Your ESR News

ESR Road Map Update

We are now two-thirds of the way in to delivering the Development Road Map – our biggest and most challenging strategic plan for ESR from its inception.  Since September last year, when we introduced the first key development into ESR - access via the internet; we have introduced  a significant number of improvements that have fundamentally changed the way the NHS now interacts and uses ESR, including:

 

Provisioning and Roll Out

Over the spring and summer the NHS ESR Team worked with organisations to provision access to the new ESR Portal.  https://my.esr.nhs.uk is the new Portal gateway into ESR.

NHS organisations in Wales completed their provisioning by the end of July and NHS Organisations in England completed their provisioning by the end of September 2017. This means that every NHS organisation in England and Wales now has access to the Portal, and the latest statistics show that at the end of September 2017 201,976 unique employees had accessed  ESR via the portal.

Having access to the Portal and Portlets is only the beginning of the journey for NHS Organisations and employees.  The real benefits are realised once managers and employees are interacting with ESR via the Portal, using the full capability within Self Service:

• Improving data quality because individuals have greater ownership of their personal and professional record;
• Reducing central printing and local distribution costs by switching off printed payslips;
• Real time management of key workforce indicators linked to Compliance, Absence and much more with ‘at a glance’ Business Intelligence dashboards displayed on the landing page when Managers log in;
• Greater compliance with e-Learning and improving attendance at class room education and training;
• The ability to communicate to all staff across the organisation using the broadcast message on the landing page – such capability proving to be a great way advise staff of key operational updates or provide reminders – for example, communicating the need and provision for annual flu vaccination.

ESR Release 36

Release 36 was deployed at the end of September 2017 and brought further changes and enhancements into the ESR solution.

New ESR Search

This development gives users a completely new search capability and is specifically designed to help professional users of ESR e.g. Payroll, HR and Learning. The search is presented in a new page and is based on URPs held by the user, allowing searches to be conducted across multiple VPDs and returning ex-employees as at the termination date. The new page features the ability to search against the following data items:

• Person Name
• Employee Number
• Applicant Number
• Organisation
• NI Number
• VPD
• Person Type

Key Features include:

• Ability to search across multiple VPDs (subject to URPs held)
• Launch specific forms for the search results
• Provides a consistent approach for person/assignment in ESR
• Displays both current and ex-employees in one results page
• Available from the ESR Portal and forms

Searching from the ESR Portal:

The new ESR page for performing searches and navigating to associated records:

  

Multiple Supervisors

The introduction of this functionality facilitates the recording of multiple supervisors against a person record where, for example the Manager is part of a job share.

Existing functionality in relation to employee initiated requests will be sent to both Managers who will both have access to the assignment record to perform changes. As part of this development a new check has also been introduced to the existing Supervisor Hierarchy Ntf role to include a new section for additional supervisors.

Self Service Comments

Comments entered against the following 8 key Self Service transactions can now be captured and stored to allow them to be reported using ESR Business Intelligence

Absence	Assignment
Hours	End Non-Primary Assignment
Supervisor	Location
End Employment	Manage Hire

Continuous Development of ESR Portlets

As part of our commitment to listen to our users’ suggestions about improving ESR’ functionality and usability, the following changes have also been implemented:

Team Actions and My ESR Calendar

The ESR Calendar, available to both Employee and Manager items has been updated to include Competency Expiry and Incremental dates.

My Annual Leave

More detailed information about carry over, Statutory days and Bank Holidays is now available in the Annual Leave portlet for Employees, helping them to see how their gross entitlement has been calculated. The breakdown of the entitlement is held in a drop-down to preserve the existing design.

Local Links

We have introduced the ability to add and re-order local links for Administrators.  There is a new portlet available allowing them to be displayed on a dashboard. Users need to add this portlet to a dashboard of their choosing from the portlet library.

Release 36.2 - scheduled for deployment over 28th & 29th October 2017 (subject to completion of successful testing and release)

Class Update Portlet

Introduction of a new portlet that can be added to the Learning Administration dashboard that allows the update of the learner status on classes up to 7 days in the past.  You can learn more detail about this portlet in the next edition of the Road Map Bulletin, scheduled to be published this week.

Education

As with previous releases the ESR Education Team has developed HTML captivate lessons, which are now available on ESR Infopoint.

These lessons demonstrate the following new functionality:

• Self Service Organisation Chart
• Multiple Supervisors
• ESR Search

In addition the following guides will be made available within the User Manual for ESR Portal and be accessible via the ESR Infopoint:

• Portal Familiarisation – User
• Portal Familiarisation – Administrator
• Portal Familiarisation – Manager
• Portal Familiarisation – Core User

Key Dates

ESR Release 37 is scheduled for deployment at the end of December 2017. This release will require an extended period of downtime, as communicated in the July edition of the Road Map bulletin.

