How one of the biggest NHS organisations in Europe implemented paperless payslips
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest NHS organisations in Europe. The organisation employs approximately 14,500 staff, and spends around £1.4 billion every year on providing health and well-being services to a population of just over 472,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.
One of the corner stones to achieving a digital workforce vision within Cardiff and Valle UHB was the implementation of on-line payslips. Driving employees to ESR to access their payslip would drive usage of ESR for other transactions such as updating personal information, accessing e-Learning, booking annual leave etc.
Following Board level approval for this approach in October 2016, paper payslips were switched off for over 400 corporate staff employees (WOD, finance, IT, Corporate Nursing) by December 2016. This was followed by payslips being turned off for approximately 500 employees within the Dental Clinical Board.
Whilst these pilots were successful, the real catalyst to progress on-line payslips across the whole of the organisation came in October 2017 when the ESR Self Service Portal was rolled out within the Health Board. This was a game changer for us, resulting in an agile deployment to on-line payslips for the organisation within a 4 month timescale. ESR had been deployed within the Health Board for many years, but the arrival of the Self Service Portal and internet access made a significant impact to the user experience and usability of ESR.
A series of engagement sessions were scheduled to illustrate how on-line payslips could be accessed through the new ESR Self Service Portal at work, but more importantly, through personal mobile devices including smart phones, tablets and laptop devices outside of work. Whilst concerns about lack of access for some staff groups such as Facilities (Catering, Porters, Housekeeping, Estates) who don’t routinely access PCs was raised, assurances were provided from the ESR team that training and accessibility for specific staff groups would be addressed through the use of ESR champions and e-zones. This was supported by drop in sessions and roadshows, and further supported with clear communication material and step by step guides.
By 31 January 2018 12,899 employees (87% of total staff) were viewing their on-line payslip. 40% of employees had activated the payslip portlet via their ESR Portal, giving them easy access to their payslip via the internet from a mobile device.
The remaining staff groups who typically do not have easy access to a pc within the workplace will be given access to ESR via the internet through our new robotic project. This will give these staff groups access to ESR from the workplace to activate external ESR access making on-line payslips readily available.
Andrew Crook (Head of Workforce Governance) told us:
"This has been a massive team effort. With such a large workforce, this was a challenge, but we have proved that it can be done. I’d like to thank everyone involved; I.T. for helping us roll out Internet Explorer 11 across the Health Board, which enabled us to introduce the ESR Portal, our local managers who have helped communicate the messages about how to use the Portal and how to access on-line payslips and to the staff in the ESR and the Learning, Education & Development Teams for all of their support and hard work".
Examples of the communication briefings used by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board can be obtained directly from Mike.Mullan@wales.nhs.uk