D and ESR workforce teams and Sue Sutton, ESR Self Service and Data Input Manager shared their experiences;

“The training that we received before we implemented a Trust process at the beginning of May was great because it brought together ESR, recruitment and L&D so that all departments can see the benefits of running Pre-hire IAT’s.

The Recruitment team find it easy and we plan extending access to all users. Our L&D team found the session interesting, in that it showed the correct way to use ESR and the IAT process to reduce the need to train or retrain NHS staff as their records move with them. This fits into what we are planning to do with our induction programme and with a regional plan to streamline mandatory training”

The Benefits of IAT

The Inter Authority Transfer process is intended to meet the following business requirements:-

• Remove the completion and mailing of paper Staff Transfer Forms between NHS Organisations.
• Reduce the staff transfer processing costs at Organisation level by automation of the process.
• Reduce the time delay in obtaining current NHS staff information following transfers.
• Improve the range and quality of data transferred between NHS Organisations.
• Facilitate the earlier production of Contracts of Employment as a result of more timely and accurate data transfer.
• Securely transfer immunisations and vaccination checks data at the pre-employment stage to Occupational Health Advisors.
• Transfer pre hire data related to statutory and mandatory competencies to aid induction programmes and remove duplicate training and associated costs.
• Assist in paying staff correctly from commencement of employment, reducing the need for retrospective corrections.
• Enables the standard NHS Employers Reference to be sent to an applicant’s previous employer for completion and returned to the requesting organisation electronically.

And finally Maria commented:  “It is really important that organisations understand the real benefits that the IAT process brings and how this can support their recruitment and induction processes, which speeds up the time to hire, ensuring key staff are ready to undertake their role quickly”.

If you would like to run an IAT workshop on site in the Midlands then please contact Maria directly on maria.scott2@nhs.net

For more information on the IAT process refer to the Guidance on KBase here or look at our on line e-learning here

Supporting your e-Learning users

Background

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust has 1660 talented and dedicated staff who provide community-based health services for adults and children in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and surrounding areas.  Other services include district nursing, health visiting and running four community hospitals providing very specialist community care.        

Implementation

The Trust had an objective to implement and utilise ESR Self Service for their managers and employees - which was successfully realised three years ago. Since then, the Organisational Development (OD) team has been managing and assigning competences to all staff in order for them to track their mandatory training compliance 

Though, in their own words, this has been a challenging and intricate task the process has been guided and supported by Simon Savage, the team’s Mandatory Training Competences Lead.  Simon has ensured that ESR is configured appropriately and has also followed up on the automatic reminders which go out to staff when their competences are due to expire; creating reports for managers so they can see which staff  are non-compliant in which topics.

Simon and the OD Team administrator, Georgie Shuker have provided a drop-in service and facilitated staff visits to the training centre for ad hoc face-to-face ESR support, which also proved to be very useful for staff.

In addition, the Trusts OD Team (ESR) website pages provide additional support with the most up-to-date guides for staff; ensuring that it is up to date when enhancements are made to ESR.

 

Deborah Hammond, Learning and Development Manager said:

“Having an up to date website reduces the amount of queries raised as our staff can find the answers to most FAQs via this.  Our most common queries are usually to do with e-Learning certifications not completing and these errors – if not basic user errors - tend to be due to technical issues, which we pass on to our IT Service Desk to resolve.  The other common query relates to staff who access courses instead of certifications and then query why their compliance matrix is not showing green; so, with Simon’s help we have created strategies to ‘mop-up’ staff who have made this basic mistake and convert the courses without them having to repeat things.

Our current core MT compliance is 92% - the best it has ever been – thanks to the hard work and dedication of Simon getting our competences set up and running as they should be used.  The ESR Development Road Map is set to bring us, as users, a lot more change in the coming months, and our staff support service and website will be a very important part of our strategy to help our staff to feel prepared for the exciting changes ahead”.