Reporting Strategy

Release 36 brought a large number of changes for reporting in ESR, to enable users to more flexibly report on data held in ESR. This includes the ability to access BI Reporting on mobiles and tablets, as well as a full redesign of the reporting model for the Learning Management module of ESR

In detail the following changes for BI reporting were deployed as part Release 36:

• Ability to report on Annual Leave and Study Leave Entitlement Balances;
• Future Leave reporting;
• Replication of the Date-Track Changes and Highlights reports from Discoverer;
• Full remodel of the Education and Learning Subject area, providing significant benefits for Learning Administration Users;
• Ability to report on Certifications;
• Mobile/Tablet Access to ESR BI, allowing managers and directors to access board reports directly;
• Ability to generate alerts from ESR BI based on threshold values;
• Disaster Recovery and High Availability extended to include ESR BI;
• Ability report on External Learners in other subject areas.

Below is an example BI report using the new Entitlement Balances information:

 

 

Further Information

If you have any questions about anything in this bulletin or want more information about the ESR Development Roadmap, please contact your NHS ESR Functional Advisor or Account Manager.

Using ESR to undertake robust Employment Checks

The need for NHS organisations to follow good recruitment and HR practice was recently highlighted with concern that [1]patients are being put at unacceptable risk because unregulated NHS staff are being allowed to perform invasive procedures without checks on their qualifications. 

All NHS organisations are required to meet the NHS Employment Check Standards for prospective and existing employees. These standards include checks required by law, those that are a Department of Health policy and those that are required for access to the NHS Summary Care Records Service.

To ensure that prospective and existing employees are qualified and competent to undertake their duties, organisations can use the wide range of ESR functionality available to meet these required standards. This includes the ability to record and monitor employee qualifications, compliance and professional registrations (where required), as well as having the ability to undertake regular appraisals, set objectives and assist in identifying training needs for staff.  This is further strengthened by using the full self-service functionality to empower managers and staff to manage staff information.   With the latest developments in ESR Reporting and the launch of the new ESR Portal, this information is more visible and accessible, making the management of this data even easier for organisations.

Recording Qualifications

All qualifications can be recorded in ESR, from NVQs through to Degrees.  ESR Business Intelligence (BI) can also report on these at varying levels.  Managers can amongst other things, view their employees Talent Profile which shows all details relating to qualifications, compliance, professional registration status.  It is vital that all staff have their qualifications verified and recorded as part of a robust recruitment process as per NHS Employment Check standards as specified by NHS Employers.

Talent Profile

Appraisals and Compliance

Using Self Service functionality, both employees and managers can interact in the appraisal process and record dates. They can also create and agree objectives that can be tracked and aligned to the organisation’s overarching objectives and vision, as well as the ability to find additional training options held in ESR where staff require further skills training. Also, where training supports an employee’s clinical development, training credits can be awarded, which can be used to support employees revalidation with professional bodies.

The compliance matrix in ESR quickly identifies where competency requirements are being met and workflow notifications also remind employees and managers when they need to renew a particular competency - this is vital for patient safety. A suite of standard BI reports is also available at all levels.

Manager Self Service

Manager Self Service is a powerful tool for both the manager and their organisation, empowering them to actively manage and monitor their staff and be assured that they are compliant and capable of undertaking their role, thereby reducing risk.

The launch of the new ESR Portal enables data to be presented to managers in a clear visible format that allows efficient and effective actions to be easily identified and acted upon.

ESR Portal - Manager Dashboard

Team compliance

 University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in the West Midlands uses the reporting and compliance functionality in ESR to ensure their staff are appropriately trained and qualified. Dave Mander, ESR & Workforce Information Manager, says:

"One of the main aims of the organisation is that all staff must meet their compliance requirements. We actively monitor 37 competences across the varying staff groups including bank staff and report this to the Trust Board on a monthly basis”.

“Our managers have full access to ESR Self Service so that they can easily view the compliance matrix for each member of their team. In addition the ESR workforce team provide mangers with monthly detailed ESR reports, showing their departmental RAG rating against set compliance targets. Using the full breadth of the ESR Self Service functionality is a key tool to help us monitor and achieve our compliance targets in order to secure our patient safety”.

 

Professional Registration

It is also worth remembering that for staff regulated by the NMC and GMC there is a daily interface directly with these professional bodies, providing assurance that these staff are appropriately registered. For other staff groups the ESR BI reports offer an invaluable tool to enable workforce leads to monitor the registration details and dates as necessary. This is further supported by the Expiry Notifications that are available to both key HR roles and managers via Self Service.