 

The benefits of having a dedicated ESR Steering Group

Experiences of The South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Background

Employing circa 4,500 staff, the Trust provides mental health, learning disability and specialist children's services across South Staffordshire and mental health and learning disability services in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Powys. We also provide some services on a wider regional or national basis.

The ESR Steering Group

The SSSFT ESR Benefits Realisation Working Group was formed several years ago. Its objective was to ensure that ESR was being used as effectively as possible across the organisation.  The group consisted of essential members - core ESR users from Finance, HR and Organisational Development, and then optional members – Managers and Admin Staff who were called upon from time to time to tap into their experience and knowledge and gain their support.  Under the Working Group’s steerage the Trust implemented:

• Self Service for Staff and Managers;
• Position Based Access Control (PBAC);
• Establishment Control;
• The Streamlined Junior Doctors (Deanery) interface;
• The NHS Jobs interface;
• Competencies against positions;
• Full use of OLM for both mandatory and non-mandatory training courses;
• Recording of appraisal dates.

If the group members weren’t already, they soon became ESR Champions valuing the efficiencies of the integrated end to end system. Their enthusiasm for making ESR work for the Trust saw them score 92% on a previous ESR Health Check, when their ESR usage was assessed by the NHS ESR Central Team in January 2014.

Once the Group had maximised the ESR benefits available at that time, it was disbanded.  However, the close working relationship continued between Core users and “all things ESR” became an Agenda item at the monthly Finance / HR meeting.  The on-going collaboration and enthusiasm for the system has enabled the Trust to continue to gain maximum efficiencies through its use of ESR. The Trust has gone on to implement an electronic expenses and rostering system that interfaces with ESR.  The rostering system has been made available to not only rostered 24/7 services, but has been rolled out Trust wide so that all temporary variations to pay are collected through the system and then transferred via the interface into ESR.  More recently the Trust has trained Managers to use BI reports, implemented pre-hire IATs and has moved 1000+ staff requiring a 3 yearly DBS check under its T&Cs onto the DBS update service, giving assurance around their safe staffing agenda.

When the ESR Road Map was announced, the Trust reconvened the Group and renamed it the ESR Enhancement Implement Group (ESR EIG).  The Groups objective is to review the enhancements being delivered as part of the ESR Road Map and to identify, agree and coordinate the implementation of these enhancements, always with service improvement and maximisation of efficiencies in mind.  This is detailed in the group’s Terms of Reference.

This also enabled the Trust to be one of the first organisations in the West Midlands to undertake an ESR Assessment with their NHS Regional Account Manager and Functional Advisor in December 2016. The Assessment report that followed has further enabled and supported them to move forward on a number of key ESR projects that they want to implement with the support of the NHS ESR Central Team.

The group meets on a monthly basis, documents its meetings, and sends a summary report to the Finance & Performance sub-committee to so that its activity is formally communicated and reported upwards.  Achievements to date include:

• Using a phased approach, moved to on line payslips (May 2017);
• Writing a Business Justification to request an enhancement to the appraisal module to support the “Clinical Supervision” process.;
• Increased the percentage of email addresses held against assignments from 91% to 100% by March 17;
• Gained approval by NHS Digital concerning email secure domain for our local email address. The trust is the first in the country to have applied for this status and this will, in due course, enable us to maximise the benefits of the ESR Notifications released in December 2016;
• Has created its own bespoke appraisal template to manage appraisals and talent via ESR rating scales from July 17;
• Will be rolling out the new ESR Portal to all employees by the end of August 2017. Internet users are already accessing the new landing page;
• Has reviewed its recruitment processes in order to undertake the pre hire IAT process at the applicant stage, to support their time to hire and induction timelines.

Conclusion

“As ESR is the single workforce system for our organisation, setting up a working group with representatives from different areas of the Trust was a must do for us. The result is that we maximise the opportunities and benefits from the recent and forthcoming changes to the system. The quality of workforce related data and processes are improved, releasing efficiencies and redirecting as many resources as possible towards front line patient care”.

Belinda Lucas – ESR Lead & Pay Services Manager