Organisations are strongly encouraged to maximise ESR capability to enable a robust recruitment and HR process is undertaken to reduce the risk of staff undertaking duties that they are not competent or qualified to do. The functionality available in ESR also supports the activity undertaken in the streamlining agenda.

For further information about ESR functionality visit our website or contact your Regional Account Manager.

 

 

[1] HSJ News article, 23 August 2017.  https://www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/exclusive-safety-fears-over-thousands-of-unregulated-nhs-staff/7020415.article

Switching to on-line Payslips - Best Practice

Background

A key element of the ESR Development Roadmap was the enhancements made to the employee pay advice, including:

• One consistent view for both printed and on-line versions for all users of the pay advice;
• Ability for employees to access their pay advice directly from their Portal page;
• Employee access to their pay advice from the internet and on mobile devices;
• The ability for organisations and employees to make a choice to stop the production of the printed payslips.

The use of on-line pay advice has grown significantly as a result of these developments:

• In September, 43,251 unique employees accessed their on-line pay advice from the Payslip portlet. A further 177,154 accessed their pay advice from within their Employee Self Service access;
• The proportion of employees on ESR who have now opted out of receiving a paper payslip has now increased to 15.6% – 283,207 employees - at the end of September 2017;
• 60 organisations, as at the end of September, have now taken the decision to stop the printing of paper payslips at organisational level;
• Other organisations have not opted out at a global level – but within those organisations, 88,373 employees have made the choice to opt out of a paper payslip themselves.

Benefits to Employing Organisations

The scope of benefits – both organisationally and for employees include:

• The timely delivery of the on-line pay advice prior to payday for employees to view;
• Employees being able to access their pay advice at any time whether at work, at home, or on the move via their mobile device;
• Previous pay advice are available, within the current employment, if the employee needs to reference them for mortgage applications, etc.;
• Reduced costs by no longer needing to distribute paper payslips and P60s;
• Reducing the risk of and breaches of confidentiality associated with manually distributing printed payslips and P60s around locations and departments;
• The reduction in the use of paper and carbon footprint is a key benefit for many organisations.

Implications of System Unavailability

Any IT solution the size and complexity of ESR is always going to require system unavailability to undertake both system developments and essential maintenance. The scheduling of such downtime is always considered from a user/business impact perspective, recognising it has a direct impact on the operation of the solution at local organisational level.. However, the drive to increase employee access – particularly with the increased flexibility and range of access channels – places greatest emphasis on the impact of solution unavailability.

One of the key considerations when planning solution unavailability is the data available to the Programme from organisational Payroll Calendars – which is why it is essential that organisations complete and update them. 

Extended periods of system downtime, and in particular the quarterly major releases, are normally at the end of the month, primarily to take into account the following:

• Downtime planning attempts to avoid clashes with payroll processing. Analysis of data shows that the last weekend of the month has fewer processes running than at other times in the period;
• Payroll processing is busy on the first weekend of the month, during the 3^rd week of the month and on occasion up to a few working days before month end;
• To prevent issues with partial payroll processing, solution changes are usually effective from the first few days of the following pay period. Therefore, deploying solution changes at the end of the month, as far as possible, will reduce unwanted/significant Retropay and/or part period issues that may arise if they are applied mid-period and after the effective date.

How Should Organisations Manage the Impact of Planned Unavailability?

To ensure that employees are able to view their on-line pay advice at a time that is convenient to them, consideration will need to be given to the impact of any system downtime which will prevent access. Such planned downtime is always communicated in advance.

As most monthly pay dates fall near to system downtime, best practice would be to ensure that the payslips are available to view as soon as possible after the final payroll run. Using the on-line Payslip View means that the on-line pay advice can be available to employees up to 3 days before their pay day.

Communication, as in many scenarios, is key, and it is advisable to communicate periods of unavailability directly to your employees. Whilst, as a Programme we will look to maximise the channels open to us, we would strongly recommend the use of the Announcements functionality available to organisations from within the Portal. This will enable organisations to tailor the messaging for their own employees – including references to pay dates, pay advice availability dates and the actual downtime start and end details.

Following the above steps will ensure that staff are able to view their payslips in a timely manner, empower Payroll/HR departments to assist with resolving pay queries in advance of  pay day and reduce any impact that system downtime may have on the employee.

Guidance on how to set up when the payslips will be available on-line can be found in the ESR User Manual: http://portal.mhapp.nhs.uk/esrusermanual/html/NAVU480.htm

If you are considering switching to on-line payslips, you can read about the experiences of another user organisation that has done this. Go to the Case Study section of this edition of ESR News.